The youth are the future. Be the future of Africa.
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The Youth Are the Key

African leaders and organisations, media companies and citizens alike are working tirelessly towards making these goals a reality however, there is a lack of engagement from the youth with regards to the media in terms of journalism and news, and consequently the entire African cause. This lack of engagement is problematic because the fate of the African continent lies in the hands of the youth, as it is they who will have to take the existing momentum, run with it and eventually pass it down to future generations.

A Powerful Generation

The youth of today are teeming with passion and many of them want to make a difference in the world but don’t know how. Tools like the internet have allowed young people to take small ideas and turn them into successful businesses, movements and organisations. Imagine what progress we could make if they engaged with traditional media, took the SDGs and Agenda 2063 goals, and ran with them in the same way. How can we harness this passion? How can we bridge the gap?

The Newsroom Innovation Youth Challenge is to figure out how we can get the youth of today to engage with the African cause through verified news produced by traditional/mainstream African Media.

We are looking for new and innovative ways to transform the Media Newsroom operations, processes and product formats and channels for maximum youth engagement.

In what ways can we make mainstream professional journalism and news media more appealing to them as a conduit to a greater engagement and participation in achieving the Africa we want?

What Are We Looking For?

We are looking for creative and disruptive ideas for digitally improving youth engagement with mainstream news media. ‘Digitally’ in this case refers to, finding unique and innovative ways of employing tools and strategies that use the internet, mobile platforms, computer-assisted reporting, digitally augmented reality, or other electronic means that would be impactful.

We are specifically interested in Newsroom Innovation ideas that seek to achieve one or more of the following goals:

Platforms

Strengthen existing media platforms, or harness new digital platforms for engaging the youth and transmitting news and other journalistic content to them.

Delivery

Improve on or find new and innovative ways for news to reach the youth where they are in user friendly, relevant, perhaps interactive and appealing formats.

Content

Amplify the relevance and usefulness of news by showing how it can benefit andimprove the lives of the youth.

Reach

Enhance the impact and ‘shelf life’ of news by extending its influence and intrinsic value for both the youth and content services.

Targeting

Deepen media’s understanding of the youth media consumption patterns and behaviour by improving user analytics, audience profiling and market segmentation and any other technology and tools available.

Sustainability

Retain and grow the youth segment by keeping them interested once they have engaged.  It is also important   to create youth advocates who consistently recruit others to ride trending streams with them.