Summing up “New content through new technologies” grant competition 2010

Call for “New content through new technologies” grant competition 2012.

Aiming to encourage new media content production and citizen reporting “New content through new technologies” grant competition was announced by Eurasia Partnership Foundation within ARM project in 2010. NGOs, production companies and individuals were eligible for participation that resulted in more than 80 submitted projects. Fourteen projects completed the list of finalists and were classified under three main categories:

Innovative Content

A1+ TV Company (“I-report” media content creation)
Hetq Investigative Journalists (Multimedia content creation)
Lori TV (Creation of a mobile live broadcast capacity)
Lragir.am (Creation of a new “Social Reporter” column)

Citizen Journalism/Blogging

Seda Muradyan (I-Report Social Game – Mynews.am)
Samvel Martirosyan (I-Report Social Platform – Badu.am)
Anna Muradyan (Blogging on school violence – Dprocakan blog)
Armavir Development Center (Youth blogging promotion in Armavir)
Berd IT (Youth blogging promotion in Berd)
Ecolur (Eco blogging promotion)

Production of video materials

Persona Grata (Video material investigating Georgia’s success in fight against corruption)
ArmComedy (Providing regular satirical coverage of political, social and environmental problems news)
Versus Studio (Producing documentary stories of Armenian migration in the 20th century- www.hayrenadardz.org/)
A.M.Media Production (On-line platform featuring high-end cultural information – WebTV)

March 2011 was the starting point for most of the projects with an average duration of 6 months.Each of them had an important contribution to the development of alternative media content in Armenia. By creating relevant social platforms and tools, and integrating new technlogies they stirred up public interest and demand towards citizen reporting and quality news consumption.

Throughout the six productive months each of these projects could create close links with their audiences and gain trust. Many of the tools created proved to be sustainable and continue to develop even after completion of the projects.