The Malcolm X Global Digital Media Fellows Program
Apply to Our Program for Emerging Journalists and Storytellers Around the World
Ummah Wide, Built to Tell Our Own Stories
5 months ago we launched Ummah Wide out into the world with the intention of changing the story about Muslims globally. We knew this wouldn’t happen by creating any publication but instead with a publication focused on excellence in writing, design, journalistic integrity and editorial vision. The response to what we have built has been amazing, our articles have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. We have worked with more than 40 authors from ten countries, and our site has been visited by people all over the planet.
Today we stand at a crossroads that is largely a crisis of image and perception which is controlled by global mainstream media companies. This is an image of how we are seen in the world, it is the image we have of one another and in many ways it is an image of how we see ourselves. It is one image primarily because only one set of stories are being told. We launched Ummah Wide to change this story, and with each article and magazine we publish we are changing the narrative with our focus on what is new, next and relevant across the world. We cannot be satisfied with just having our voices appearing once or twice a year in mainstream media publications, we must tell our own stories.
As Linda Sarsour, one of our great public spokespeople for Muslims in the United States said so clearly about Ummah Wide,
“I swear that when my piece was published on UMMAH WIDE, I felt more elated and excited than when I get something in the New York Times!”
The Malcolm X Global Digital Media Fellows Program
In launching this program, we think first of this famous picture of a young Minister Malcolm X standing on the streets of Harlem selling Muhammad Speaks, the newspaper he built into a major publication. Malcolm knew that to change the story he had to create a platform to tell the story of his people. We have named this fellowship in Malcolm X’s honor knowing that we must change the story by training our community how to most effectively used the digital media techniques of our age. The importance of telling our own stories cannot be overemphasized, as the social innovator and poet Mark Gonzales has expressed so clearly,
“A culture that is not in control of their own narrative will forever live at the mercy of another’s pen.”
We are ready to take Ummah Wide to the next level and to do this we need to grow into a truly global company that is telling the stories from across the world that are ignored every day. Starting this May, we are going to launch our first Malcolm X Global Digital Media Fellows Cohort where we are going to work with 100 aspiring digital media storytellers to dive deep into storytelling and digital media techniques. We are going to livestream and record this nine week class for our global class of fellows, that we believe will result in 300 plus articles and short video pieces from all over the world.
Many young people have a desire to tell their own stories but we are only trained in our school systems how to write academic and opinion essays. This does not translate into the fast-paced and visual world of digital media. In this 9-week class we will host some of the top digital media leaders in our community as we explore different topics every week. As the fellowship progresses over the summer the Ummah Wide digital media fellows will be expected to submit 2–3 publishable pieces per week from their region of the world. The class schedule is as follows:
Week 1: An Introduction to the New World of Digital Media & The State of Muslims in Digital Media
Week 2: Writing, Editing and Production for Digital Media
Week 3: Visioning and Ideation for Digital Media Projects
Week 4: Story Telling and Story Based Media Strategy
Week 5: On Demand Media — Camera Phone Film Making, Photography, and Podcasts
Week 6: Story Telling for Social Media
Week 7: PR and Media Relations
Week 8: Online Organizing and Campaigning
Week 9: Native Advertising and the Business of Digital Media
It is our hope to be able to hire some of these digital media fellows as regional editorial leads as we continue to grow as a high growth digital media company. Our goal by 2016 is to have our website, apps and a suite of social media channels that are visited by millions of users from throughout the world every day.
This global digital media company will be focused on the emerging generation of global Muslims who share many similarities in their cultural and lifestyle tastes. Our major disruption is that there is no news or marketplace doing this, all of our competitors are regionalized and focus almost exclusively on religion, rather than the lifestyle and cultures of Muslim throughout the world. We believe this emerging culture of the global Muslim is a reality shared across lifestyles and cultures from San Francisco to Abu Dhabi to London, Lagos and Kuala Lumpur. This is the global Muslim majority and we have to tell this story or no one will.
How You Can Help
We believe that it will truly take an Ummah to build this company and we are turning to you our community to help us to continue to grow in our early stage as a company. There are 2ways you can help:
1. APPLY TO THE UMMAH WIDE DIGITAL MEDIA FELLOWSHIP: (Coming Soon)
2. WRITE, SHOOT, CREATE: We are always looking for new pieces for Ummah Wide and talented writers, editors and filmmakers to work with. Want to learn more? You can check out our call for submissions here:
For more stories from Ummah Wide click our Logo below
Sign up for our Weekly Email Newsletter Here
Follow Ummah Wide: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin | Soundcloud
Support our crowdfunding campaign to build the Malcolm X Global Digital Media Fellowship Program:
