The 2011 Knight International Journalism Fellows will help pioneer mobile news services and develop multi-platform health coverage in some of the world’s largest countries.

They will pilot mobile news delivery services in Sub-Saharan Africa, create a mobile environmental news network for rural Indonesians, and enhance the World Media Academy Delhi—with its cellular news service for rural citizens. Two fellows will develop multi-platform health news products and resources in Africa’s two most populous countries, Ethiopia and Nigeria.

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), which runs the fellowship program, introduced the fellows at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, following a weeklong orientation. The Knight International Journalism Fellowships are funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides additional support for fellowships devoted to improving coverage of health and poverty issues in Africa.

“Our fellows are helping media organizations to leapfrog technology and use mobile devices to bring news to more citizens than ever before,” said ICFJ President Joyce Barnathan. “We’re targeting countries with some of the largest populations in Africa and Asia—with an eye to having maximum impact.”

The fellows’ projects are:

Fellow: Justin Arenstein is a mobile news pioneer and a co-founder of African Eye News Service in South Africa.

• Pilot at least three mobile news delivery systems at media organizations belonging to the Africa Media Initiative (AMI) in Sub-Saharan Africa. These pilots will serve as models for mobile news systems across the continent.

Fellows: Todd Baer and Christopher Conte. Baer is an Emmy-award-winning broadcast journalist who has worked for Al Jazeera English, CNN and ABC News. For the past three years, Conte was a Knight Health Journalism Fellow in Uganda. He spent 15 years as a columnist and news editor at The Wall Street Journal.

• Enhance a cutting-edge, multimedia academy in India and find ways to make it sustainable. The World Media Academy Delhi provides international journalism students with the skills to succeed in today’s emerging, multimedia news environment. The school's students help run “Village Voice,” a cellular news service for remote villages of India.

Fellow: Sunday Dare is an award-winning multimedia journalist and media trainer with more than two decades of industry experience in the United States and Nigeria. At the Voice of America, he was responsible for broadcasting reports to more than 21 million listeners in West Africa and managed a $1million health journalism project to improve public understanding of health issues.

• Create a new health section at the most prominent newspaper in Nigeria, and establish an online Health Resource Center for journalists. The fellow will also work with and produce a health news program on Freedom Radio in Kano, where polio ran rampant because of misinformation about the disease.

Fellow: Harry Surjadi is the founder of the Society of Indonesian Environmental Journalists and has covered the environment for 20 years.

• Launch a mobile environmental news service for rural Indonesians with little access to information. Our partner is the leading radio news network in the country.

Fellow: Elsabet Samuel Tadesse is a radio journalist and senior producer for the BBC World Service Trust.

• Develop Ethiopia’s first national health journalists’ association. This group will provide training sessions and online resources. The fellow will also re-launch two weekly radio and television health shows at the nation’s largest broadcaster.