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IREX Sri Lanka

Mobile Journalism Asia

The 2nd Mobile Journalism Conference Asia is bringing together a community challenged by current times in an innovative manner. Where most events and large scale conferences have been postponed, the organisers, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), consistently pivoted their planning as news of Covid-19 unfolded.

Corinne Podger, director of the Digital Skills Agency, has served as a consultant to the conference since its inception in 2019. She says: "Mobile journalism was already being widely adopted when we held the first conference last year, but with the pandemic, newsrooms have embraced mojo in droves, with journalists working remotely or at home. So this conference had to go ahead, to support the growing worldwide community of reporters relying on smartphones to do their jobs".

As such, the German Media think tank identified many freelancers, professionals and upcoming talents across the region to co-create relevant and useful content. With financial support from KAS, digital assets from podcasts to webinars have been commissioned and will assist fellow community members in building their skills and knowledge base in the ever evolving smartphone technologies and journalistic space. Accessibility is key, which is why there is a strong focus on making the content relatable in as many different formats as possible.

“​The future of Mojo is certainly in Asia!” exclaims​ prominent Mojo expert, Yusuf Omar. ​He will be speaking during a live keynote session, addressing “The Future of Storytelling with 5G”. As a young and dynamic mobile journalist himself, Yusuf is setting the stage for other prominent experts and young talents at our conference, especially in pointing the way forward in addressing the​ diverse needs in media development across Asia.

Proud to be the first organisers of such a virtual conference, Christoph Grabitz, Director of the Media Asia Programme in Singapore, cannot stress how important this community event is.

“The Mojo scene in Asia is just upcoming when we launched this annual event last year in Bangkok. More than 250 attendees from over 31 countries gathered in person and the feeling one got, being in that space, networking and sharing skills and information, was invaluable. We see this in Europe with much more established programmes like the ​International Journalism Festival​ in Perugia, Italy and Mojo Fest​, and the great value they bring in supporting the community. We wanted to do the same here in Asia and now with a disruption like Covid-19, we still make it happen because it is necessary. The community needs opportunities to showcase, discuss and pivot in the next normal and we want to provide that safe space to do so.”

For more details on the conference, please check out the conference website: https://mojoconference.asia/​ Registration is free and required for networking and accessing premium content pertaining to the agenda.