Digital Amplification of Vernacular Journalism for South Indian Journalists

Our goal is to share with South Indian vernacular journalists U.S. journalism ethics, standards, and methods specifically pertaining to the increased use of social media in disseminating news. The U.S. Consulate General, Chennai is seeking a U.S. organization that has experience in international education on journalism ethics and standards, citizen journalism, and reporting through social media. We are seeking an organization that has experience in working in local languages and working with vernacular journalists, and especially organizations or institutions with linkages to India and specifically South India. The grantee would need to work with local partners in each of the three states in our district to develop online materials and coursework for vernacular journalists. The U.S. would then send U.S. citizen experts to conduct a focus group for vernacular journalists using the specially designed curriculum and coursework.The grantee would work with local journalism schools to adapt existing English-language materials readily available as well as to create new content in order to train South Indian journalists. The curriculum will need to be available in Kannada, Malayalam, and Tamil since our target audience speak them (and not English). The project will require a module on using “feature” or non-“smart” phones for reporting and how to get news to users of feature and dumb phones. Once the training curriculum has been developed, U.S. citizen trainer(s) would need to run workshops using “e-training” modules with focus groups of 20-30 journalists from each of the three South Indian states. Once the grantee organization has feedback on the existing modules, they will modify or improve the curriculum. Then, working with local media organizations, and secondary, college, and post-graduate level certificate programs, the grantee would need to make the e-learning tool available online for use for free. This would enable many other journalists, new hires, and journalism students to benefit from the new curriculum. Other countries with populations that predominantly use non-“smart” phones may also benefit from the training module or adapt it for their local language.