Wanderers Stadium, WeCan24 and The Lions have teamed up to help children learn multimedia journalism.
WeCan24 is an education project by Media24 that teaches children how to use their cellphones to create content they can share and become citizen journalists. The content generated goes onto the WeCan24 platform.
To reach the goal of teaching 10 000 South African Children within four years, WeCan24 will host a full day journalism workshop at the Bidvest Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg.
Children will be taught skills like writing a news article, how to interview, and how to post articles using social media effectively.
“The pupils will attend a live press conference. They will also write and publish a news article online on WeCan24.
“The winner of the most prolific article will receive R5000 for his efforts,” said Adrie Jurgensen, group manager: Media 24 community services and project manager of WeCan24.
The platform, which was launched in 2015, has seen great growth in the last year and more than 250 schools have joined.
Jurgensen said after this effort she hoped that there would be growth to other major stadiums across the country.
“We would want to extend the campaign, if possible, to the FNB Stadium, Newlands, the Moses Mabhida Stadium, Growthpoint Kings Park, the Emirates Airlines Park (Ellis Park), the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and other iconic venues to reach the nation and inspire young learners.
“Our interventions are aimed at creating a new legion of thought leaders in all regions, not only through journalistic skills but by also by encouraging thousands of young South Africans to become enthusiastic readers,” she added.