A Meta Journalism Project and BigSpring Case Study of Mobile-First Learning
Journalism has undergone cataclysmic changes on a global level, with the internet and social media making both news—and the people who report it—more accessible than ever.
For all journalists, the complex and swiftly changing nature of journalism can be challenging.
That’s why the Meta Journalism Project developed Facebook Fundamentals for News. Powered by BigSpring, Facebook (News - Alert) Fundamentals for News is a free mobile-first learning program piloted in Bangladesh to train journalists and newsroom teams with the basic skills required to effectively operate on Facebook.
It also helps train journalists with the tools and knowledge to stay safe online.
The Objectives
Facebook had previously partnered with Reuters (News - Alert) to create a free e-learning program. The Reuters Digital Journalism Course, aimed at supporting journalists across Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa to build a strong foundation in digital reporting and editing.
The Facebook Fundamentals for News mobile curriculum, available in both English and Bangla, includes skills on online safety, best practices on Facebook, and how to best leverage video on the platform.
Since social media are the most popular news source among millennials, with 44% reporting daily news consumption on social networks, understanding how to report the news in this social network age is especially critical.
Additionally, technology can provide the path forward to an inclusive and market-centric system that fulfills the promise of skills training for everyone.
The Challenges
Digital skills are the new work currency, but digital learning has largely catered to roles like software engineers, data analysts, and enterprise sales. These are a small fraction of the global workforce.
Online learning has only partly addressed the problem of scale and cost, as high-speed internet and the tools to access it are unevenly distributed across socioeconomic segments .
Online learning also doesn’t provide inclusivity, for much the same reason.
But smartphones and other mobile devices have become so pervasive that mobile-first programs will become the learning and skills-training platforms of the future.
The Strategy
To drive regional and local outreach, Meta partnered with The Centre for Investigative Reporting Sri Lanka (CIR) and Center for Communication Action Bangladesh (C-CAB).
To make the course accessible to journalists and news industry professionals in low bandwidth areas, as well as those on the go in metro areas, Meta partnered with BigSpring, a work readiness platform focuses on moving people from being test-ready to job-ready.
BigSpring uses AI to recommend skills for users to learn, practice, and vet the content they generate, at scale. The content that users generate helps them practice their skills and demonstrate their proficiency. The app doesn’t just award certificates and assume that users are equipped for work; it also measures their proficiency. BigSpring’s customers include companies such as Google (News - Alert), HSBC Tata Steel, and Cisco.
BigSpring’s CEO and founder, World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer and STEM advocate Bhakti Vithalani, believes that the power of mobile, paired with AI, can transform societies by transforming the future of work.
Rather than predicting the jobs of the future, BigSpring creates a platform and deploys AI so that no matter what that pace of change is, no matter how unpredictable and volatile it is, businesses can train people on whatever skills are needed.
The Results
Since launching in 2021, this mobile-first format has helped the Meta Journalism Project reach over 4,000 journalists across Bangladesh, including previously unreached journalists from rural regions.
The learnings from this pilot program will be used to further train journalists in other mobile-first countries, with emphasis on reaching journalists in non-metro, low bandwidth areas.
Increasingly, automation will displace hundreds of millions of workers. It will not necessarily make them unemployable, but they need to be upskilled to move on to better and higher value-added activities. Aided by AI, the scale for creating skilled professionals is unlimited; creating a direct path to progress for everyone.
