YouthKiAwaaz.com

Youth Ki Awaaz (YouthKiAwaaz.com)
Web address http://www.youthkiawaaz.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site
Blog Opinion Analysis News
Available in English
Owner Anshul Tewari
Current status Active

YouthKiAwaaz.com or Youth Ki Awaaz is an Indian English-language, youth run news and views blog founded in 2008 with focus on Politics, Society, Environment and more issues - creating a channel for young Indians to voice themselves. An emerging online news and views platform, [1] and a pioneer in collaborative journalism, YouthKiAwaaz.com also runs an online journalism internship program.[2] It has emerged as one of India's most read youth opinion websites.[3] Youth Ki Awaaz also positions itself as a campaigning platform for NGOs and social good organizations to run strategic youth engagement campaigns.

Background

The platform was started by media entrepreneur Anshul Tewari in 2008 due to the huge gap between the traditional media and views of young people in India, and due to lack of ways for a youngster to express himself/herself easily on issues that matter.[4][3][5] Moreover, one of the core initial issues that the platform targets is breaking the stereotypes related to young people being apathetic towards issues.[6]

Ownership

Private, community blog.

Mission

The main motive of the platform is to engage young people in ethical journalism and opinion sharing, and provide a hub for free expression of youth voices - combining journalism with technology.[7] While at the same time, letting young people engage with social good organizations to drive impact and opinions around crucial issues through strategic digital campaigns.

The platform aims at being the voice of young people in India and help them reach out to like-minded people, to work on constructive solutions for global concerns by making best use of social media tools and online journalism skills – mobilizing and engaging young people in participatory and collaborative journalism.[8]

One of the other core missions of the platform is to advocate for the access to freedom of expression for people around the world, especially in developing and under-developed countries. Youth Ki Awaaz is one of the foremost organizations in India working on advocating freedom of speech and expression in India.

Programs

The platform runs a widely popular "work-from-home internship program" with the aim of training young people on the right skills to express themselves on crucial issues in the right way, and also develop professional communication skills in the process. The program has been widely covered by the mainline media and continues to be one of the USP of the platform.[9][10][11]

In 2012, Youth Ki Awaaz launched a unique campaigning platform for non-profits and high impact organizations to run strategic campaigns that engage a vast number of young people in specific causes and issues through social-media advocacy, and gets them to act to drive on-ground local impact.[12][13]

Youth Ki Awaaz also runs local level programs and workshops on how Information and communication technology can solve the problem of lack of freedom of expression around the world.

Network and contributors

Youth Ki Awaaz has been written by over 25,000 people from around the world, and currently boasts of over 2,000 active writers and 40 interns. Its writers are present in many of the top colleges and universities from around the world and are in the age group 18 to 28.

Youth Ki Awaaz is read by over 1.5 million people every month. Much of the audience to the website is between the age group 18-28 and is ranked among top 2000 websites in India [14]

Awards and recognition

In 2010, the platform won the World Summit Youth Award for best practices in e-content.[15]

In 2011, it was recognized as a Champion of Social Transformation in the field of youth empowerment by the Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi, India.[16]

In 2012, it won the Young Innovators Competition by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union at the ITU Telecom World in Dubai.[17][18]

In 2013, it won the award for the Best Community Blog in India at the Indian Blogger Awards by Indiblogger.[19]

In 2013, it won the Manthan Award, South Asia's highest honor in Digital Media for Social Good, in the "e-journalism" and "social media empowerment" categories. [20] [21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Merinews.com Retrieved on 2009-11-19
  2. ↑ youthkiawaaz.com Retrieved on 2011-01-31
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 derStandard Retrieved on 2011-10-22
  4. ↑ YourStory.in Retrieved on 2011-10-22
  5. ↑ youthkiawaaz.com Retrieved on 2011-01-31
  6. ↑ SPAN Magazine Retrieved on 2012-07-23
  7. ↑ Retrieved on 2009-12-13
  8. ↑ About Us (2008-03-31). "About Us". Youth Ki Awaaz. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  9. ↑ Hindustan Times Retrieved on 2012-07-23
  10. ↑ Times of India. Express Yourself Retrieved on 2012-07-23
  11. ↑ Work-From-Home Internship (2008-03-31). "Work-from-home internship". Youth Ki Awaaz. Retrieved 2012-07-23.
  12. ↑ Of chai, change and winning ideas Retrieved on 2013-03-04
  13. ↑ Retrieved on 2013-04-29
  14. ↑ Alexa Internet Retrieved on 2014-11-2
  15. ↑ World Summit Youth Award Retrieved on 2011-01-25
  16. ↑ Announcement for the recipients of “Champions of Social Transformation” awards Retrieved on 2011-11-23
  17. ↑ ITU Telecom World 2012 Young Innovators Competition Winners Retrieved on 2013-03-04
  18. ↑ Youth Ki Awaaz- Anshul Tewari Retrieved on 2013-03-04
  19. ↑ Retrieved on 2013-11-17
  20. ↑ Manthan Award for e-news and journalism Retrieved on 2014-04-07
  21. ↑ Manthan Award for Social Media and Empowerment Retrieved on 2014-04-07