Google has launched Africa and Middle East Google News
Initiative (GNI), an innovation challenge seeking to fund Kenyan-based
journalists on creating digital projects around news distribution,
diversification and monetisation.
diversification and monetisation.
The innovation
challenge which was officially opened on June 18, 2019 and scheduled to
end on September 2, 2019, is calling on Kenya’s news innovators with
ideas around new business models and better ways of reader engagement to
send in their applications.
Ludovic Blecher, Head of
Google News Initiative (GNI) innovation, said the GNI challenge is a key
way for news innovators across the world to demonstrate new thinking in
the practice of digital journalism and development of new business
models.
“The challenge gives everyone the opportunity
to inject creativity and new ideas and try things they wouldn’t have
tried without this approach. We cannot innovate if we stay in silos; we
have got to break the silos,” said Ludovic Blecher.
The
GNI is the global umbrella that pulls together everything Google does
to help individuals in shifting from convectional media to the digital
era. It is Google’s effort to help news players in their transition to a
digital future, focusing on three pillars — elevating and strengthening
quality journalism, evolving business models to drive sustainable
growth and empowering news organisations through technological
innovation.
In developing countries in particular, digital media has not
been fully adopted by media firms as they still rely on conventional
media to communicate, inform, entertain and educate. However, GNI will
help members of the Fourth Estate to adopt the digital media so as to
enhance their operations.According to the Kenya Media Landscape Report
2019, digital migration has increased media accessibility in the country
from 45.5 million people in the second quarter of 2018 to 46.6 million
in the third quarter of the same year.
“As at 30th
September 2018, the number of active mobile subscriptions in the country
stood at 46.6 million. This marked a growth of 2.4 per cent when
compared to 45.5 million subscriptions recorded as at 30th June 2018.
Subsequently, mobile penetration rose by 2.3 percentage points to stand
at 100.1 per cent from 97.8 per cent reported in the last quarter,” read
the report in part.
During the launch of the
initiative, ICT CS Joe Mucheru said that digital media industry in Kenya
is an enabling factor of the digital blue print.
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