Reporting C VID-19
Young Sri Lankan Women Journalists in Action
COVID-19 AFFECTED THE LIVELIHOOD OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN SRI LANKA, AS ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD, REGARDLESS OF THEIR SOCIAL STATUS AND ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES. UNTIL THE COUNTRY SLOWLY RE-OPENED, SEVERAL MAINSTREAM MEDIA AND HUNDREDS OF WEBCASTING SITES WERE REGULARLY REPORTING ON HOW PEOPLE ARE DEALING WITH COVID-19. A LARGE NUMBER OF YOUNG WOMEN MOBILE JOURNALISTS WERE INVOLVED IN REPORTING THE PANDEMIC SITUATION FROM VARIOUS PARTS OF SRI LANKA.
At least 20 young women mobile journalists were actively involved in reporting the impact of COVID 19 in rural communities in Sri Lanka. They produced at least 50 mobile journalism (Mojo) stories to the news magazine programme Mediacorps Watch produced by the Centre for Media and Information Literacy (CMIL) and Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum (SDJF).
SDJF and CMIL produced 50 Mediacorps Watch news magazine programmes from April 25,highlighting how people were dealing with COVID-19 and countering disinformation and providing authentic information required for the rural communities to stay safe during the period.
Young women mobile journalists who had already been trained by SDJF, under its Mediacorps fellowship programme, produced a series of stories, live updates, expert interviews amidst health hazards and practical challenges.
Young women followed regular security and safety guidance from SDJF, WHO and government taking extra care about themselves, maintaining social distance, establishing communication with the state and non-state stakeholders and continuing their reporting.
Most of their stories were on the impact of the lockdown and curfew situation on rural and marginalized communities. Some female journalists produced stories about the affected populations, some interviewed responsible government officers, some produced photographs, some provided live coverage and some helped to produce more authentic and verified information.
Nirasha, a young journalist, produced a series of stories about workers from rural areas who were trapped in Colombo’s construction sites without access to food and medicine.one of her stories attracted close to 200,000 views, nearly 5,000 shares, and close to 500 comments on social media.
Further, her compelling stories not only paved the path for donors to help these trapped labourers but also enabled the news magazine reporters to send the message to the relevant government authorities to take action on behalf of all the people and labourers who were trapped in Colombo.
"At the begining even the police were not optimistic to respond to a female journalist walking down the street for reporting. But observing the young ones giving due consideration to health precautions that were approved by WHO, they gave their full cooperation to continue reporting” said Nirasha.
Ahalya David, another young journalist produced a series of stories and live situation analysis from the Eastern part of Sri Lanka. Her stories focused mostly on the effect of COVID-19 situation around women. One of her story about women who use oysters shells to make the powder attracted 19,000viewers. Another story on a farmer who is the only person who grows Beetroot in Batticaloa district attracted 11k viewers. Ahalya produced a number of stories about some individuals who are involved in home gardening for their livelihood including a story on a farmer who cultivated vegetables and cherries on the rooftop.
"COVID-19 is an extremely unusual and challenging situation for us. Even under normal situations, we are not allowed to travel a long distance, be amongst the people, involve in reporting.”
Sumithy Thangarasa,one of the very few journalists working from Jaffna highlighted in her stories how families are struggling to access basic livelihoods in Jaffna during the curfew. In addition, the news about a Swiss Father of Philadelphia Church in Jaffna was viewed by a large audience. Taking a step further covering this story,she submitted an official report of the incident to the Director-general of Jaffna General Hospital.
Sharing her experience, she mentioned that "even I was in a situation about my safety to find stories during an epidemic that has threatened the entire world. I confronted these challenges over a passion for reporting. There are very few women journalists in Jaffna. And it was a valuable experience for me to be a part of the female journalists to contribute to this kind of reporting without fear.”
This Fellowship programme has provided necessary knowledge, skills and courage for large number of young women to produce multi-media stories using smartphones. The mobile application such as “Kinemaster" had given abundant opportunities effectively to film, edit and disseminate their stories.
Kalawarshini Kanagaratnam is a journalist living in the congested city of Maradana. With the mainstream media continually focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on big businesses at the national level, Kalavarshini's creative mind ran into a small community in a slum area who are engaged in a traditional way of washing clothes. This story highlighted the fears and the concerns of underprivileged communities who have no income or government support and yet do not get the attention of mainstream media. Several other stories produced by young women journalists focused on the impact of COVID -19 on local industries .
Prabhasha Chithrangani, who lives in Monaragala, is a student of the Department of Journalism at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
“I was overwhelmed by the response which I received from reporting on the visually impaired cricket team in Sri Lanka” said Prabhasha. The story reached many viewers and highlighted the difficulties faced by the visually challenged cricketers in continuing the sports due to the present situation” she said.
Manushi Jayasena is a multimedia journalist living in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka. Her reporting specializes in hidden villages in Matara District. She was able to report the impact of COVID-19 on the people of such remote villages from time to time. She captured two stories; one about brick makers and the other one about farmers who were fighting against the odds to supply their crops to the nation’s food supply chain.
Parineetha Puneetharasa is a multimedia journalist who lives in Batticaloa and studies at the University of Jaffna. Praneetha indicated her experience in reporting COVID-19. "Everyone in my village was in a state of a shock of Covid-19. At that time, it was impossible to even think of going out to find stories in the village. Though my family was against it, one time I went out to capture images and to find stories of the impact of COVID-19 in our rural village. Taking every step forward, I put all the challenges behind and went out, which gave me opportunities to explore my village indepth to find stories.”
Praneetha reported about a group of fishermen, including women who had come to Batticaloa for off season fishing and couldn’t return to their hometown. They got trapped in 'Kirankulam' due to the curfew and managed to put up a temporary shelter on the beach to survive. This story reached around 19K viewers.
A story about how COVID-19 has affected the livelihood of women involved in traditional sewing from Eraur highlighted difficulties in continuing their job. A young mobile journalist Kundavi Sivapalan produced this story. Similarly, a young Journalist Kalavarshini highlighted the difficulties faced by an elderly family that is involved in maintaining a small laundry shop. The story highlighted how the family lost its customer base and therefore, their regular income. Silmiya Yousuf, in her story, highlighted how Coconut is being sold at a different price in different regions.
Conclusion
As per the initial assessment conducted by the SDJF and CMIL, it was observed that the Mediacorps Watch programme, supported by IREX and funded by USAID reached more than 1.5 Million online audiences in Sri Lanka providing a significant opportunity for the young women mobile-journalists in Sri Lanka to prove their capability to address the issues faced by them and as well as their communities.
“COVID-19 is an extremely unusual and challenging situation for us. Even under normal situations, we are not allowed to travel long distance..” “Even the police were not optimistic to respond to a female journalist walking down the street for reporting. But observingt the young ones giving due consideration to health precautions that were approved by WHO, they gave their full cooperation to continue reporting” “Even I was in a situation about my safety to find stories during an epidemic that has threatened the entire world. I confronted these challenges over a passion for reporting” “This story highlighted the fears and the concerns of underprivileged communities who have no income or government support” “I was overwhelmed by the response which I received from reporting on the visually impaired cricket team in Sri Lanka ” “Everyone in my village was in a state of a shock of Covid-19. At that time, it was impossible to even think of going out to find stories in the village ”