Radio Free Europe

All You Want To Know About SMS, But Were Afraid To Ask. Here's Your Chance.

Posted by MelissaUlbricht on Nov 02, 2011

PBS MediaShift is hosting a live chat on Twitter about the use of SMS technology by journalists, news organizations, radio shows and more around the world. In many developing nations Internet access is less prevalent, and the main means of interaction is with mobile phones and SMS. Many projects are using SMS to help connect communities to important news and information, and to create a feedback loop for programs.

The chat takes place on Nov. 2 at 10:30 am PT/1:30 pm ET/6:30 pm CET, hashtag #SMSChat.

MediaShift's executive editor Mark Glaser (@mediatwit) will be moderating the live Twitter chat on SMS use, with these special guests:

  • Melissa Ulbricht: MobileActive.org and the Mobile Media Toolkit (@MobileMediaKit)
  • Sean McDonald: FrontlineSMS (@McDapper)
  • Zach Peterson: Radio Free Europe/Radio Azadi (@zachprague)

How to follow the discussion:

To follow the discussion, please log on to Twitter and search for the #SMSchat hashtag. Glaser will be sending out questions to the guests and audience in the format of Q1, Q2, Q3, and if you want to answer them, please reply with the Q number as well as the hashtag #SMSchat. All participants will need to use the hashtag in every tweet so we can see that as part of the discussion stream.

The discussion will be archived on PBS Idea Lab on Thursday using Storify.

Help us spread the word! We'll make it easy:

If you'd like to tweet about the chat please use this language or something similar: Live Twitter chat about SMS and journalism, with @mediatwit, @MobileMediaKit, @McDapper, @zachprague, 11/2 at 10:30 am PT at #SMSchat

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Radio Azadi in Afghanistan Goes Mobile

Posted by MelissaUlbricht on Jan 10, 2011

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Radio Azadi in Afghanistan Goes Mobile data sheet 4172 Views

RFE/RLIn Afghanistan, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is three months into an interactive SMS service that allows listeners to access content and participate in the program via mobile phone.

Through the interactive SMS service, Radio Azadi is now able to both send and receive SMS messages from subscribers. As a news organization, the main goal of RFE/RL is reaching an audience. “We want to make sure our content is available on whatever platform Afghans want to consume it on,” Julian Knapp of RFE/RL said. The service allows listeners to become texters, and people around the country have sent in messages to the radio station, to the tune of about 200 messages per day.

Basic Information
Website URL: 
http://www.rferl.org/section/A...
Organization involved in the project?: 
RFE/RL
Project goals: 

The goal of the project is to reach an audience and provide content and information on a mobile platform.

Brief description of the project: 

In Afghanistan, RFE/RL and Radio Azadi uses an interactive SMS service that allows listeners to access content and participate in the program via mobile phone.

Target audience: 

The target audience is Etisalat subscribers who sign up for the free service.

Detailed Information
Status: 
Ongoing
What worked well? : 

The project has seen good uptake, especially from subscribers in small villages or rural areas where people don’t have as much access to officials or media.

What did not work? What were the challenges?: 

Because it is a straightforward service that has been implemented by the mobile provider for other projects, there were no significant technical problems. Currently, only Etisalat subscribers can sign up for the service.