News

Mobile News Network "Helps Those in Need" in India

A blog that highlights the work of citizen journalists all over the world recently turned its attention to CGNet Swara in India, describing the mobile news network founded by Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary as "the media for India's tribal people," and the "kind of project which really cares and helps those in need."

NewsMeBack blog detailed the project and included an animated video that uses stick characters to re-enact the mobile network and the impact it has had on rural co

From Human Trafficking to "Fracking," 2012 International Reporting Fellows Tackle Key Global Issues

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) announced that 10 U.S. minority journalists will take on important social-justice and economic issues in this year’s International Reporting Fellowship program. The 2012 Fellows, chosen from 128 applicants, will cover a range of key issues, from the latest routes for smuggling people from Mexico into the United States, to a comparison of natural gas extraction called “fracking” in Poland and Pennsylvania.

Union of Ushahidi and Swara Means the Ability to Show AND Tell

Arjun Venkatraman is the tech whiz behind much of the voice-based technology of Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary's CGNet Swara, and he was instrumental in launching the same technology in Indonesia for Knight Fellow Harry Surjadi.

Not easily satisfied, though, Venkatraman is looking for new ways to improve and expand the technology. One idea? Find a way for the Swara interface to answer not just Who, What, and When but also Where. Here he details the path to success.

China’s Business Journalism Education Program to Expand at Tsinghua University

Knight Foundation support helps increase student body, deepen curriculum

WASHINGTON – The International Center for Journalists is expanding its pioneering Global Business Journalism Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

A $125,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the nation’s leading journalism funder, will help the center expand the program’s student body, deepen its curriculum and create new partnerships.

Text-and-Mobile News Network Opens Coverage of Rural Indonesia

In a rural corner of Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, indigenous people can now send out the important news in their communities, thanks to a groundbreaking cell phone-based network officially launched this month by Knight International Journalism Fellow Harry Surjadi.

The new service – which opens up a part of the country previously cut off from news coverage – had its public debut at a press conference on February 15 in the provincial capital of Pontianak.

Debating the Values of U.S. and Pakistani Media

I never saw this trip to Pakistan with the International Center for Journalists as a one-time event, a go-and-come-home gig, something that was good for creating fodder for speaking engagements around Tallahassee and not much more.

I’m not much of a sightseer for the purpose of just seeing sights, either.

A Profile of Pakistan: Travails and Hopes

It was an extraordinary trip to Pakistan – a whirlwind two weeks filled with dozens upon dozens of meetings – meetings with government officials, news executives, journalists, NGOs and even an artist or two. We were wined, dined, gifted and feted. We were welcomed extravagantly, generously, sometimes lovingly. We made business contacts and we made friends. We saw amazing sights – from the ancient ruins at Taxila and extraordinary art to security checkpoints and blockades.

We learned that Pakistan is a complicated, feudal society.

CNN: Phone Journalism Gives a Voice to India's Rural Poor

When Shubhranshu Choudhary began working as a Knight International Journalism Fellow in India in 2009, he realized that even the most remote villages of the Chhattisgarh region where he was based had access to cell phones. Those phones offered an opportunity for him to build a cellular news network that allows the villagers to communicate with each other as well as with activists, government officials and mainstream media.

Knight Fellow Looks at What's Ahead in Health Journalism

Knight International Health Fellow Mercedes Sayagues talked with IJNet recently about the challenges that exist for health journalists all over the world. At the top of the list, she says, are topics that are taboo - difficult to report because editors are often worried about publishing or broadcasting content that might be offensive. But she also sees hope in digital innovations that can make it easier to get important information out quickly.

Help is Just a Phone Call Away, Thanks to Network Developed by Knight Fellow

A simple phone call can bring needed assistance to people who live in the remote regions of India, says a report by the Public Health Global Network. Reporter Augustine Veliath wrote about villagers who called CGnet Swara, the cellular network created by Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary.