Rising Voices

Diana Chamia, an 18-year-old journalism student who was taught how to blog in a Foko workshop in Mahajanga, first met one-year-old baby Kamba when she accidentally missed her busstop and was forced to walk. Over the next few months she and her blog would play an integral role in helping Kamba grow up to lead a normal life.

We hear the term ‘citizen journalism’ almost everywhere. But to be precise, what is it? Why do we need to embrace citizen journalism? What effects does it have on a society and how can it give a voice to the people who are under reported in the mainstream media?

We will find the answer to those questions in this feature and learn how the Rising Voices projects are embracing citizen journalism.

The second day of the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit projected different works and achievements of Global Voices Online. The Rising Voices project was certainly in the spotlight as it involves in giving the voice to those who need it the most and improves the lives of people who are neglected by the media and the communities. We look at the presentation of the Rising Voices project in the summit and the reactions of the participants and the media.

Why do we blog? Because we want to express ourselves, to be heard, to learn about others, to augment networking, and most importantly to enhance a new social imagination, engage in social causes among other things. Emerging bloggers in two of the Rising Voices funded projects have done commendable jobs in taking personal initiatives to help others and promote the cause to a greater scale.

On the first anniversary of the Nari Jibon Blog we have asked the people behind Nari Jibon of Bangladesh, its educators and a participant about the challenges of the citizen media outreach project so far. We wanted to know what they have learned, how the blog has helped them, what the frustrations have been and what were their happiest moments. Read all about these in this week’s feature.

One of the most exciting developments from last week’s batch of posts is that many Rising Voices participants are using their blogs as more than just spaces of communication. They have realized that by tapping into the support of a community, they are able to start campaigns to help their neighbors in need.

Within six months FOKO Blog Club’s citizen media outreach project successfully completed workshops in three provinces of Madagaskar and brought more than 30 Malagasy youths into blogging about social issues, producing video reports for competitions and posting photographs. Learn more about their success in this week’s feature.

FOKO blogger and United Nations Club member Patricia exposes pollution at Lake Ankarihary near downtown Antananarivo. The video was submitted to MySpace’s Film Your Issue contest.

FOKO blogger and United Nations Clum member Nombana produced this short documentary on Dominique, a street beggar in Antananarivo. The video was submitted to MySpace’s Film Your Issue contest.

A couple weeks ago we spoke with Lova Rakotomalala, one of the four coordinators of the FOKO Madagascar blog outreach program. This week we feature a video interview with Lova’s blog outreach partner in crime, Mialy Andriamananjara.