Ahmedabad – On October 18-19, the U.S. Consulate General Mumbai sponsored two “Citizen Journalism” workshops for youth in Ahmedabad in cooperation with two alumni of U.S. State Department programs. Youth in attendance learned how to use online tools such as mobile phones, blogs, and Twitter to share their voices and make positive change in their communities. Almost 70 youth were in attendance at the workshops, which took place in both English and Gujarati language.
Ajay Umat, editor at Gujarati daily NavGujarat Samay, and Jay Vasavada, senior columnist at Gujarat Samachar, organized and led the workshops. Earlier this year, Umat and Vasavada participated in a two-day training session with Christine Tatum, a Citizen Journalism expert from the United States.
“Ahmedabad youth participated enthusiastically in the Citizen Journalism workshop organized by the U.S. Consulate General Mumbai. This workshop will help them to observe and understand what they see around them in a different and positive way,” Ajay Umat explained.
“Citizen Journalism will help the city’s youth to focus and report effectively on key challenges facing their communities, such as transparency and corruption, environmental degradation and climate change, and gender issues. This definitely will enable them to have a positive influence in their communities,” said Jay Vasavada.
In addition to Ahmedabad, Citizen Journalism workshops will take place in Pune, Indore, Raipur, and Mumbai.
