Citizen Journalism

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Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary delivered a TEDx lecture in Bangalore on how citizen journalism projects, like his CGnet Swara, are democratizing media in India.

Public Service Journalism for Arabic-speaking Journalists

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) held a six-week online course in Arabic on using digital tools in public service journalism and investigative techniques. The online course was the first part of a program that brought together journalists, citizen journalists and civil society actors from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, West Bank/Gaza and Yemen. The six-week online course guided 60 participants from the above mentioned countries to work on ideas for multimedia public service journalism projects.

India: Use Mobile Technology to Bring News to Isolated Tribal Communities

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CGNet Swara

Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary’s mobile news service CGnet Swara (Voice of Chhattisgarh) is transforming how people in remote areas of India receive and share news. The system, developed with the help of Microsoft Research India, allows people to use mobile phones to send and listen to audio reports in their local language. This service circumvents India’s ban on private radio news and reaches people who never before had access to local news.

Choudhary has trained more than 100 citizen journalists to produce audio news reports.

May 72012

Citizen Journalism Advances Democratic Citizenship in Rural Indonesia

by Harry Surjadi

On 25 November 2011, Adrianus Akid, an indigenous farmer in a rural Indonesian village, sent a text about a damaged bridge to RuaiSMS. RuaiSMS is a mobile news service that turns cell phones into a new communication channel for indigenous people in West Kalimantan, including Sungai Enau, about 12 miles from Pontianak, the capital city of Indonesia’s West Kalimantan Province.

May 72012

Mobile Network in Rural India Finds a Powerful New Ally

Shubranshu Choudhary's mobile news network has become known primarily through word-of-mouth. As a Knight International Journalism Fellow he developed CGnet Swara and trains citizen journalists to use the service to report news from their tribal regions. Activists, government officials, mainstream media and others can check for new reports by phone or online.

Program: 
India: Use Mobile Technology to Bring News to Isolated Tribal Communities
Apr 302012

Mobile News Network Helps Counteract Violence in Rural India

Not long ago, officials sent to work in India's rural Chhattisgarh region often viewed the assignment as a "punishment post" because of the region's isolation, violence and lack of infrastructure. Slowly, that is changing, says Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary.

Program: 
India: Use Mobile Technology to Bring News to Isolated Tribal Communities
Apr 302012

Podcasting (on Cell Phones) for the Masses In India—And Beyond

Citizen journalists in remote regions of India are using cell phones to call in news stories that can be relayed to a whole network of tribal people through CGnet Swara, the mobile news network created by Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary. In an interview with Technoholik.com, a technical advisor for CGnet says the network receives more than 200 calls a day.

Program: 
India: Use Mobile Technology to Bring News to Isolated Tribal Communities

India Swara Training

A citizen journalist uses his cellphone to interview a woman in Central India as part of a training workshop on mobile news. (Photo by Arjun Venkatraman)

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