Announcing the Indian winners of the GNI Innovation Challenge and a new training series on data journalism in 10 languages
Today, we are sharing the recipients of the 2022 Google News Initiative (GNI) APAC Innovation Challenge, including six news organisations in India that have been selected to take their ideas forward. We are also calling for sign ups for a new data journalism training series, “Data Dialogue” available in multiple locations right across India.
APAC GNI Innovation Challenge recipients
Earlier this year we called for applications for the 2022 GNI APAC Innovation Challenge and I’m pleased to announce the six successful Indian recipients. The selected projects showcase innovative solutions to address challenges such as ensuring representation of voices across marginalised communities, delivering news in unique formats for inclusivity, and incorporating digital tools to create multimedia news stories accessible across multiple local languages.
Here are the selected projects from India:
The Ken: wants to make it easier for existing subscribers to interact with paywalled articles through more granular and richer experiences.
PublicNext: a local newsroom, will introduce digital platforms and tools to encourage the local community to network, participate in debate, discussions, and dissent around the editorial content. An ‘AI engine’ will also enable readers to block, and report, unsuitable discussions.
EastMojo: a digital news media platform from India’s northeast region aims to build a community of ‘News responsible’ readers, and source stories from the ground, empowering readers and turn stakeholders into contributors for impactful reports.
NewsLaundry Media: will develop digital tools to increase website and app accessibility for people with sensory, cognitive and learning disabilities, along with promoting the use of news to facilitate interaction with diverse news consumers from across languages, societal groups, geographies and ideologies.
Mojo Story: multi-media content and events company Mojo Story will provide a safe and moderated platform for young girls online, giving them access to like-minded peers and mentors as they share their stories and hold discussions through a microsite
Scroll Media Inc.: will build an ML-based tool to create short news videos at scale for India’s diverse audiences. The tool aims to enable quick video news production and will be made accessible to other news organizations.
More information about all the selected projects can be found on our website.
Registrations now open for Data Dialogue, a pan-India data journalism series in 10 Indian languages
As part of our commitment to help journalists in India strengthen their digital skills, the GNI in partnership with DataLEADS, is opening registration for Data Dialogue, a pan-India data journalism series, to editors, reporters and journalism students. Data journalism experts and trainers from the GNI India Training Network will lead the training sessions, to be held in 20 cities across India in English and selected Indian languages beginning this month.
Interested participants can register here. Participants will be informed of the training venue and timings via email closer to the event date.
The Network also offers Day of Data–a customized data journalism training that can be held at newsrooms to help journalists tell insightful stories with the help of data using digital tools from Google and beyond. If you want hands-on training for your colleagues, register your interest with this form.
These are just a few of the initiatives where we are currently partnering with the Indian news industry and we look forward to continuing our efforts in 2023.