Students are learning multimedia in the field by covering stories all over the world as part of the project “My Story, My Goal.”  In response to the UN Millennium Development Goals, 14 young journalists from the University of Miami teamed up with local partners to share coverage which personifies some of the world’s most critical human issues.

The stories were integrated into a nearly 27-minute documentary called “This is My Goal.”  Led by Rich Beckman, Knight Chair in Visual Journalism, the Center has begun developing relationships with journalism schools around the world.  Tom Kennedy, Knight Center Professional-in-Residence and former managing editor of multimedia at The Washington Post, provided valuable direction and editing coaching during post production.

Each of the seven four-minute videos is available to watch separately, providing a snapshot of individual struggle.  In addition to the video, animated statistics shed light on the policy issue, and high quality still photos provide additional perspectives.

This project was produced by the Knight Center for International Media, which also houses the One Water project.  The One Water film, done in a variety of formats, including one without words, will debut on cable Aug. 2, 2010. The center focuses on finding new ways for news and information to cross cultural and political borders.

A reporter who relies only on official sources will often miss the real story. To a seasoned journalist, that may sound like a cliché. But in my Knight International Journalism Fellowship in Uganda, where independent media are very new, I’m trying to help journalists understand the need to dig deeper and find new sources, especially when it comes to health reporting. Recently, I got to see stunning results-- $130 million worth in fact.

In 2008, a reporter I was working with, Kakaire Kirunda of the Daily Monitor newspaper, set out to write a story about the country’s hospital system. On paper, it’s an orderly and well-conceived array of district, regional and national hospitals, each designed to handle certain types of cases while passing more complex ones up to higher levels. In reality, though, the system is broken. The lower-level facilities often lack manpower and equipment, so the triage system doesn’t work. Patients flock in large numbers to the higher level sites, which are overwhelmed.

Kakaire’s story became a series that the Monitor called “Our Sick Hospitals.” It worked because it relied not on official sources, who generally painted a rosy picture based on the theoretical ideal, but on patients who used the shoddy hospitals and on experts like Freddie Ssengooba, a lecturer at Makerere University School of Public Health

-- Chris Conte, Knight International Journalism Fellow

Shubhranshu Choudhary

As a Knight International Journalism fellow, I am working on a project that uses mobile technology to enable citizens in India’s most isolated regions to produce and deliver news. I am sending along a video from a Citizen Journalism Training Workshop we organized in February 2010 in Kunkuri Chhattisgarh. We trained 33 tribal citizens on basics of journalism and on how to report using mobile phones. Elisa Tinsley, Director, Knight International journalism Program in ICFJ and Bill Thies of Microsoft Research Lab in India also took part in the training.

In Chhattisgarh there are no tribal journalists or journalists who understand the tribal languages in the state. A survey showed that mainstream newspapers in the state gave only 2% of their space to news related to stories on tribal communities.

After three days of training, supported in part by UNICEF, these new citizen journalists have started reporting about important events and happenings in their villages. They are recording two- minute audio reports on their mobile phones. Once their stories get vetted, anyone from the community can simply call a number and get the latest.

A story about our new network ran in prime time on one of the top TV stations in India, so the mainstream press is beginning to notice.

Photo: Pablo Corral Vega

Harvard’s 25 newly announced Nieman Journalism Fellows for 2011 include two Latin American Fellows sponsored by Knight Foundation.

Photojournalist Pablo Corral Vega of Ecuador founded nuestramirada.org, a social network for Latin American documentary photographers, while he was a resident professional at the University of Miami School of Communications’ Knight Center for International Media. As a Nieman Fellow, Pablo plans to build on his new media focus by studying how online networks can encourage and support collaboration between journalists, as well as promote transparency and human rights.

The other Knight Latin American Nieman Fellow is veteran independent journalist Hollman Morris Rincón of Colombia. Hollman directs and produces CONTRAVIA TV, which has given a voice to indigenous people, peasants and other marginalized citizens of Colombia. As a Nieman Fellow, Hollman will focus on human rights issues, studying international criminal court procedures and strategies to negotiate conflict.

Ushahidi's page for the Haiti earthquake has become an important reference for government, aid workers and media.

On January 12, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti. Five months on, it’s time to look at how the media responded to the crisis and what role technology and communications played in helping address the information needs of Haitian communities in the aftermath of this tragedy. What worked, what didn’t and what are the lessons we can learn to improve rapid response in the future?

Earlier this week, Knight Foundation and an interagency working group called Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) sponsored a meeting to consider these questions. The gathering brought together Haitian journalists, international media representatives, development and humanitarian groups, technologists and response teams. Participating groups included: Association of Independent Haitian Media, BBC World Service Trust, CDAC Haiti, Global Voices, Haitian Journalists Association, InSTEDD, International Media Support (IMS), Internews, Irish Red Cross Society, Microsoft, Quartier par Quartier (QpQ), Reporters Sans Frontieres, The Miami Herald, Thomson Reuters Foundation, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and Ushahidi.

Participants reviewed the successes and challenges of digital and traditional media efforts following the earthquake to understand what can be done better next time the international community faces a similar humanitarian disaster. And, as Haiti rebuilds, how can international agencies further incorporate media development in their reconstruction plans?

Alongside traditional media efforts, in particular community radio, a new set of social media tools, citizen media efforts, and mapping systems were used to gather and disseminate information to individuals and media outlets. These tools – which create both new possibilities and complex challenges – largely did not exist following similar disasters, such as the catastrophic earthquake in Pakistan in 2005.

The emergence of new media applications in disaster-related communication efforts raises questions about the interaction among technology groups, humanitarian relief agencies and local media, and requires new partnerships and systems for open collaboration. Participants at the meeting discussed these and other challenges: how new tools and technologies can be better used to enable two-way communication between local communities and responders; and how these tools can be used to strengthen the role of local media during crises.

A series of recommendations generated from the discussion in Miami will be published later this summer as part of a Knight-supported report on Media, Information Systems and Communities: Lessons from Haiti. Today in Washington, D.C., the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) is conducting a follow-up panel discussion to the event in Miami, with some of the same participants, on the role of media in humanitarian crises.

The Center for International Media Assistance has released an interesting new report examining recent trends in private U.S. funding of media development projects around the world.

U.S. foundations have funded programs in “media development” (independent news and information in general) and “media for development” (coverage of particular issues).

The report recommends donors keep consulting and continue to attract new foundations into the field.  For more, read the report.

-- Marly Falcon, Knight Foundation contributing blogger

Knight Foundation will give $6 million for the high-impact Knight International Journalism Fellowships program run by the International Center for Journalists. Eric Newton, vice president of Knight's journalism program, explains what's unique about the Fellows this way: “The fellows train the journalists who write the stories that move societies to improve the lives of their people.” And they do it all over the world.

Next year, Knight Fellows will launch:

• New investigative units at leading news organizations in the Middle East.
• A Web site that will map citizen reports on corruption so that Panamanian journalists can expose abuses.
• A new online association in India dedicated to improving transparency, making government data easily available to journalists for the first time.

ICFJ's news release is here. And more information about the Knight International Journalism Fellowships is here.

Jose Zamora is a Journalism Program Associate at Knight Foundation

The Knight News Challenge begins September 1, 2009. Start preparing your application today. To learn more about the contest, sign-up for updates and learn about past winning projects please visit: www.newschallenge.org.

Jose Zamora is a Journalism Program Associate at Knight Foundation

A new online journalism program will be launched by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and The Poynter Institute. The partnership will provide better journalism education around the world.

The initiative makes the most out of ICFJ's global reach and experience in training journalists around the world and Poynter’s e-learning experience through NewsU.

Read more here:  News University International.

1H2O, a documentary by Sanjeev Chatterjee and Ali Habashi of the Knight Center for International Media at the University of Miami’s School of Communication, was shown to 20,000 children in 150 locations across India on March 22nd for World Water Day 2009.

Google Map Showing 1H2O Screening Sites

The documentary, which has no commentary or dialogue, shows the world water crisis from the perspective of communities at risk of flooding and droughts. It communicated a complex topic simply enough that the children understood that water was a precious commodity at risk from commoditization and climate change. See a clip from the film below:

The filmmakers decided where to show 1H2O by working with Pratham, a citizen’s group that supports childhood education in communities across India.

UN-Water, a cooperative effort among UN agencies focusing on water preservation and access, will host World Water Week in Stockholm from Aug. 16-22.