Creating a network of local journalists who do in-depth and fearless investigations will empower citizens in small communities to become more involved at all levels of society. Local communities living in media deserts are the main beneficiaries. Local areas are haunted these days by fake news and misinformation, so it is of prime necessity to have a credible source to get the attention of those seeking valid information.
We will form joint teams of local journalists and students and will produce investigations for local and national audiences at our standards. We will train the students and the chosen journalists and we will offer them our knowledge, our tools, database access, lawyers, fact checking them our knowledge, our tools, database access, lawyers, fact checking experts and will edit the stories. We will organise sustained consultations with civil society to understand what the most pressing issues are in their communities.
Target group
Local communities living in media deserts are the main beneficiaries. We will empower local journalists and civil society to work with us and support our investigation. We will promote a sense of inclusion and involvement in uncovering wrongdoing. Local, honest journalists will gather more readers and communities will gain trust in them. Media desert areas are haunted these days by fake news and misinformation, so it is of prime necessity to have a credible source to get the attention of those seeking valid information. Because it is not easy to set up a team that would endanger the status quo in media deserts, our main concern will be to provide security training and safety equipment for all those involved in the project. In each location we will organize sustained consultations with civil society to understand what are the most pressing issues in their communities. Therefore, our project also aims at reviving civic engagement through citizens' participation, students and local journalists.
Goals of the project
We hope that through this project citizens will be better informed about what is happening in their area and understand that corruption and organized crime affect their quality of life. Local journalists and the teams created in their region will gather more readers and people will gain more trust in them. Together we will publish investigations that we will promote both nationally and internationally. Our intention is to help journalists in the region get funding and publish their own independent investigations.
Implemented activities
They developed connections with the local media, strengthening their presence in other parts of the country and being able to cover stories that would've been too expensive if they had to travel to every corner of the country. They also revamped their outdated Investigative Journalism guide, which aimed to be a very useful tool for newcomers and journalists they haven't worked with before.
Impact addressing news deserts
Since investigative journalism is missing in the parts of the country where we worked during this project, I think it was a good breath of fresh air in terms of information provided to the local audience and also raised some interest from local journalists and actual Media students from the local Universities which could become their future colleagues. One of the positive changes was that their audience has a precedent now that they can base upon in future expectations from the (local) media. They've shown them how it's made so local newspapers or media outlets have to step up their game.
