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With the GhanaWeb app, AfricaWeb wants to create and introduce citizen journalism to Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroun and Tanzania.

The GhanaWeb reporter is an app which enables 4 million monthly visitors to (re-) publish their User-Generated Content (UGC) directly on ghanaweb.com. The content will be published- after screening – on a personal or topic micro page on the website or as a news or opinion article when it meets the required editorial guidelines.

The GhanaWeb reporter project has been awarded with the Google News Initiative Award and has been recognized as an innovation that could change journalism in Africa. Google awarded the first Google News Initiative to GhanaWeb in February 2020.

The GhanaWeb Reporter project is among 21 projects selected in 13 countries across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa region. Eight of the projects are from African countries including Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Morocco. GhanaWeb is the only company from Ghana to receive the highly coveted award.

GhanaWeb’s Editor, Ismail Akwei, explained the GhanaWeb Reporter is an app for both Android and iOS devices that will enable GhanaWeb’s four million monthly unique visitors to (re)publish their user-generated content (UGC) directly on www.ghanaweb.com.

“The content will be screened and published on a personal or topic page on the website or as a news or opinion article when it meets the required editorial guidelines. This novelty will amplify the voices of Ghanaians on the issues that matter to them,” he added.

The GNI Innovation Challenges are part of Google’s $300 million commitment. In all, there were 108 recipients of the GNI Innovation Challenges in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, Turkey & Africa and North America representing 39 countries across the selected regions.

Some user stories that one could think of:

Bimbilla – local news
A good blogger lives in Bimbilla, a village in Ghana with approximately 20,000 inhabitants. He has been asked many times, why do you write so little about Bimbilla and what happens here. He answered, it costs me too much time and there is no real benefit for me to publish news about Bimbilla. With GhanaWeb reporter, he can publish local news with his mobile phone in his hand on eg the page www.ghanaweb.com/bimbilla and refer to all fellow villagers to this page in order to read everything about eg Bimbilla (a small village in Ghana). The blogger can see the pageviews he creates with his content and sees what he earned with. and with his new iphone he can also see what he has earned cumulative from last payment date.

Fashion event – niche news
A fashion blogger goes to a big time fashion event and wants to report it. She makes pictures that she uploads on instagram and facebook. She wants now to write some summary on the event and while she is on the event, she uses the app to republish the pictures and reactions of others on facebook and instagram to the www.ghanaweb.com/fashionupdate url-page in only 15 minutes with the story she wrote. The blogger can see the pageviews she creates with his content and sees what he earned with. and with her new iphone she can also see what he has earned cumulative from last payment date. At the end of the specific period, she receives a payment of the rev share.

She can see some other statistics of the visitors of her page as well and take that into account in her strategy to increase her audience.

STEM promotion for girls – community outreach

Julia Opoku is the CEO/Founder of Girls Growing Together in STEM (GGT) organisation in Accra which is helping young Ghanaian girls to grow interest in STEM and find career opportunities in the future. Julia creates her community through the reporter at www.ghanaweb.com/girlslovestem to post photos and videos of her organisation’s progress and how they have impacted the community. She can get direct feedback from the community and share the link to the blog to a wider audience to seek funding. She can also create self-service advertisement space around her content to be able to make some money for her organisation through revshare.