Case Studies
Avaaj Otalo is a "voice-based community forum" that connects farmers in Gujarat, India to relevant and timely agricultural information over the phone. Farmers call up a phone number, and then navigate through audio prompted menus to ask questions, listen to answers to similar questions, and listen to archives of a popular radio program for Gujarati farmers. The number farmers can call is toll-free.
With guidance from Text to Change and in partnership with local media organizations, TRAC FM provides citizens in Uganda with a platform to monitor, scrutinize, and discuss public service issues via SMS, radio, and online data visualizations. It does this via the TRAC FM software, a tool for Ugandan radio stations that is built on an open source platform.
"Sourcing through Texting" provides a way to connect citizens with journalists via mobile phones. It allows people to communicate with journalists by sending tips or information via text message in response to story topics or specific questions.
CGnet Swara created a citizen journalism channels that allows citizen journalists and interested parties to call a phone number to record or listen to news content. The project trained 29 individuals in Chhattisgarh in the basics of citizen journalism, and instructed them how to record news on the audio system. The news that these and other individuals record onto the citizen journalism platform is then edited, and made available for callers to listen to. All news items are also uploaded...
Bubble Motion, a provider of mobile messaging and social media applications, launched Bubbly this year in India, making strides in the mobile audio blogging world. Audio blogging is a form of blogging in which the medium or main content is audio. Bubbly works by call and record, and thus can be adapted in areas with high mobile penetration and low Internet access, such as India.
A Bubbly user calls the service and through an integrated voice response (IVR) menu can record a name and...
Gaon Ki Awaaz is a twice-daily news alert that is delivered via voice call directly to subscribers' phones in rural Uttar Pradesh, India.
SeenReport is a citizen journalism service through which mobile users can submit photos, videos, and text accounts of news as it is happening via SMS, MMS, or e-mail.
Voices of Africa Media Foundation, a Netherlands-based non-profit, partners with organizations to train young journalists in Africa to create news videos for the web using mobiles. The key is coaching after training and ensuring greater sustainability by showing reporters how to make an income from the skills they have learned.
With Mahaal, users call in to a local short code, hang up, then receive a call back and can navigate and listen to top news stories, in Pashto, via an integrated voice response (IVR) system.
Young Africa Live is a mobile portal where users can access information about HIV/AIDS while also reading entertainment-orientated blog posts.
SocialTXT takes advantage of the unused space in "Please Call Me Messages" to post informative social messages, such as the contact number for the National AIDS Helpline.
TXTalert uses SMS reminders to encourage patients with chronic illnesses to take their medication and follow-up with their clinic appointments.
From the Blog
May 14, 2012
Seeking your disruptive digital ideas to help transform media in Africa
The African News Innovation Challenge is accepting transformational ideas from now through July 10, 2012.
May 9, 2012
Making the Case for Mobile
A champion for mobile journalism, Glen Mulcahy attests to a business case and offers tricks of the trade to help reporters and newsrooms use mobile tech for better journalism.
April 26, 2012
Check out the Mobile Security Survival Guide for Journalists (and Others)
The SaferMobile guide helps you better understand risks inherent in the use of mobile technology.
April 17, 2012
Hosh Media: Making News in Pakistan More Relevant For Youth
The service also helps mentor citizen reporters through individual dialogue and journalism crash-course videos.
April 6, 2012
A Profound Media Shift in the Arab World
A report from the Center for International Media Assistance analyzes the growth of digital media in the Arab region.
How To:
In this how-to, we test out two systems for SMS incident mapping: Ushahidi and Managing News. Incident mapping is a simple but powerful concept that does what it says - using SMS to report a...
Featured Tool:
VC Audio Pro is an advanced mobile journalism tool for radio news. It allows users to record, edit and send professional quality audio news clips or full stories from...
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