A Google announced the 34 winners of the 3rd edition of the Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge from Africa, Middle East, Israel & Turkey.
The awardees, including 21 journalists and editors from 10 countries in Africa, were selected for their diversity in promoting diversity, equality and inclusion in the journalism industry.
The GNI competition is part of Google's $300 million commitment to help journalism thrive in the digital age and propel news innovators forward with many exciting initiatives that demonstrate new thinking.
"This year, we sought to broaden our criteria to include digital innovation initiatives that promote goals such as reader engagement, new reader income, subscriptions, disinformation, among other things, after an in-depth evaluation, a round of interviews and a final selection of the jury, 34 projects from 17 countries were chosen to receive 3,2 million dollars in funding“, said Ludovich Blecher, Head of Innovation at GNI.
Successful candidates met all five criteria, such as Impact on the news ecosystem, equity and inclusion, inspiration, innovation, diversity and viability.
Some of the winners include the WANANCHI REPORT from kenya, Dubai from Nigeria and This Woman+ from South Africa.
This year's challenge received a total of 425 applications from 42 countries, which represents a 27% increase in total applications compared to the previous edition.
Notably, there was a significant increase in applications from news organizations carrying out fact-checking activities at 118% when compared to past innovation challenges in Africa.
Proposed projects that use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) also showed significant growth (92 percent), reflecting a trend across the news ecosystem to embrace new technologies and cutting-edge data.
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Below are the winners from Africa:
Burkina Faso
- ASSOCIATION DES BLOGUEURS DU BURKINA
Burundi
- RegionWeek
Congo
- congo check
- Afrikpic/Halvest Company
Egypt
- Egyptian Streets
- OSH for Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence Research
Kenya
- Nation Media Group PLC
- WANANCHI Reporting
Morocco
- Morocco World News
Niger
- African Development University
Niga © ria
- The Republic
- TheCable
- Dubai, Center for Journalism Innovation and Development
- HumAngleMedia
- Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ)
South Africa
- Daily Maverick
- Quote This Woman+
- Media Hack Collective
- Open Cities Lab
- Code for Africa (CfA)
Uganda
- Minority Africa
O NB Innovation Challenge aims to help strengthen the work of under-resourced newsrooms by providing digital tools, training and resources that aid their efforts to find, verify and tell engaging stories, as well as collaborate with news outlets of all sizes as they transform the world. news business, offering programs and products that support strategic growth, scalability and revenue sustainability.
The program also aims to establish partnerships with industry leaders, accustomed to dealing with the most pressing issues facing journalism, cultivating a diverse, innovative and inclusive community with a common goal: building a stronger future for news, where the first two editions (2019 and 2021) awarded 43 projects, spread across 18 countries, where those chosen ranged from digital membership schemes to research tools in the Arabic language.
To see the global list of winners click on here.
