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Reports from the Frontline: How Small World News Trains Citizen Journalists and Captures Footage from Libya

Posted by MelissaUlbricht on Jun 10, 2011

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Reports from the Frontline: How Small World News Trains Citizen Journalists and Captures Footage from Libya data sheet 4166 Views

Armed with a few Kodak Zi8 cameras, 6 HTC Wildfire mobile phones, energy, expertise in training citizen journalists, Small World News is working to share stories from Libya with the larger world.

Small World News is on the ground in Benghazi training Libyans to capture and tell video stories of events in this volatile region. Along the way, the team has also captured footage that no other main stream media outlet has been able to get. MobileActive.org chatted late last night with Brian Conley, founder of Small World News, to hear how things were going. What we learned is that capturing and sharing stories from Libya is as much about technology as it is about establishing trust and connections with the journalists on the ground.

Small World News and Alive.in

Small World News is a documentary and new media company that provides tools to journalists and citizens around the world to tell stories about their lives. We wrote about Small World News last when it helped an independent Afghan news agency integrate mobile phones and SMS into news reporting. 

As part of its work in Libya, Small World News captures audio reports from individuals on the ground to broadcast to a larger international audience. It does this via Speak2Tweet, a collaborative project from Google, Twitter, and SayNow, which allows a caller to Tweet by calling a phone number and leaving a voicemail. 

Basic Information
Website URL: 
http://smallworldnews.tv/
Organization involved in the project?: 
Small World News
Project goals: 

The goal is to build an effective and sustainable conduit for content produced by citizens about daily life in Libya that reaches a wider audience.

 

Brief description of the project: 

Small World News is on the ground in Benghazi training Libyans to capture and tell video stories of events in this volatile region.

Target audience: 

Small World News has a team of about a dozen men and women ranging in age from 16 to 30 years learning how to create video content.

Detailed Information
Status: 
Ongoing
What worked well? : 

For Small World News, capturing and sharing stories from Libya is as much about technology as it is about establishing trust and connections with the journalists on the ground. The team used platforms like Speak2Tweet and Unviersal Subtitles and also tapped into existing networks of people on the ground.

 

What did not work? What were the challenges?: 

Establishing trust and working in a stressful environment have been ongoing issues. Also, there have been technical challenges. The account for the team’s satellite equipment had not been activated, and they found out that credit had never been applied to it.