Sarvodaya-Fusion recently began a new pilot scheme providing ‘Citizen Journalism’ training with participants of the Saturday workshop given tips on skills needed for participatory journalism. “By mobilizing existing access to ICT infrastructures the programme hopes to train young journalists in order to deploy a safety net of knowledge and community engagement that would remove the [...]

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The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Sarvodaya programme in empowering youth through citizen journalism

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Sarvodaya-Fusion recently began a new pilot scheme providing ‘Citizen Journalism’ training with participants of the Saturday workshop given tips on skills needed for participatory journalism.

“By mobilizing existing access to ICT infrastructures the programme hopes to train young journalists in order to deploy a safety net of knowledge and community engagement that would remove the constraints of social isolation,” according to a Sarvodaya statement.

The programme aims to advance inter-community understanding and dialogue by raising awareness to various opinions and views and support good governance by facilitating independent media for increased transparency and citizen participation.
Project Coordinator Udara Dharmasena said “The new service provides a new and exciting opportunity for young people to actively contribute to society and culture by teaching new skills.

With the support of Microsoft we have provided all of the tools needed to record, upload and distribute news in real time, something that has never been possible before”.

Visiting scholar Avihai Stollar from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who helped pioneer the scheme, said “We’re at the forefront of technology and culture where people no longer want to just consume, they want to create and influence the world that they live in”.

The programme focused on personal coaching and hands on field experience. Round table sessions, practical workshops and weekly exercises provided the participants with a gradual learning process. The key areas of learning are:

– Guiding participants towards the conceptual mindset of a journalist
– Empowering them with the needed technical knowledge
– Mobilising them to facilitate those skills for social activity and inter-communal dialogue.

Sarvodaya said that in the last decade, the ways in which information is conveyed has changed dramatically.

The expansion of Internet access and the rise in social networks popularity created a platform on which everyone has a voice.
This voice allows individuals to set the social agenda by raising issues and discussing problems that affect their lives. The improvement in information and communication technologies (ICT) provide powerful, yet affordable, tools to those who wish to document, analyse and share information.

In face of this, the value of Citizen Journalism in empowering individuals and communities cannot be undermined, the grassroots NGO said.

The training programme would be constructed of three components that make up citizen journalism work;

–thinking and writing like a journalist
–4photo journalism basics
–sharing thoughts through blogs and social networks




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