How Innovators Aim to Disrupt African Media

By: Sonja Matanovic | 09/17/2012

Fact-checking the media, drone journalism and journalists' security were among the topics on the minds of more than 500 innovators vying for startup capital to disrupt African media.

The African News Innovation Challenge will provide US$12,500-US$100,000 to about 20 startups. In this video interview with IJNet, Justin Arenstein, a Knight International Journalism Fellow and digital strategist for contest organizer the African Media Initiative, talks about trends among the 40 finalists for the contest. Winners will be announced November 10.

Click here for the list of finalists.

News Category

Press Release

Topics

Critical-Issues Reporting

Latest News

Refusing to Be Silenced: The Importance of Exiled Media

Today, 71 percent of people live in countries that are considered autocratic. That’s up from 48 percent just a decade ago. The independent research institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden that published these figures also found that nearly four dozen more countries are “autocratizing.”

The implications of this are profound. In the most oppressive autocracies, freedom of expression, freedom of association, free and fair elections and other democratic values are absent. In others, they may be present in part but insufficient.

The Journalists Behind Afghan Fact Share How They Counter Disinformation

At the end of 2022, an Afghan journalist sent his colleagues an IJNet Persian article on fact-checking and verification. The piece came with a recommendation: that they should launch a website focused on fact-checking in Afghanistan.

Leveraging AI to Boost Efficiency and Innovation in the News

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has generated excitement and fear alike within the news industry, prompting many to ponder what lies in store for journalism’s future.

If approached smartly and leveraged strategically, AI offers journalists and their outlets promising potential to boost efficiency and innovation.