Finding Digital Stories: The Youth Reporter Project Toolkit

"Citizen journalism has an important role to play in supporting a functioning democracy, and advancing advocacies toward shaping a just and equal world. That's why we need the youth and their stories more than ever." - Dennis O'Brien, Country Director, Plan International Philippines

As smartphones are accessible to most young people, Plan International Philippines, through its Youth Reporter Project, developed a mobile journalism ("MoJo") toolkit to equip youth advocates with the knowledge and skills needed for digital storytelling. Intended for young people aged 13 to 24, the toolkit is designed to be a youth-friendly guide on writing and producing content for social media. Plan International contends that young people can capitalise on MoJo, or storytelling using smartphones, to tell stories that matter - to tell their own stories.

Consisting of 5 main modules, the toolkit features key concepts, tips, and activities on taking photos and videos, creating digital content, writing for social media, making posts go viral, and conducting inclusive reporting. To practice what the students learned, there are two activities on mobile photography and mobile videography. The output is to be presented during a workshop setting. There are also two supplemental chapters on conducting oneself on social media that focus on basic social media etiquette and how to deal with abuses on different platforms.

Youth Reporter is a participatory, community-based media project for young people in different countries, including the Philippines. Plan launched it in 2013, when the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan affected millions of people, including youth. Youth Reporter aims to empower children and youth through creative media, journalism, and storytelling. Children and young people trained under the project put the learnings in practice as young citizen journalists, media literacy advocates, and change agents in their communities. Kristine, Youth Reporter, Western Samar, said, "I was trained not only on youth issues but also on communications and advocacy. Now I am a proud Youth Reporter, raising awareness on girls' rights among many other topics close to my heart."

Editor's note: Click here to view the Youth Reporter Project videos on the project's YouTube channel (one example is below).