Shashasport

We are committed to solve the problem of the media being captured by the influential  at the expense of the marginalized communities.The marginalized communities are those living in the rural a and high urban areas and the youth's and women's voices .

The influential are the only ones being given first preference to be interviewed by the media leaving the disadvantaged without a platform to voice their views and opinions.

The solution is to provide online news written through online writing skills that encompasses the marginalized at major events without the article losing its worthiness. The marginalized get publicity after being interviewed and also the media would have been freed as the disadvantaged can now have news that does not have bias towards the government or the publishers' interests.

The solution can positively change the lives of the marginalized because wants they gain exposure, they become dedicated and productive.  

The problem we are solving is about the influential people having the first preference to be quoted in the newspapers and this has reached an alarming rate. Disadvantaged communities in different sectors are being affected whether it be in sport, business, politics or entertainment to mention but a few.

Only the few  elite have the opportunities to be heard compared to the major in the marginalized communities.The discrepancies have risen due to the emerging 21st digitization  as twitter handles ,Instagram and Facebook posts of the elite have become sources of news for the mainstream media without acknowledging thoughts of the marginalized communities.

The contributing factors to the problem that relate to the solution is that the marginalized communities will be at the major events but their views are not being included. Also the marginalized communities have  a readership percentage of those reading the mainstream news of about 60%.The readership of the media not freed  is going to dwindle because the readers will be shortchanged in terms of their money and time and thereby a stagnant at job creation.

The consequences will result in job losses, unproductive economy due to lack of profits from the media industry. 

The population I am working with to directly and meaningfully improve are the rural , urban  medium and high-density communities as well as journalists.

The monopoly in the media whereby some are more equal than others in terms of coverage should be abhorred so we are including the disadvantaged communities in our news reports. For example we are covering a tournament that is not to be marred with age- cheating.Instead of always interviewing the sponsors, we need to have the perspective from the coaches on how this bis affecting development of the sport.The word of the coaches may be strong to end the misdemeanors than always quoting the executive of the sponsors.

This also applies to other sectors as people on the ground should be given the space to air their views rather resorting to armchair views.

The website also helps journalists with a platform to be noticed by editors in the mainstream media.Editors due to the emerging new era of digitization, they usually take contributions already published by other news websites instead of individual work.

The solution address the needs of the journalist to heave a platform to gain exposure whilst the marginalized  communities are put on the limelight.

Our solution is to have a news website with 100% online sports news.We have used sports news as the main thrust although we will be covering other news beats like the crimes and courts, tourism and business to mention but a few news beats to be included on the website with a sport name.

Sports news generally attract audience from different social, political and economic backgrounds and when they have appreciated our writing skills through sport, we now know we have a sustainable solution for today and tomorrow generation.

Necessity is the mother of invention so we used sport to draw our audience without having to be aligned to certain stakeholders who might later on change the form of how we write our news due to their policies.

The online articles  will be an instrument to include the marginalized comm unites.A monkey does a monkey 

the solution is innovative as there is change in the writing skill, with the online writing skill being used instead of the much known traditional writing skill being used by the mainstream media.

The solution is being published on a website thus the process  being innovative as the solution  gains more exposure to the targeted audience than if it was first published on a print edition.

Apart from the digital edition, the solution will have a print edition  and it will be innovative as the print edition will publish online news articles.

The solution encompasses marginalized communities who would be participating at major events thus portraying some innovation sense as the mainstream media would be always giving limelight to the influential people.

Whereas the traditional journalists are governed by editorial policies, our website brings about the all the events that would have transpired thus creating a new population of readers who would be served by the online news article as we aim to free the media.

The online articles can be published alongside the traditional ones in print media.However we want to have a print edition running the online news articles.

The solution is much more effective to my target audience because of the technologies being used. It is easier for the solution to reach a great number of people because many of the targeted audience are tech savvy.

They browse news on their computers, laptops and iOs and Android phones which makes the solution easy to access online. 

The solution addresses the problem of media capture by the influential because when the marginalized are given exposure, they can participate more on national issues using the technology more than if the had not been given exposure.

The more we quote the marginalized communities, the more we have many viewers on our website and the more we see them participating in social media groups. 

With regards to the activities, we have managed to cement relationships with national sports associations.Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) accredits us if we want to cover any regional and international tournament Zimbabwe would be participating in.

Rugby Africa also sent us press releases fro rugby tournaments   as they recognized our efforts in covering the sport of rugby in Zimbabwe.We are being offered to travel  with the  sport national teams and this highlights our achievement in solving the problem of media being not free.

Most of our articles being posted in social media groups have received thunderous  ovation. Some sports associations are even following suit our actions  of posting our links in social media groups by also posting main stream  media links with relevance to their sporting code.

We are being invited to media conferences to show that even in a  short space of time , we have become recognizable.

Our presence in the social media groups as we share  our articles links  has also seen the mainstream media also taking posts from the online communities and publishing in their editions for their presence to be felt.

The solution is growing in terms of number of people being served.2 000 people have so far managed to visit the website in the months of January and February with the solution at prototype stage.

Only the sport articles have been published as we innovate the online writing  skill into media. Most websites do not publish sports articles consistently  and we managed to have a significant number of visits showing that our online writing skill is being appreciated.

Moreover, the number of visitors on our solution depicts that the online writng skill has strength to draw visitors on digital platforms than the traditional writing skill.With all news beats being published we can serve up to 2 000 visitors per day.

These viewers are for the online publication in the third quarter of the year.The last quarter of the year can have visitors rising to 40 000 visitors per day as we will be doing live streaming and video uploads on the website.

In one year we expect to be serving  about 4 000 to 6 000 visitors per day. In 2021 , we are going to venture into internet radio broadcasting whereby podcasts will also be uploaded on the website.The above estimates are for the people in Zimbabwe and with the expansion our visitors may skyrocket to 6 000 visitors multiplied by 4 thus totaling 24 000 visitors per day.

In five years' time , the visitors may grew up from  50 000  per day to 1 million  per day.

Our goals within the next year and the next 5 years is to reach out to more population as the solution should be a sustainable development goal.

The solution brings about the need for people in the marginalized communities to transform themselves and participate fully in the discourse usually meant for the elite or the influential.For instance, some projects rolled out in the  celebrated communities can also be carried out in the marginalized communities.

Social media platforms enhances discussions on how the marginalized are being left out and the acclaimed communities can share how the marginalized can be included in what would be transpiring.

When the marginalized get exposure, they become confident to contribute  in online article unlike in the traditional  media where they do not  get space to be quoted.

We will  live stream events happening in Zimbabwe and other countries we will be operating in.Live streaming of events will help the marginalized communities to find investors and in such a way they can prosper.

We will also  have a  print edition for the online news  in  Zimbabwe and this  will help to increase our market base. In United Kingdom, we will just have  online publication and will  sell some of our stories to print editions who could have missed such stories.We want also to be on Opera News application so that we can reach out to a large audience and have a broad following worldwide. Correspondents will be employed in the counties which we will be operating in.

The barriers that currently exist firstly is the culture barriers.Some people are not conformed to change . Even if the solution is helpful, it will take ages for others to start following us.The culture of not trusting new things will hamper us in the next year or the next five years.Those used to the writing skill in the traditional media will find it hard to appreciate our solution.

Secondly, financially the can not be able to sustain itself .The employees will be needing salaries whilst transport costs will also be a major barrier for us to go and cover events far away from the city center.

Thirdly, the barrier of technical know how will also be available.Most of the freelance journalists are not used to the online writing skill and they may find it hard to have their stories published by our online publication.

Fourthly, the legal barrier will also be a headache in the next year and five years to come.Licences for us to be approved to live stream may need organisations with 3-5 years experience and that will eliminate us from being warded the live streaming licences in the next year or the next five years.This will also apply to tenders for advertising space as most institutions will require  financial statements of about 3 years.

Last but not least, the market barrier will also be experienced as most media houses use the digital platform  to republish their print editions thus many may  first want the print edition.

We are planning to overcome the barriers so that the solution can aid in community development for the marginalized communities.

The cultural barrier is going to be overcomed by consistency.When people finds out that we are not going back on our solution, they are going to have trust in us as they have with the traditional main stream media.Those not willing to change will find no option but appreciate our solution as we will be consistent.

Financially, we may not be able to cater for all the expenses,so we will find options to reduce the expenditures.We can engage students from colleges for internships for free or even recruit staff composed of young journalists from universities who would be willing to work for free and get bylines for them to be known in the world of journalism.

By engaging young journalists, we will also overcome the technical problem as the young journalists are being taught how to use convergence journalism. The older generation can then cope from the young ones for them to contribute to our online publication.

The legal barrier can be overcomed if we just do the live streaming without being officially recognized by the organisations with the events. Sometimes experience gained through  doing the job is vital than the paper that shows you are the official partner of a such organisation.

The market barrier would be overcomed by publishing our stories earlier that the websites of the print editions so that our market base grows.

My solution is not being implemented in one or more of ServiceNow 's primary markets.

We are planning to expand our solution to one of the Service Now primary markets and that is United Kingdom.

We will assign correspondents in the United Kingdom to cover all  news beats using the online writing skill. These articles  will be news missed by other media houses .

Our correspondents may have the opportunity to be recognized in the journalism field, be able to meet employer demand and access the job of today and tomorrow in the 21st digital century.

Online publications are having many viewers than the print editions and editors at the print media are accepting online articles and in most cases some may be for free.

Our online publication will be satisfying a market in United Kingdom that already needs the product and we will not launch a print edition in United Kingdom as online publications are v on demand  as also is our mission for online writing skill in the media.

Newsreaders are interested in reading news that have a first hand aspect unlike the nonparticipating journalism.The web has become the source of news and most media house just copy and paste news written by other media outlets and this is unprofessional.

Our solution identifies the need to employ  trained journalists  as a means  to create prosperous livelihoods in the 21st digital century.

Even journalists in the United Kingdom are no longer waiting for traditional news agency like Cable News Network, Reuters, Agence France-Presse for exposure of their articles because of digital platforms like ours.

Two people at the moment work for my solution and that is the founder who is also editor and our online writer. The other person is Vimbai Mutsvenguri who is the assistant editor and correspondent.

Tendai Chisiri publishes the articles whilst Vimbai Mutsvenguri shares them on social media platforms.Both of them are trained journalists. We do not have part time staff or contractors at the moment as our is still at the prototype stage.

We are aiming  to have freelance journalists and also photographers contributing their articles and photos respectively  on our online publication.

Our team is best placed to deliver the solution because of the vast experience we have by working in a news room..The founder, editor and our online writer Tendai Chisiri worked at the public news organisation called Zimpapers' newspaper The Herald.He worked for a year before joining the digital team at Sports zone as a correspondent. Sports zone was later upgraded to Zimbabwe Television Network. Tendai Chisiri has 10 years experience in the media with the last half working as a freelance reporter for various publications before founding the website shashasport.com still at prototype stage.

The online writer has a talent to write online news and has received much admiration with the writng skill which in Zimbabwe they term foreign talent writing skill.The online writer has a diploma in Professional Journalism with Associate of the Business Management Association (ABMA) UK.

Vimbai Mutsvenguri is the assistant editor and a correspondent .She is studying towards Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies.Before she  joined  our team , she did her attachment at The Herald as a correspondent.

At the moment we have partnered local and regional organisations for our solution to solve the problem of media capture by the influential at the expense of the marginalized communities.

These organisations we call partners let us have access to the events we need to cover through accreditation and also giving  adverts for  our website. 

Multi media sends invites to the media and other stakeholders on behalf of international organisations like Coca-Cola, Delta Beverages, Castle Lager to mention but a few  and without the invite, one may not be allowed to cover events by the institutions.

Multi media is also an  advertisement consultancy company . They  chose the media house to advertise on for the international organisations' products , services and events.

We have also  partnered Rugby Africa. Rugby Africa has  regional tournaments like Rugby Gold Cup and Silver Cup and they also email the media press releases t  on what would be transpiring in the rugby fraternity regionally. Zimbabwe Football Association and Castle Premier Soccer League are  our partners.

Various local ministries has partnered us and this are Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Zimbabwe, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Tourism and Hospitality to mention but a few. 

To run the activities, we need journalists, video cameras and laptops for us to engage in reporting and publish online news articles on a digital platform.

Our organisation will be publishing online news and also providing advertising space for services and products. Our intervention is through  the online news articles in which  the marginalized rural and urban communities would be benefiting from.

In order for us to deliver the programme , there is need for us to partner with key stakeholder so that we would be accredited to cover events they would have organised. The key stakeholders would be line ministries who would have organized events in need  to be covered or other institutions who would be accrediting journalists to cover their events. 

We are reaching our users through face book groups, twitter and Instagram.The followers like our face book page to show the impact we are having through our programme. Through these platforms, our website is having a great number of viewers.

Our products are paid through the clicks made by the viewers on the website and our service of advertising space also generates revenue.

We care creating social impact as comment on our posts highlights that our audience are appreciating our efforts.

Our biggest expenditure is  transport costs to go and cover the events.With our profits we pan to be established in other countries worldwide. Our revenues are 30% from videos viewers clicks , 20% from the articles clicks  and 50 % from adverts sourced. 

We care hoping to bring the money to fund our business through selling our products and services but firstly we need grants as our working capital .

We need the grants like those offered by Massachusetts of Technology together with their partners for us to accelerate our solution.Our business sells products that are the online articles and services that is  the advertising space on our website for products or services offered by other institutions.

We provide employment to trained  journalists so that our online articles are worthy to be viewed on our digital platform.We will be self sufficient in the long run as our revenue will be more than our expenses.

The revenues from the adverts and clicks on the website will be used to pay the staff's wages, rent, electricity and internet charges, transport costs and other overhead expenses.

Service Now can help us to overcome the technical barrier if we are selected among the winners.The skills based mentorship and media opportunities are very much paramount to our team leader.

The team leader needs to have mentorship  on how to survive in entrepreneurship through technology. Technically the leader would be equipped with skills on how the solution can help the marginalized rural and urban communities with youth's and women's voices amplified and participation increased.

Service  Now will also aid in overcoming the financial barrier.With the prize funds at US$100 000, we can be able to buy digital equipment like high- definition broadcasting video cameras. These video cameras can have functions to edit the videos such that they may be used on social media platforms.   

We would be able to buy digital  video cameras for live streaming. Our office may also have office equipment to carry out the business.

The legal barrier will also have be  overcomed because we will now have the funds to register our institution as a private business entity.

The funds will help us to pay at for registration at the public procurement board and join other institutes through registration with them as suppliers of advertising space.

Even the culture barrier would have been avoided through Service Now as we would be consistent and this will help us to unfold our solution. The mentorship strengthens the team to persevere towards the goal of providing free  media to the marginalized rural and urban communities   

We would like to partner with organisations that help us to accelerate our solution.Coca -cola international can be our advertising partner such that we can generate revenue from their adverts and be able to pay our correspondents.

We would like to partner with  International Media Support. They can help us to accelerate our programme as in Zimbabwe they are working with other civic society organisations in media to roll out a programme titled ZimMedia 21 together with Fojo Media Institute and Internews alongside Media Alliance Of Zimbabwe.

We would like to partner international and regional  sports associations  such that we may be our sources of news with press releases.

We would like to partner sports labels like Adidas, Nike , Umbro to mention but a few as we would be having 100% sports news.

We also would like to partner with Information technology companies like Lenovo which has their Lenovo Transform 2020 later this year.The Lenovo Transform 2020 can help us have the insight on the challenges bedeviling entrepreneurs innovating through technology.

We would also want to partner Microsoft so that they can help us with grants to accelerate our programme.