Blog Post

How a Journalist and Technologist Collaborated to Improve Maps for News

In the current news environment, journalists and developers are increasingly calling upon and benefiting from one another's skills and expertise.

The nearly one-year-old InfoAmazonia is a product of such a partnership–and a testament to the power of collaboration.

How to Overcome the Lack of Health Coverage in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, where journalists usually vie to cover the economy, crime and entertainment, a new collective of 100 journalists and communicators is shining a spotlight on an often-neglected beat: health.

Ethiopia’s first organization of health journalists, the Addis Ababa Health Journalists Initiative, formed last month with the goal of boosting the quality and breadth of health coverage in the country.

Knight Fellow Moderates Historic Kenyan Political Debate. The Hot Issue: Land Reform.

Election campaigns in Kenya are normally noisy, lively and bloody. But this one had a difference. Instead of the usual three or four presidential candidates, there’ve been eight. There’s also been less bloodshed, but certainly more money spent in wooing the voter.

And for the first time ever, all candidates seeking the keys to State House – seven men and one woman – appeared together in public debates. There were three in February, broadcast live on radio and TV and streamed on the Internet.

Knight Fellow’s Project in Colombia Wins International Anti-Corruption Grant

The Monitor de Corrupción, a project that I initiated with the Consejo de Redacción as a Knight International Journalism Fellow in Colombia, won a mini-grant for social innovation from the 15th International Anti-Corruption Conference.

CNN India Bureau Chief Sees Journalism as a Difficult Path that Yields Great Rewards

CNN’s New Delhi Bureau Chief, Phillip Turner visited students at the 9.9 School of Convergence and World Media Academy to talk about his remarkable journalism career, including 30 years with the world’s first 24-hour news network.

The son of missionaries, Turner spent part of his childhood growing up in South India.

Colombian Media Rely on Mapping to Track Crime, Corruption, Environmental Issues

There have been changes in Colombia since I arrived here 14 months ago. Peace talks between the oldest guerrilla group and the government are beginning. A free trade agreement with the United States is in place, and a country once known for drug trafficking, violence and kidnappings is now seen as one of Latin America’s most attractive places to invest.

In a different way, we are invested here, too.

I, too, have instigated changes.

Reducing Deaths From Illegal Abortion in Mozambique

On Friday, September 28 – the Day of Global Action for Decriminalization of Abortion – my trainees splashed the gruesome consequences of clandestine abortion across major Mozambican media. The weekly SOL published a two-page story on abortion in Inhambane province, 500 kilometers north of Maputo, while the daily O Pais, Radio Mocambique and three Internet news sites picked up a story from the Portuguese news service LUSA by a reporter I coach, Emanuel Pereira.

Indian Women Enrolled in Journalism School See Media Career as Path to Empowerment

The World Media Academy has started its new academic year with a new partner: the 9.9 School of Convergence. By joining forces with 9.9, WMA is able to offer its students a multimedia experience that combines print, online and broadcast.

Our 22 students come from the north, south, east and west of this diverse country. We also have one international student, Susma Pradhan, who hails from Thimpu, Bhutan.

Susma is one of 14 women who make up this year's class.

Mobile and Advertising Innovations Set the Course for Sustainability Efforts by Liberia Media

Since embarking a year ago on a media-sustainability project as a Knight International Journalism Fellow in Liberia, I have worked with managers at three newspapers and three radio stations to help them succeed not only as news organizations but also as businesses.

The Liberia media industry is extremely volatile, with radio stations, in particular, shutting down from time to time for lack of income.

Bogota Hacks/Hackers to Launch Crowdsourced Map on Environmental Problems

“Mi Bogotá Verde,” or My Green Bogota, a new, crowdsourced digital map that will track solid waste disposal – the first of many urban environmental concerns – is just weeks away from going online in Bogota.

The map was developed during the first hackathon of the Bogota chapter of Hacks/Hackers, created just four months ago.