Each week as part of the Knight International Media Innovators blog, the ICFJ Knight team will round up stories focused on how their fellows are making an impact in the field. Find out more about the fellows' projects by clicking here.
Vatican Radio speaks to former ICFJ Knight Fellow Mariana Santos, Impact Africa offers a new opportunity for journalists and more from the Knight Fellows in this week's roundup.
Vatican Radio turns spotlight on refugees in an interview with Mariana Santos
Former ICFJ Knight Fellow Mariana Santos' work with The 19 Million Project highlights the importance of reporting on refugee-related stories. This week, Vatican Radio’s Svitlana Dukhovych interviewed Santos, who is Fusion's Interactive Director and the founder of Chicas Poderosas. The pair discussed responses to the crisis and whether countries are doing enough to help with the unprecedented population movements and their humanitarian needs. The broadcast is currently in Ukrainian but will be translated to other languages in the future.
From the Vatican to Egypt, more and more outlets are trying to give voice to people forced to flee their homes. Welad ElBalad Media, an independent news outlet in Egypt, has joined The 19 Million Project to provide on-the-ground reports about refugees arriving in Egypt, a key destination for people fleeing Syria. The collaboration will help the project bring new voices from local communities to an international audience. To learn more about The 19 Million Project, watch their new video.
ICFJ and Code for Africa launch Impact Africa, a new multimedia contest
Impact Africa will support journalists across six African countries - Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda - to produce compelling, analytical, investigative and data-driven stories and tools. The 18-month program will include a series of story contests focused on underreported health and development topics. Funded through a US$900,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ICFJ Knight Fellow and Code for Africa founder Justin Arenstein will lead the initiative. He will work with Code for Africa technologists and a team of ICFJ Knight Fellows to help participants build innovative story projects using cutting-edge digital tools.
Read the new program announcement, and stay tuned for more announcements later this year about Impact Africa opportunities.
NarcoData draws a grim picture of organized crime in Mexico
NarcoData, the recently launched online project that charts drug cartel activity over four decades in Mexico, has released a new story that reveals organized crime’s reach throughout the country. The data-laden story makes one key conclusion: drug cartels now have sustained operations in every state of Mexico. NarcoData promises to continue releasing new data and stories that will present the clearest, most accurate picture of how organized crime has and will continue to stifle Mexico's development. NarcoData was created from a collaboration between key partners Poderopedia, led by former ICFJ Knight Fellow Miguel Paz, and digital news site Animal Politico. It was a winner of last year's Transparency and Accountability Challenge for Latin America, organized by data journalism incubator HacksLabs, a project of ICFJ Knight Fellow Mariano Blejman.
ICFJ Knight Fellows present at conference on "Power Reporting"
Earlier this week, Power Reporting - the African Investigative Journalism Conference was held at Wits University in Johannesburg. The conference is the largest gathering of investigative journalists in Africa and draws an international crowd of journalists. ICFJ Knight Fellow Jorge Luis Sierra spoke on high-risk stories and digital security, and ICFJ Knight Fellow Raymond Joseph led a session on Twitter for journalists and investigative reporters. Code for South Africa's Greg Kempe led multiple data-driven journalism sessions, including one featuring their census tool Wazimap.
Welcome to the largest gathering of muckrakers in Africa, says @AntonHarber opening #PowerReporting at #Wits uni. pic.twitter.com/lcdNlzSQTX
— Raymond Joseph (@rayjoe) November 9, 2015
Hacks/Hackers Pakistan launches call for new chapters in Karachi and Lahore
Fresh off launching a new chapter in Islamabad, Hacks/Hackers Pakistan wants to expand further with new chapters in Karachi and Lahore, where ICFJ Knight Fellow Shaheryar Popalzai is actively promoting the use of digital technology in newsrooms. Read the Hacks/Hackers Pakistan charter page to learn more about how to contribute to setting up new chapters that will help bring journalism and technology into closer collaboration.
Hacks/Hackers #Pakistan is looking to set up #Lahore, #Karachi chapters. Check out our charter and get in touch https://t.co/f56pUGeETX
— Shaheryar Popalzai (@spopalzai) November 12, 2015
An argument against decentralizing the open Web
Are we doing tech development all wrong? Is the open source movement democratic and empowering, or inefficient and even chaotic? Former ICFJ Knight Fellow Friedrich Lindenberg takes up some of these questions in a new blog post, suggesting that perhaps we should be moving toward a more centralized web framework. Let the debate begin!
This post is also published on IJNet, which is produced by ICFJ.
Main image CC-licensed via Flickr courtesy of Freedom House.