Citizen Journalism: Organisations benefit from user generated content

In a fairly old, semi permanent building on Hoima Road, just off Rubaga Road-Bakuli, are hundreds of manila papers with information about women empowerment and entrepreneurship pasted on the walls. There are also art pieces and pictures from trainings conducted over the last 22 years. Only one newspaper clip about one of the beneficiaries is pasted on the door.

But in these humble settings lies the story of the Ntulume Village Women's Development Association (NVIWODA ). NVIWODA aims to build the capacity, support and encourages indigenous women groups working in communities to grow.

As we sit to talk about NVIWODA, Cissy Nyarwa, the Programme Coordinator tells us one success story after another. She talks about the women’s lives that have been changed, enterprises started, skills built and confidence rejuvenated as a result of her organisation’s work.
But the where-is-all-this-information-documented look was on everyone’s face.
“Documentation is our biggest challenge,” Nyarwa explains.
But NVIWODA and so many other organisations are in the same boat. Documentation is a challenge.
But now the citizen journalism genie is out of the bottle and is the answer to the documentation challenge that organisations face.
Big media houses are taking advantage of content submitted by the lay-man who in most cases is not a trained journalist. CNN for example has the iReport whose pictures have sometimes been their only source of information in some situations.
The value of user generated content is undeniable. A lot of information is lying idle in annual reports, notice boards and files all stacked in the organsiation resource centres. Very few people have access to this valuable information.
This poses a risk of reinventing the wheel, duplicating and wasting resources.
For this reason, Citizen Journalism Africa (CJA) is giving organisations a chance to take advantage of citizen journalism and the benefits Web 2.0 can provide.
“If people can be encouraged to share more about who they are and what they do, they will become more visible and will not be misunderstood” explains CJA’s Noma Ronghana.
Noma is in the country to oversee the program ahead of the citizen journalism workshop in September.
CJA is partnering with the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) and Busoga Rural Open Source Initiative (BROSDI ) as the focal points for the programme in Uganda. 15 other organisations are expected to participate.
The program is covering six countries including Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The training will focus on among other issues the basics of journalism, interviewing, photo journalism, digital storytelling and writing press releases.
“Part of the training will focus on how you can use Web 2.0 tools to enhance the work of your organisation,” Noma explains.
This is bound to change the knowledge sharing in many organisations.