IQ4News was established in 2010 with the ethos of building a collaborative community of journalists, bloggers, citizens and experts across Africa, to tell African stories from an African perspective. Up until now, the approach to citizen participation has been basic, contributors can upload their written stories to the website.
“We want to take our citizen participation up a notch by introducing a simple, fast and easy-to-use facility that will allow our community to participate in our news production and gathering process, and that is why we are asking the public to help us raised £10,000($11,864),” said Dr Yemisi Akinbobola, publisher and Editor-in-Chief, IQ4News.
Over the next 30 days, IQ4News will be open to crowdfunding via Kickstarter, and the rewards for supporters of the campaign range from exclusive tÂshirts, right up to two years worth of advertising on the website that gets visitors from over 220 countries.
“A natural extension of our work is to contribute to journalism training in Africa, so we will also be introducing online training materials covering a variety of areas relevant to online journalism,” adds Dr Akinbobola.
Online journalism in Africa is a growing industry, and the vision for IQ4News is to make a lasting difference in the industry. We cherish our role in the society as journalists and are committed to strict ethical guidelines needed to better inform and engage with our audience.