As the world advances rapidly, it presents us with new social and technological opportunities. It has also translated to fundamental challenges for Tanzanian communities, which stimulate room for innovation, particularly in the media and storytelling sector.
Think of all the great minds behind new media platforms transmitting news and telling unique stories of Tanzania to the world. Talk of bloggers, animators, online TV, journalists and without forgetting the streets of Dar Es Salaam by Ngaira Mangara, an illustrator passionately telling stories of the local Dar, its people and culture.
However, estimates show that over 50% of Tanzanian journalists haven’t attended proper training in journalism. That means they are less equipped with the fundamentals of making their businesses/innovations viable. As for most innovators, the challenges have always been in between resources, funding opportunities, and the right set of skills, networks, and infrastructures to succeed. Yet, how do we merge all the possibilities around and emerging innovations to positively impact the communities and innovators with great business/technical models to improve their livelihoods?
Enters the Media Innovation Centre. Started in 2019, the MiC plays a significant role in mainly supporting the next generation of media entrepreneurs in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda through trainings, mentorships and start-up grants to bring about media viability. In Tanzania, Ona Stories, from the 2nd cohort of the Innovators-In-Residence Program, is one of the MiC’s pride.
MiC’s Community Manager, Tully, based in Tanzania, has had some engagements with some stakeholders who are doing an incredible job in transforming the next generation of innovators and media entrepreneurs in Tanzania. Some of them are; Habari Hub, the Central Press Club, Ennovate Hub, Media Space, Cube Zanzibar, Capital Space, Sahara Ventures, Anza Entrepreneurs, and Tanzania Bora Initiative through its Kijana Voice Network program.
“We really need a design thinking mechanism presented with funding and income generation opportunities to empower the journalism sector in Tanzania,” Vicensia Fuko, Founder and Executive Director, Media Space, said during the meet-up.
There is a huge growing community of innovators in Tanzania. We need to invest more in them by providing quality training to shape their skills and prepare them for the future. We can achieve all these through collaborations in programs and not having stakeholders acting in silos. All key players in the innovation ecosystem need to create a pipeline of value to each other, primarily for innovators.
Media Innovation Centre is excited and looking forward to engaging and collaborating more with other stakeholders to support and strengthen the media community beyond Dar Es Salaam.
Let the journey continue, upwards and onwards!
Tully Mwampanga Report by Aga Khan University’s Media Innovation Centre analyses the country’s millennials and digital natives’ media consumption habits.
That’s why I think today is such a great space for us to sit back and reflect on the questions that could help us shape the kind of journalism that we want to see in our local and global community.
The report specifically analysed eight major variables which include: newsroom structure and resources, media ownership and business models, organisational capacity, innovation culture, journalism culture, financial trends and results, content quality and COVID-19.
Three media startups have graduated from the Innovators-in-Residence program when they pitched their ideas in a ‘demo day’ at the Media Challenge Initiative Hub in Uganda
The partnership will also ensure that local content is curated and distributed to better optimize the product and meet the needs of Kenyan online users.
A team of young, Tanzanian tech-savvy communication professionals is dreaming big. It seeks to usher a new dawn in media business management in Tanzania by optimising employee output
As Form One students settle into a new life in secondary school, this has also been a period of reflection. We have read tear-jerking and heart-warming stories of determined students who overcame many odds to get an education and how well-wishers came together in their aid.
A free and independent press is the cornerstone of any democracy and the foundation of economic success, mostly because through our free press, we’re able to hold the leadership to account.
The three-day event, held simultaneously in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, was crucial in taking the teams through the necessary dos and don’ts as well as introduce coaches, trainers and mentors that will walk with them through the programme and curriculum.
Our new talk series, #ConversationsAtMiC, seeks to explore and tackle issues, challenges, and opportunities within the media startup industry. The series aims to invite guests who would empower media startups to grow and develop further.
It is time for those in Kenyan media leadership to declare journalists’ mental health an industry-wide crisis. It is a fact that we like to sweep under the rag, but Kenyan journalists need a lot of psychosocial support.
The Media Innovation Centre analyzed the applications to demonstrate the need for Media Innovation support in the region and a call to organisations, governments, and philanthropists to fund media start-ups in East Africa through grants.
Put in context, it is safe to argue that the plural media in Kenya could be in the business of reaching the audience and not necessarily serving this audience with public interest, local news.
The Hub intends to provide high-quality media support services such as co-working space, hosting events, and dialogues for media innovators who are intentional about creating solutions to journalism’s challenges.
Other than the grant, we saw it best to provide a vast set of trainings that will equip the founders with the necessary knowledge and skills to run their business.
Girls must grow up knowing that they can be presidents, engineers, CEOs, and we as a society must learn to be comfortable with women working in traditionally male-dominated professions.
We must give context and background to audiences about what the news means to them or what it means to specific groups of people.
