A modern face is very much on show at the Tirupati Mazima Mall in Kabalagala. MCI staff move in and out through the front door with the flash of their identity cards. Beyond the glow of the words MCI Media Hub in bold letters, the words Amplifying Media Innovations and the glowing bulb sit on a black wall welcome you to #TheFutureOf OfJournalism.
The co-working tables surrounded by the black seats with headrests outside a glass room – our social media studio – are a pleasantry to your sight. A faint glow from five bulbs light the mostly orange-themed pantry. Stickers showing the media interconnection with a television set, radio set, camera, social media icons is a silent but loud proof that the MCI Media Hub is changing the narrative one platform at a time. On top of the wooden terrace sit the words carrying the Media Challenge Initiative (MCI) belief, Journalism Can Make the World a Better Place.
— Media Challenge Initiative (@IMChallengeug) March 20, 2021
Guests of the hub engrave their signatures in a customized visitors’ book at the entrance before the staff take them around to experience and get the feel of the new media hub’s event space, office spaces, radio and TV studio spaces, training room, boardroom, and production control areas.
This media hub has been a dream come true for Abaas Mpindi and the other founders at the Media Challenge Initiative for the past three years. During his journalism school days, Abaas walked back to school crestfallen after he was denied an opportunity to do an internship at a certain media house. Deep in thought, he imagined the plight of other young people struggling to get a breakthrough into the media industry but they were denied an opportunity. An idea popped up in his mind to start an initiative that equips young people with multimedia skills to empower them to create their own ventures in the media industry. This idea gave birth to the Media Challenge Academy which evolved into the Inter-University Media Challenge and now the Media Challenge Fellowship Program. As they say, the rest is history and the hub is the next big step in that journey.
With a slogan of ‘Amplifying Media Innovation’, the MCI Media Hub is a collaborative space that will support disruptive innovators with an enabling environment to accelerate ideas and solutions for journalism and media viability in Uganda and East Africa. Media Challenge Initiative CEO, Abaas Mpindi, said MCI launched the hub due to a core belief in the power of journalism and media innovators.
— Media Challenge Initiative (@IMChallengeug) March 19, 2021
“At the Media Challenge Initiative, we do what we do because we believe that good journalism makes the world a better place. We also know that this kind of journalism is becoming harder to find. We have seen journalism and the overall media industry struggle to sustain itself due to changing business models and other challenges. We have, therefore, created a home for innovations and solutions addressing the viability of the industry because we are on a mission to nurture and incubate it,” Mpindi said at the MCI Media Hub launch.
The Hub intends to serve this role by providing high-quality media support services at affordable rates including a co-working space, hosting events and dialogues, media training, a state-of-the-art radio, and TV studio for hire, a shared newsroom, and an ecosystem of media innovators who are intentional about creating solutions to the challenges facing journalism. The Hub was launched in partnership with DW Akademie, Aga Khan University-Graduate School of Media and Communications, KfW, and the German Cooperation.
The Friday event started with the graduation of the 3rd class of Media Challenge Fellows, MCI’s flagship program that trains the top 26 journalism students every year in intensive multimedia skills and solutions-based journalism. The event also included the awarding of 9 journalism students who produced the best stories in the 2020 Inter-University Media Challenge, an annual training and journalism competition for up to 15 universities of journalism. The winning students reported TV, radio, online, and photo stories on how their communities were adapting and innovating during Covid-19.
The 2020 Media Challenge fellows cut their cake after graduating from the program. Photo by MCI .
Hon. Judith Nabakooba, the Cabinet Minister of ICT & National Guidance, who officiated the graduation event, said, “I promise that as the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, we shall also find ways of supporting these young innovators and [the Hub] being the first of its kind in Africa, we shall find ways of working with you, probably even to help train some of the government communicators on how to use online methods of communication, but also the fact-checking mechanism of what is being put on the social media spaces, and I believe we will do a lot with you.”
Welcome to the online application Media Challenge Fellowship Program.Media Challenge Initiative invites applications for the Media Challenge Fellowship Program. The fellowship is intended to provide time and resources to the top applicants to engage in high intense practical meant to turn them into a multifaceted one-man-woman-army journalist.
About the Media Challenge Fellowship Program
The Media Challenge Fellowship Program is an aggressive multimedia journalism training program awarded to the best journalism students from the Inter-University Media Challenge, a practical reporting competition in 12 universities in Uganda. The fellowship program is part of the Media Challenge Initiative’s strategic vision of building the next generation of journalists who are not only multi skilled but also critical participants as change agents in changing their communities and the negative African narrative. We aim to combat high rates of youth unemployment while empowering young journalists to improve the quality and impact of the media, seeking to enhance democratic processes through encouraging critical and investigative reports that hold government and institutions accountable.
The fellowship program is based on four pillars:
The concept of building a “one woman/man – army journalist”: a journalist with multifaceted skills and knowledge;
Solutions journalism: reporting on solutions shown to be effective at addressing societal problems;
Development journalism and journalism for social change: reporting on specific topics and in such a way that advances positive and equitable development within society;
Leadership in journalism: nurturing fellows not only as skilled journalists but also as leaders in their communities and field of choice.
MCI Fellowship Structure
25 days of practical multimedia journalism training including foundations and
Multimedia Skills, Participatory youth radio training, Beats reporting, career guidance, media entrepreneurship, data journalism and digital Skills
The Media Mentorship Program
Within the Media Mentorship Program, each fellow is connected to a professional mentor in the media industry for ongoing guidance on a yearlong program. The mentorship program will include;
One-to-one pairing with a media mentor in mentee’s field of choice
Community of experts the mentees can reach out to with specific questions
Mentee-ship Workshops
Mentor-Mentee Orientation workshop
Networking events with exhibition of student work
MCI Fellowship Commitments
Please review the commitments below. Are you available and committed to fulfill all of the fellowship requirements and time schedule of trainings? Please be aware that if you are not able to attend any of the fellowship dates, you will not qualify for the fellowship.
February (reporting for the programme)
One week in March (Wednesday-Sunday)
One week in April (Wednesday-Sunday)
Weekend in early May
One week in May/June (Wednesday-Sunday
One week in June/July –Out of Kampala Reporting trip (Wednesday-Sunday)
Field visits to media houses (throughout – optional depending on fellow availability)
Graduation in late July
Reporting up to three multimedia stories on your own time
Active participation in the mentorship program with all its requirements
Eligibility to apply
The Media Challenge Fellowship Program is open to only Ugandan Journalism and Communication Students.
Application Requirements
Completed Application Form
Sample of your work like articles, video/radio clips, photography and blogs
A reference letter from any of your next of Kin
Assessment Criteria
All applicants work for a max of 50 points. Category award winners ( see IMC competition winners) start the application with a 10 point advantage, 1st Runner-up with 8 points, 2nd Runner-up with 6 points, 3rd Runner-up with 4points in their account.
Participation in the IMC competition as listed above
Passion and Commitment level 10 points
Creativity, Motivation and Skills: 10 points
Diversity and Team work: 10 points
Story Project Idea 10 Points
Timelines
Applications Open: Wednesday 20th January 2021, 9:00am Uganda time
Applications Close: Friday 12th February 2021, 5:00pm Uganda Time
The Media Challenge Initiative (MCI) on Wednesday November 25, 2020 concluded auditioning students from
IMC Judges- Andrew Kyamagero(NTV) and Eunice Nkwanga
different Journalism Institutions in Uganda, for the Ninth Edition of Inter-Institutional Media Challenge (IMC), under the theme; “Keeping Journalism Alive in Times of Uncertainty”.
The IMC is an annual event which brings together students of journalism and those interested in the profession to compete, and showcase talent in news gathering, production and presentation. Winners from the competition are recognized in a glamorous awards event attended by the industry top brass in Uganda.
Exceptional performers are later selected to partake the MCI Fellowship program, in which they are taken through rigorous training in Mobile Journalism, Data Journalism, and Solutions Journalism among other professional aspects, to nurture them fully skilled “one woman/man army” journalists.
Auditions drew participants from Nkumba University, Makerere University, Cavendish University Uganda, Uganda Christian University, Kampala University, Kampala International University, UMCAT School of Journalism, Makerere Business Institute, among others.
Unlike the previous events, the Ninth IMC Edition was held through a unique structuring, in observation of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to eliminate the usual mass gathering as dictated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to avoid the spread of the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Participants applied for auditioning using through the an Online system. The over 100 participants from different institutions received training in Mobile Journalism, Solutions Journalism and Data Journalism through the MCI Online Platform, https://mcialumni.com. After the training, they were given assignments to produce stories which would be showcased at the event before a panel of judges.
A day at the auditions centre, Xanadu Collections in Kampala commenced with breakaway sessions, where participants’ are assigned to category sessions of their stories; including Participatory Radio, Television Features and Essay writing. In these sessions, there pieces are reviewed by judges and fellow participants and constructive criticism offered for future improvement of the contestant. Through this, they were able to construe their own errors and omissions and how.
This is followed by another afternoon news anchoring contest in both Luganda and English where participants are showcase skill in news anchoring before a panel of judges.
Commenting on the auditions, Miriam Ohlsen, DW Akademie’s Africa Programs Director-Uganda – a top partner in MCI’s #NextGenerationJournalist said the IMC 2020 presented a huge opportunity to participants to make progress in their career growth and development despite the havoc caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, which led to the closure of most universities.
“The Media Challenge Initiative will model you into a holistically well-equipped one man or woman army journalist,” Ohlsen told participants, adding that the auditions present “a huge chance to move forward from the auditions and join the fellowship program at one point.”
