Sawt Ashabab - Presentation

Sawt Ashabab is an exciting project which aims at engaging young people (age 18-25) from different universities, groups, regions, etc on a collaborative media project, to report, monitor, and act as 'citizen journalists' for critical issues in Lebanon.

We are developing and launching this project now related to the upcoming elections, but we are working to develop this into an ongoing effort engaging young people around Lebanon in regular media production and information & media literacy projects.

The immediate goal is to produce a newspaper (online and in print) completely written and edited by Lebanese students, in both English and Arabic. It would be published as a supplement by both An-Nahar and Al-Akhbar one week before the elections.

It is important to note that this effort is the first time in Lebanon that two newspapers, of different political tendencies, cooperate to co-publish content that fosters critical thinking and breaks down unhealthy barriers within Lebanese society.

There are three main outputs to this current effort:
1. A printed newspaper published as a supplement to partner media outlets (An-Nahar and Al-Akhbar) and distributed as a stand-alone paper on campuses and other youth gathering points (cafes, etc), including text articles, editorial cartoons, crossword puzzles or other games, graphics/images/drawings/photographs, etc;

2. Web content carried on our own website (http://www.sawtashabab.org) and in sections of partner online media outlets (including Al-Akhbar, An-Nahar, Jaridtak, Menassat, and UPI), including text articles, editorial cartoons, crossword puzzles or other games, graphics/images/drawings/photographs, etc (as above), and could also include audio/radio pieces, etc; and

3. Video pieces of 3-4 minutes about critical issues of concern to young people, and produced in a creative and original manner, for showing online and possibly through other media outlets.

The web content will be online starting next week and the printed newspaper will be distributed during the last week of May. We are also recruiting a team of students to send us reports live on the day of the elections. Students will be on the ground gathering interviews and reports and producing audiovisual content (videos and podcasts) that will all be published on the website of Sawt Ashabab as well as other web outlets.

We are already working with many universities such as Balamand, AUB, UL, AUST, USJ etc. and we hope to engage as many students and youth as possible because we believe that diversity is one of the primary conditions for the success of this project, so we want students from different universities to work together, think together and of course DO together!!

Initial information is now on our website (http://www.sawtashabab.org), though we will be developing additional content and a main entry portal for this project in the coming days. Once finalized, we will also display the logos of our media and organizational partners.

We believe that being able to participate in the creation of an alternative-citizen newspaper is a unique opportunity that every journalism and humanities student (indeed, youth and students of all interests) should seize and we hope to engage as many young people as possible for this could be an excellent way to create for these students an unbiased platform where they could make their voice heard.