Social media and digital activism play a pivotal role in the media landscape of developing countries. DW’s blogging contest, Digital Heroes – Generation Nigeria, put a spotlight on Nigeria’s brightest young bloggers who care about the future of their country.

They contestants were asked to create a written, photographic or video project that addressed environmental issues in Nigeria. Over 400 entries were received. At an event in Lagos last week, the winners were honored and the grand prize was awarded to a photo project that profiled widespread oil pollution in Nigeria’s Niger River Delta.

Social media has become indispensible for Nigerian youth and beyond being used a social tool, it is now growing into a social force. The winner of the contest, Solomon Sodeinde, said that social media is the most effective way to raise awareness amongst youth. His project on the Niger River Delta serves as an example of the power that can be placed in the hands of active young people who see problems in their societies.

At the discussion, Nigerian social media experts and bloggers discussed the growing importance of social media in Nigeria and the risks and opportunities that it presents. With the widespread availability of information on so many networks, it is the bloggers’ responsibility to make sure that there work is based on facts and research.

The contest is part of DW’s digital strategy, which isn’t only about producing the best content for users, but also about helping create a culture of digital activism in our broadcasting regions around the world.

Africa

In December, DW organized a blogging event for “Digital Influencers” in Mozambique. The goal of the event in Maputo was to get to know the digital scene in Mozambique better, to form a network of likeminded thinkers and to meet new potential partners. The most important topics from the event were social networks, citizen journalism and the pros and cons of digital platforms. The event was broadcast on Facebook Live.

In Congo, Afrika TV and Canal Numérique Télévision will be broadcasting DW radio programming in French and Kiswahili.

The newly formed Community Radio Association in Cameroon, which was supported by DW, has also led to 10 new radio partners.

The television channels First Digital, GHone, EBN (Eclipse Broadcasting Network) and NET2 TV are now broadcasting DW programs in Ghana.

 

Asia

DW has five new partners in Pakistan for its English channel: Systak Cable Network and Shaheen Tel Cable Network in Islamabad, Sky Vision International Cable Network in Multan, Showtime CATV Network in Karachi und Rose Plus Communications in Hasanabdal.

Topas TV is now broadcasting DW’s science program for the Indonesian-speaking market, Inovator.

 

Latin America

The Chilean broadcaster TVU has integrated several DW programs into its lineup, including Euromaxx, Todo gol, Global 3000, Visión futuro und Patrimonio mundial. TVU is a terrestrial broadcaster with a technical reach of 1.5 million viewers.

 

 

There were more than 3,000 submissions to this year’s Bobs awards. Our jury is currently selecting this year’s finalists and users will be able to scroll through 14 language’s worth of interesting and inspiring people’s work starting April 2. The Bobs’ jury members will get together for two days of discussions starting on May 4 to decide on the winners of the 2014 Jury Awards. They’ll dig into the details of each of the nominees before reaching their verdict in the six multilingual categories.

On April 2, we’ll also start the online voting phase at www.thebobs.com for the People’s Choice Awards in all the contest’s categories.

The Bobs awards honor websites and projects  in 14 languages that champion the open exchange of ideas and freedom of expression. When the annual awards launched in 2004, blogs were just beginning to establish themselves as a new type of media and The Bobs aimed to show that this new form of communication was worthy of being taken seriously and to point to the excellent example of work being done online to foster dialogue across language barriers.  The Bobs represent one of Deutsche Welle’s ongoing efforts to contribute to promoting freedom of expression and the upholding of human rights on the Internet and around the world.

 

 

DW’s blog and social media awards has relaunched its website with a new look and a new logo. The Bobs – Best of online activism – has been recognizing the best independent bloggers and citizen journalists since 2004 and is just one way that DW contributes to promoting freedom of expression and the upholding of human rights around the world. This year, the contest has added three additional languages – Hindi, Turkish and Ukrainian – opening the contest’s categories to a total of 14 languages.

Find out more at thebobs.com

Here is the new Bobs brochure featuring some of our most famous award winners and jury members.

Download the Bobs brochure and get all of the information on Deutsche Welle’s international blog awards.