The competition asks for promising innovations to boost media access and participation around the world. Media helps connect people, gives voice to ideas, and equips inidviduals with knowledge to improve their lives and communities. Finalists were chosen from a pool of 426 entries from 75 countries.
Mobile Journalist on an SD Card
Our entry from the Mobile Media Toolkit is the Mobile Journalist on an SD Card. We think one of the most promising and innovative ways to boost media access and participation around the world is via mobile phones.
Most citizen journalists and reporters already use mobiles phones, but the sheer number of tools available makes it difficult to know the best way to use them. Mobile Journalist on an SD Card tests these tools with reporters working in the field, and then makes accessible the best of the tools for journalists and citizen journalists, downloadable and on micro SD cards ready to plug into any phone. Tools will be selected to work in varying situations, including low-resource reporting environments where Internet access is unreliable.
SMS or text messaging is a feature available on all mobile phones which allows a small amount of text to be sent between one user and another. Text messaging has become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly among youth, and it is being adopted by non-profit organizations as a communications channel.
This “quick start” guide is intended to demystify SMS and help get you set up to using text messaging in your work in the shortest possible time. The guide is not intended to serve as a comprehensive look at the use of SMS, but rather provides a short overview of SMS considerations and an introduction into how it works.