Deadline: 14 September 2011
Open to: All interested
Prizes: US $5,000
Media connects people to their world, gives voice to their ideas and dreams, and equips them with knowledge to improve their lives and the lives of others. In all these ways, media catalyzes participatory citizenship, on both a local and global scale.
But even in this age of pervasive media, many millions of people marginalized by political and economic barriers lack access to even the most basic tools of information — thereby depriving them of valuable input and connection, and depriving the rest of the world of their voices.
Ashoka Changemakers hopes to change that by inviting the world’s citizens — notably you — to enter Citizen Media: A Global Innovation Competition. What is meant by this? Here are some initial ideas for what strong entries might hope to achieve:
- Give voice to undeserved, vulnerable populations, introducing them to media creation and distribution (e.g., crowd sourcing strategies, training to advance digital literacy);
- Equip journalists and publishers with tools or channels to report important news that otherwise gets missed (e.g., content creation, aggregation and distribution solutions);
- Advance free speech and privacy protections (e.g., encryption tools to protect the identity of content creators and users);
- Address the financial sustainability of quality news (e.g., micro payments systems that reward journalists, models for revenue sources); and
- Help people better navigate information and ascertain content reliability and authenticity (e.g., content sorting and fact-checking tools).
Eligibility
The competition is open to all individuals, teams, and organizations from all countries. It welcomes entries that:
- Reflect the theme of the challenge: Citizen Media: A Global Innovation Competition .
- Represent innovations in media that allow more people to express themselves, make their voices heard, and/or find reliable and credible news and information.
Note: Entries are not limited to those that work with Internet technology. The competition welcomes innovations that leverage any technologies (i.e. radio, television, bush notes, mobile technology) that are the most impactful for achieving their goals. - Have indicate a path for growth beyond the conceptual stage either through early mocks or having already demonstrated some impact. While new ideas at every stage are supported and encouraged, the judges are better able to evaluate programs that are beyond the conceptual stage and have demonstrated proof of impact.
- Are submitted in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Thai, Indonesian, Mandarin, or Japanese. (Please see Translation Disclaimer below.)
Prizes
The judges will select a pool of finalists that best exemplify the competition assessment criteria. From this pool, the public will vote to select four winners. Each winner will each receive a cash prize of US $5,000. Winners will be announced November 28, 2011.
Top entries in Citizen Media: A Global Innovation Competition will be considered as candidates for election to Ashoka’s global fellowship of social entrepreneurs.
How to enter
Take a look at THIS VIDEO or take a look at these step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS.
Read through these TIPS about how to make your entry stand out.
The competition will accept entries in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese, and Mandarin. All non-English entries will be translated into English for review by our judges and the general public.
Entries received in French, Portuguese, and Spanish will be translated into English by our team of translators.
Entries received in the other eligible languages of Arabic, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese, and Mandarin will be translated into English through our translation software. Please be advised that this method may not be 100% accurate.
Online competition submissions are accepted until 5PM EST on September 14, 2011. At any time before this deadline, competition participants are encouraged to revise their entries based on questions and insights that they receive through Changemakers discussion online. Participation in the discussion enhances an entrant’s prospects in the competition and provides the public and the judges an opportunity to understand the entrant’s project more completely.
Read the entire guideline HERE
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