ANIC is looking for ideas that will transform the way that African media work. This means that your idea should offer significant and tangible improvements to existing tools or techniques, or should propose new ways for African journalists to gather news, tell stories, engage with audiences, or sustain media organisations.
Ideas that have the potential to be replicated or that could scale continentally will have an advantage.
1. What do you propose to do? [20 words]
To engage the Zambian audience in the constitution making process which Zambia is undertaking at the moment.
2. Is anyone doing something like this now and how is your project different? [30 words]
No one is doing this project. There is need to for bloggers to publish articles related the Zambian Constitution chapter by chapter and have debates within the story.
3. Describe the real world challenge that you are trying to solve for African media [50 words]
The mainstream media has not been able to do justice to the constitution making process and there is a need for bloggers to be part of this process. Bloggers should be able to bring in new voices of ordinary people and not the usual people who are interviewed by mainstream media.
4. How and why will your solution work? [100 words]
It will work because at the moment everyone wants to talk about the constitution and wants to hear more about what is contained in the document. There are adverts already running on the constitution making process but the ordinary people do not know how to participate and add their voice.
The bloggers will be able to deliver stories on the constitution making process as this is the country’s important document. It would be nice to even engage people in Diaspora and at home in issues of the constitution making process which includeman rights.
The Zambian Bloggers Network has got access to the Constitutional Committee and would also publish issues of what the committee is doing. we will also get comments of people through social media. There will also be a mobile phone dedicated to receiving issues that people want to be put in the constitution through SMS and calling services.
5. Who is working on it? [100 words]
30 Zambian bloggers will work on it together and will also practice negative 2.0 in the local newspapers where we will print articles that will attract a lot of reading online. This will help give pointers offline to newspaper readers on what the Zambian Blog ring was publishing.
There will be need to have some blogs articles printed in the newspaper.
6. What part of the project have you already built? [100 words]
Zambian bloggers network platform has already been created.
7. How would you sustain the project after the funding expires? [50 words]
We hope to sell the concept the government who are actually tasked to provide this kind of information to its people. We hope to attract more donors to support this initiative until the time that the constitution will be launched.
Requested amount from ANIC: $90,000
Expected amount of time required to complete project: 12 months
Total Project Cost: $150,000
Copyright ©2012 African Media Initiative. All rights reserved.
