Thank you, Effe, for your feedback; I've noted that.

This initiative is entirely new, with journalists who are also not Wikimedians as the target audience. With this view in mind, we agreed to engage only African Wikimedians and those who have worked with journalists to understand their thoughts and opinions about the project and prepare us (the working group) for engaging with the target audience and the project's impact on our community. Yes, this might need to extend to all the African Wikimedians and their communities. Still, as earlier mentioned, this is the maiden edition, and we are ready to learn from its outcome through a thorough evaluation (after the end of this edition), conversations, and further engagement with our communities.

The Working Group remains accessible to the community, and we invite you to engage us, ask questions, and share your thoughts and suggestions on key things you would like us to consider in the screening phase of submissions and future editions as well.

Cheers

Shola

On Fri, May 5, 2023 at 12:43 PM Ndahiro Derrick Alter <ndahiroderric@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks a lot, Euphemia and Olushola, 

As someone who was involved in the discussions about this initiative, I believe it is a positive endeavor and there is no need to be concerned about language diversity with the chosen language. This project is a trial run, and the insights gained from its execution will guide future efforts that will include other languages like Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Luganda, and more.

Best regards





On Fri, 5 May 2023 at 11:28, Euphemia Uwandu <sharpay136@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Olushola,

Thank you for sharing the work that went into the initiative. I had participated as a volunteer community member with a host of others from the African communities in the community conversations to co-create the initiative. There was an acknowledgement that this is a pilot and openness to learn as well from the work that will be done in this first time. And that is what is very important to acknowledge in order to shape the initiative to better serve its purpose.

Really looking forward to the success of this initiative and how we can use it to do our work better as a community.

Kindly,
Euphemia 

On Thu, May 4, 2023, 9:48 PM Olushola Olaniyan <olaniyanshola15@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear all,


My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it here ). I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet. 


Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps. 


One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English. 


With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn. 


It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia. 


You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online. 


The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling. 


We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will. 


We already have more than a hundred entries! 


Thank you 

Shola 

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