journalism Archives

March 18, 2022

The collaboration with Footballco is an extension of last season’s association

HONG KONG, Hong Kong, March 17, 2022/APO Group/ —

Inspired by the success of last season, TECNO Mobile (www.TECNO-Mobile.com) and Manchester City FC have once again partnered with Footballco, in their pursuit to find two football enthusiasts from the media fraternity. Footballco is the world’s largest football content creation and media strategists’ entity. As a part of this campaign, journalists from India will be offered an opportunity to work as trainee correspondents and write for Footballco’s GOAL website, covering the reigning Premier League Champions. The content created by the trainees will be published across GOAL’s global and Indian editions, as well as social channels with a reach of over 57 million.

TECNO Mobile is Manchester City’s Official Global Tablet and Handset Partner. TECNO has been partnering with Manchester City to run CSR projects in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia for successive years to provide local communities with technological education programs and creative football interactions.

The collaboration with Footballco is an extension of last season’s association, which resulted in two trainee reporters creating more than 368 pieces of content, which reached more than 34 million fans and generated 5.6 million video views.

The trainees created content with Manchester City’s first-team players Riyad Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus and Aymeric Laporte, as well as Manchester City legends.

This year, content created by the trainees will be published across GOAL’s global and Indian editions and social channels, which reach an audience of 57 million each month in India and provide valuable experience to young trainee journalists looking to break into the highly competitive field of football journalism.

Andy Jackson, VP Global Football Partnerships at Footballco said: “This campaign provides so much, not just for Manchester City and TECNO Mobile but for the young fans who will get the chance to not only cover their favourite team but to also acquire lifelong skills by working on writing, creating video content and planning from GOAL’s teams of local and global journalists.

“It’s also a huge compliment to work with the club and TECNO again after such a successful campaign last season that made a real difference to those taking part.”

Stephen HA, Managing Director of TECNO Mobile said: “We are thrilled to see the success of last season’s campaign and initiate the campaign for the second consecutive year together with Manchester City and GOAL. It not only inspires but also cements our total commitment to always motivate and provide genuine support to young people in global emerging markets to take challenges, to find creative ways to achieve their potential and to never stop pursuing excellence.”

Sai Prashanth Nataraj, GOAL India’s Trainee Manchester City Correspondent from 2021 said: “From talking to Manchester City legends Shaun Goater and Richard Dunne to interviewing Aymeric Laporte – these have been some truly once-in-a-lifetime moments.”

To enter the contest, fans are tasked with creating a 60-second video about Man City’s forthcoming match against Liverpool on 9th April.

Fans will be able to submit their applications from Monday, March 14th until 27th March when the application process closes.

July 17, 2019

Emphasis made on Labour Migration as one of the key issues that needs further research and review

The Community Development Services (CDS) together with Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation in Sri Lanka and OMG Public Relations of the Omnicom Media Group Sri Lanka and supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in Sri Lanka, conducted a sensitization programme for journalists and writers on Development Journalism and how it can be applied in reporting social issues such as labour migration.

Presenting at the workshop, Andrew Samuel of CDS pointed out the need for journalists to be activists and advocates in their reporting that will lead to the accountability and responsibility of the respective stakeholders and duty bearers. In an era when disinformation and fake news are prominent, it is crucial to reinforce development journalism with a view to influence and advocate for the change that the society needs — Sri Lanka at this very moment in history requires such activism from scribes. Writers of this caliber bring evidence into their stories, which are results of ethical and unbiased investigation. They are also accountable for what they pen down. Most importantly, these journalists will see the bigger picture and see humanity when writing about social, economic and political issues.

Despite being a prominent contributor to the economy of Sri Lanka, Labour migration is a topic that has not received sufficient attention through the quality of reporting in mainstream media. Foreign remittances play a large role in Sri Lanka’s economy. In 2017, remittances recorded were USD 7.1 billion, which accounted for over 8% of the GDP according to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Remittances were also the highest foreign exchange earner ahead of apparel exports and tourism earnings in the same year. At a micro level, 1 in every 14 households receive foreign remittances, thus having a significant input to the country.

Within its five stages; pre-migration, pre-departure, in-service, return and reintegration and remigration, labour migration involves multiple stakeholders, institutions, laws, regulations, and duty bearers. Politically, it has implications on rights protection, diplomacy, regional and global commitments, and conventions. Its economic association is seen and not limited to remittances, skills enhancement, brain-gain and economic reintegration. The larger and more humane effect takes place socially under migrant rights, families left behind, health, gender issues and social equity. A plethora of issues can be discussed in relation to labour migration, some which are less spoken of, such as policies, acts and conventions, migrant rights, skills development, trafficking of persons, forced labour and modern slavery, migration status, reintegration, migrant health, voting rights and governance in migration.

Those present were directed to sources of information pertaining to labour migration collaborated by Helvetas and the ILO. An invitation was extended to journalists to mark this as a turning point in actively engaging with social, political and economic issues and reinforcing media ethics in being advocates and activists who would genuinely speak for the people.

Manchester City and TECNO Mobile Collaborate with Footballco to Identify Two Football Enthusiasts from the Field of Journalism

Journalists urged to take a ‘Development Journalism’ stance in reporting social issues