We are working to integrate SMS with newsgathering and participatory journalism, by developing free and open-source tools for community journalists, and acting as a hub of resources and expertise on how mobile technology can change the way people in last mile communities can interact with the media. Through these tools and this work, we are working to empower dedicated community journalists around the world to transform citizen media.

Problema

The mobile phones in the hands of rural community members throughout the developing world give them an opportunity to interact with, contribute to, and consume the news like never before. In the developed world, our long familiarity with participatory media like call-in radio can make interaction via mobile technology seem banal, if occasionally compelling: CNN anchors reading live messages from Twitter users on air, for example, can seem like more novelty than useful glimpse into the backchannel; reports via Twitter from the streets of Tehran during this summer’s protests, though, offered a live and vital window into an oppressive regime that would otherwise have been impossible. Most importantly for FrontlineSMS, though, is the fact that, in vast swathes of the developing world, areas where literally billions of people live, no opportunities for participatory journalism had ever been possible before. Those are the communities we are building for, and in the process developing tools with universal applicability to helping the voices of the world's rural poor be heard.

Solução

Our work is putting the tools of participatory journalism directly in the hands of people throughout the rural developing world. In fact, the tools are already in their hands, in the form of their basic mobile phones. Our software, which runs at a hub on a laptop in a radio station, TV control room, or other newsroom, aggregates messages sent to the station and can also send messages back out in bulk. With this initiative, we plan to add features like comprehensive MMS compatibility, which will allow ordinary community members to document news in the field, from photos documenting fraud or abuse, to audio recordings of local politicians, to short videos of violence or corruption. Hosts and journalists will be able to comb through, curate, and verify piles of primary sources, and even send selections of this media out to listeners’ handsets, transforming the passive act of listening to or watching news into a rich, participatory, multimedia experience. We plan to prepare guides to help journalists and news presenters consider new topics to discuss with their audience and learn how those conversations could be enhanced by SMS. Ultimately, we aim to build the capacity of community organizations and outlets to empower their own communities. The simplicity of the platform, the fact that all of our software is free and open-source, and our strong global network of media organizations, from the BBC World Service to Farm Radio International, means that it is easy to scale up and replicate our work throughout the world.

Exemplo

[Adapted from a message from Equal Access International]: Equal Access International specializes in educating and empowering people in some of the world’s most remote regions. Linking their work on local radio with FrontlineSMS has converted a traditionally one-way information flow into an open dialogue, allowing listeners to express their ideas and perspectives, sometimes for the first time in their lives. EA has been using FrontlineSMS to collect listener messages in Chad and Niger since late 2009. The radio stations receive thousands of messages each year, some in response to questions posed on the radio and others sharing personal views or commentary. In Chad, EA produces a youth radio show that discusses peaceful ways of addressing grievances, tolerance, and problem solving. Listeners can send in feedback through FrontlineSMS asking questions like “I lived for a little while in the North, and I noticed that tribalism still exists there. The young people from the North and South avoid relating to one another. How do we get past this behavior?” EA discusses these comments on air, helping youth from all over the country feel included in important conversations. In closed communities, or those struggling with violence or intolerance, the act of engaging in a dialogue via a mass communications platform such as a radio can help people feel engaged and included. As one young listener in Niger texted, “[EA’s youth show] Gwadaben should be congratulated because it is an essential environment for young people, where we can discuss and address the questions that concern us.”

Ofertas e demandas

As a socially driven organization developing free and open-source tools, competition over the participatory journalism space is less important to us than ensuring we serve and empower our users and their audiences in the best way we can, especially given the immense size of the global market for the kinds of tools we develop. As the same time, since our tools are free, simple, and well known, competitors would have a hard time displacing us. Most of the peer organizations in our field are less competitors than current or potential collaborators. The team at Ushahidi, for example, builds participatory mapping tools that use FrontlineSMS software to collect and organize SMS messages. Community media outlets using FrontlineSMS will benefit immensely from the ability to integrate mapping into a participatory journalism workflow. There are other SMS aggregation tools out there, as well as Web-based SMS services, but we offer different advantages. The Web services, obviously, require Internet access, a nonstarter in the communities we serve, and other SMS tools either require advanced technical skills to launch or lack the dynamic user community and support system we have cultivated.