The Big Picture Digital Journalism Project an innovative project conceptualized by Internews Europe and funded by the International Press Institute through its Innovative News Contest award is launching Africa’s first crowd sourced journalism awards.
These ‘Big Picture Journalism Awards’ will serve to strengthen African journalist’s capacities in the use of crowd sourced journalism tools and techniques by supporting the development of the most innovative crowd sourced journalism project ideas from Africa.
The awards consist of a 15,000 Euro grant, which will be shared out among the top three crowd sourced journalism project ideas from Africa; technical advice on project startup and one-on-one mentoring on project development for the top three concepts.
Project concepts which emphasis on partnerships between journalists and technologists; enhance audience engagement; and maximize on the widespread use of mobile phones in Africa, are encouraged. All entries should incorporate the use of crowdsourced tools or techniques for journalism. The awards are open to anyone with an innovative idea for a crowdsourced journalism project.
Winning projects will be selected by a panel of highly esteemed, international journalists and technologists including Ethan Zuckerman – Director of MIT’s Center of Civic Media; Jeff Howe – professor of journalism at Northeastern University and author of the book Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business; and Matt O’reilly – Programme Manager at Indigo Trust.
Announcements on the winning concepts will be made on or before September 14th. An awards ceremony will be held at The Fairview Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya on 26th September to promote the winning crowdsourced journalism concept ideas.
The deadline for submission of entries is close of business on Friday 7th September, 2012.
For further information, visit the link.
