STAFF WRITER
A PROJECT that is set to bring together 10 young Zimbabwean content creators between the ages of 18 – 35, to partake in new media and digital masterclasses facilitated by some of the regional and continental prominent digital content creators, has been unveiled.
Titled Emoyeni Digital Storytelling, the project is a collaboration between British Council Zimbabwe and Paper Bag Africa supported by Amakhosikazi Media and Ceca Lifestyle.
Gilmore Tee of Paper Bag Africa the project is aimed at transferring knowledge and skills through sessions, allowing the young and talented content creators to find better ways of telling their authentic stories using the digital space, collaborate and monetise their platforms.
“We are encouraging all young people from all walks of like, especially young ladies, to apply for this project which will run from April – September 2021.
“Basically, we will have online masterclasses from different facilitators such as Nontando Mposo, the editor-in-chief for Glamour Magazine in South Africa, Busi Bhebhe, the founder of Amakhosikazi Media, Dana Segal, an International Fundraising and Management consultant from the UK, who has been running successful projects during this pandemic and has been helping a lot of digital content creators to fundraise, link with brands and monetise their platforms,” one of the organisers Gilmore Tee said.
He said the new initiative was a good opportunity for content creators to gain new skills and approaches to their work, especially in a time like now where almost everything is going digital.
He said only seven young female and three young male talented content creators, will be selected based on their medium of communication and interest in the creative industries (thus using blogging, podcasting, instalive, facebook live, vlogging, twitterviews, animation in telling their stories. The stories vary from fashion, sports, entrepreneurship, film, and beauty among others.
“Additionally, 5 already practicing players, will be involved as mentors to the 10 participants, through a peer to peer engagement throughout the project. For example, a representative from Urban Culxure (Social Media & Blogging), MUD Journal (Audio-Visual & Documentary), EarGround (Facebook & Insta Lives), Chatter Box (Podcasting & Radio) etc.
“Each will be assigned 2 participants, with whom they will create digital content that will be distributed on a fortnight basis as promotional/awareness material, building up to the Digital Storytelling Fest,” he explained.
“The 10 content creators will be tasked to create unique content using their mediums, which will later be presented over a 10 day digital storytelling festival in September. The end products will include audio and visual footage in the form of vlogs, podcasts, blogging, instalive, facebook lives and twitterviews, amongst many other forms.”
