Media Community Newsletter January 2024

Find out why news publishers are using social media to reach and build audiences, apply for the World Press Institute fellowship and read bird stories that moved us. 

1. Journalism trends: As newsrooms and organisations continue grappling with reaching new audiences and retaining existing ones, distribution is going to be one of the key focus areas for journalism this year, according to the 2024  Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions  report by the Reuters Institute and Oxford University. The report found that publishers are becoming increasingly interested in using social media to publish news. Around 61% of news leaders surveyed said they’d be using WhatsApp, while 55% are turning to TikTok. 49% are turning to Google searches, while YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram were favoured by 44%, 41% and 39% of participants.

2. Who’s funding: The World Press Institute is looking for 10 fellows who are “innately curious, intelligent and ambitious, and approach journalism with a deep sense of dedication and responsibility.” Eligibility: Print, broadcast or online journalists who’ve been employed full time for five years. Applicants must be fluent in written and spoken English. The fellowship offers funding for round-trip airfare to the U.S., program-related travels within the U.S., lodging and a food allowance. Deadline: 15 Feb.  More info. 

3. Training Opportunity: What would you do if you had three to six months to research a subject of your choice while supervised by an academic specialising in the topic? Mid-career journalists can apply for the Journalist Fellowship Programme, offered by the Reuters Institute. The fellowship is fully funded and covers accommodation and living costs. Eligibility: Must have five years of journalism experience and strong English skills. Deadline: 19 Feb. More info. 

4. In the spotlight: Growing up in a small village in Morocco has given Khalid Bencherif his purpose as a journalist; writing about how climate change has transformed the environment and communities in North Africa and the Middle East. The freelance journalist also writes about social and political issues, including the status of girls and women in his country. In the story,  How Climate Change Turned This Moroccan Village into a Ghost Town, he puts climate migration under the spotlight by travelling back to the village of  Rissani, in Tafilalet, his childhood village. He finds a “ghost village” with “ramshackle ruins and dilapidated houses everywhere, no sign of humans or animals.” The story - lauded for exposing desertification and forced mass migration - won the 2022 Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling. He received the 2020 Investigative Reporting Award by Oxfam and Prometheus Institute in partnership with Oxfam; as well as grants from Journalists for Justice and the Biodiversity Grant from Earth Journalism Network (2021). He also took part in the Candid Foundation’s 2021 Climate Change Fellowship. More stories here: Morocco’s Biodiversity Suffers as Rich Locals and Foreign Tourists Hunt for Fun, The Whole Story of Gender-Based Violence Against Women Journalists in Morocco, andBarbary Macaques: Moroccan Ecological Heritage Threatened with Extinction.

5. Stories that moved us:  Africa’s green cement market, valued at $485.1 million in 2022, is poised for rapid growth as new technologies and investors seek to tap the continent’s vast potential sustainable construction market. It’s expected to grow at a compound annual growth of over 10 per cent, to reach $867.9 million by 2028, according to recent Research and Markets forecasts. Meet Edith Santiyia, the Maasai activist turning juicy inspiration into climate action through the Nalala Tree Foundation, a Community-Based Organization (CBO) dedicated to planting fruit trees as a means of reforesting communities. In Tanzania, Mary Otieno, chairperson of Women in Mining Operations (Wemo), is working to influence the role of women and mining in Africa's green economy. She believes that women's roles in mining are undervalued, and that mining can be done differently. Otieno and her team advocate for environmentally friendly mining techniques and stringent rehabilitation of mining sites.  

It pays to tell better stories about Africa, so we partnered with the Thomson Foundation on a digital course called African Stories: A guide for journalists on how to tell better stories about Africa. It’s free and takes three hours to complete. Then you can pitch to bird story agency and get paid to publish stories that better represent Africa.