Let’s invest in EA media innovators

We just concluded a gruelling two months of selecting media innovators who will join our Innovators-in-Residence programme, a 12-month residency where winners get seed funding, coaching and mentorship.

The competition is open to media innovators from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.  In nearly three years, we have supported 14 start-ups from a pool of 583 applications. This year alone, we received 282 applications. After reading almost 600 ideas from across the region, I can confidently state that Uganda is East Africa’s media innovation capital.

I don’t say this lightly. Having interacted with hundreds of innovators and managing a media innovation centre with an acceptance rate of 2.4 per cent, I think I have earned my right to arrive at this bold conclusion.

In spite of challenges such as press freedom, free speech and access to the internet, Uganda’s media innovation scene is defiantly thriving, vibrant and competitive. The country is teeming with young, high-potential and ambitious media innovators thinking and creating beyond their challenges.

I don’t say this because we received the highest number of applications from Uganda. In our space, quantity means nothing. The uniqueness of Ugandan media innovators lies in the diversity of their ideas and the intellectual sophistication with which these ideas are articulated.

Energy and enthusiasm

They are innovating in the spaces of investigative journalism, fact-checking, inclusive media, online radio, media literacy, crowdsourced journalism and storytelling for minorities. It is an absolute joy to witness the energy and enthusiasm with which they express their ideas.

Their hunger and the eagerness to seize these opportunities and absorb every piece of knowledge they encounter is humbling for us in the support space.

They will sign up for every training and exhaust your trainers and coaches as they soak up everything. Even when they do not have a stable internet to join a Zoom Webinar, you will find them waiting for you in WhatsApp groups where they bombard you with questions, clarifications and suggestions amid shaky video and the noisy background of speeding bodabodas.

Two weeks ago, I had the unenviable task of arbitrating in a stalemate where our pre-selection committee could not decide which startups to take to the next level because the margins between the Ugandan applications were as small as 0.3 and 0.7. We finally decided to allow more teams to proceed to the next level and leave it to the teams to battle it out at the pitching level.

I am certain that these startups will shape the future of media. More importantly, we must continue to invest more in East African media innovators by providing startup capital and capacity building.

 One would imagine the digital disruption would make young journalists shy away from the industry. On the contrary, East Africa’s young storytellers have seen the opportunity in this challenge and are innovating aggressively. And we are here to support them.

The writer is the Director, Innovation Centre, at Aga Khan University; [email protected]