Mobile news service CGnet Swara was recently featured on National Geographic as part of its "Innovators Project" series, which profiles “people who are transforming their fields by creating, educating, provoking, and delighting.”
Developed by Knight Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary with help from Microsoft Research India, CGnet Swara (Voice of Chhattisgarh) gives people in remote areas of India the abil
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.
For 10 years the government promised the remote Indian village of Sajan Khar its own well, and for 10 years the villagers struggled with the same four-mile trek to fetch drinking water for themselves and their animals.
Then early this year, Hem Singh Markam used a cell phone to call for help. And 15 days later, two hand-pump wells were delivered.
It is the latest example of what happens when indigenous, tribal communities are able to make their voices heard.
The World Media Academy Delhi graduated its first class of students on Saturday, May 26, all of them armed with the skills to become professional multimedia journalists in today’s high-tech, competitive news environment.
"This is your chance to make a difference in your profession," Knight International Journalism Fellow Siddhartha Dubey told students during his commencement speech. "It really is all about the love for journalism and reporting.
In the remote regions of India, demand is growing for access to Shu Choudhary’s cell phone network -- which allows citizens to send and receive news reports in their own language for the very first time.
Sports journalism and the use of India’s Right to Information act could be strange bedfellows. But the recent Commonwealth Games 2010 held in New Delhi reduced the distance. The billion-dollar sports extravaganza was mired in mismanagement, corruption and nepotism. Interestingly, a lot of this was unearthed by Right to Information activists. As a result, the key driver of the event, Suresh Kalmadi, is now in jail on charges of corruption.
Indian magazine Hardnews features citizen journalists who traveled to Delhi for a six-day workshop organized by Knight Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary. These journalists from rural India report local issues using Choudhary's mobile news network, CGNet Swara. CGNet team member Smita Choudhary discusses the marginalization of Indian tribes by mainstream news sources. “Media is politically and commercially controlled these days. Nobody wants to hear a villager’s story,” she said.
India is one of the world's most dynamic economies, and media are an important part of its rapidly changing scene. Hundreds of new television stations are being licensed, magazines abound and newspaper circulation still posts healthy gains.