Visibility Project/Women in Media

Background

Women are underrepresented on the internet and in the media. This is not because they do not have the capacity but because many of them needs to be adequately supported in their career. Building capacity for these women are the priorities of the Africa Women in Media and the Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc.. This year we want to train women in media across Africa on how to effectively write contents from a neutral point of view, understand the basic of copyright in reporting, and how to collaborate with peers. Participants will be trained on how to contribute to Wikipedia, the world's largest online encyclopedia, and Wikimedia Commons, one of the largest repository of media files.

Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation and based on a model of openly editable content. It is the world's largest online encyclopedia, written collaboratively by anonymous volunteers. It was created in 2001 and as of 2015, it had recorded over 375 million visitors to the website. Wikipedia exists in over 310 languages.

Objectives

The overarching aim of this collaborative project is to increase the number of African women profiled on Wikipedia by adding an average of 330 profiles per quarter.

The objectives therefore are:

To showcase the lives of remarkable African women who have demonstrated expertise relating to our three thematic areas. Showcasing them to a global audience in order to reflect the realities and lived experiences of the African women behind these successes.
To inspire others by disrupting the gendered stereotyping of African women and demonstrating their contributions to key African issues and agendas.
To train female journalists and wikipedia contributors on encyclopedic approaches to writing that contribute in-depth background reporting on the women behind the stories, thus making it easier for Wikipedians worldwide to create profiles for African women.

Concept note

The problems

Of the approx. 90 million Nigerian women, only 1,500 (0.002 per cent) of these women are profiled on Wikipedia;
Less than 20% of this 0.002% have their photographs on Wikipedia under Creative Commons. This impacts the work of journalists, issues around trust and creative license. The project seeks to explore ways of encouraging the release of photos;
Only 1 in 10 Wikipedia contributors in Nigeria is a woman.

The solutions

Increasing the number of African women visible on Wikipedia;
Encourage journalists to do more in-depth reporting on African women, telling the story of the person behind the story;
Train female contributors and journalists on writing in an encyclopedic tone, and especially on women working in the following fields:
- Security in Africa; Technology, particularly the fourth industrial revolution; and
- Media.

Approach

We will work in partnership with a selected number of media, and women focused organisations, from which a selection of Wikipedians and journalists will be participants.
Training events will be organised in central locations to facilitate participation from neighbouring such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda and Burundi states;
Monthly editathons will be held following each zoned training, during which wikipedia profiles will be created;
An award system will serve as an incentive for Wikipedian and journalistic contributors. Articles submitted to Wikipedia by participants will be reviewed by a jury monthly.

Scope of work

Webinar Session: Five (5) online Wikipedia hands-on training will focus on different areas of the Wikipedia module. Details of focused areas are listed in the table above.
Virtual Mentoring Class: The mentoring class will be hosted via a communication platform e.g. WhatsApp, Telegram, or any other popular communication platform. The class will coordinate the engagement of activities between mentors and mentees.
Edit-a-thon: We plan a 5-day writing competition on Labor Migration in Africa. The competition will focus on African Women in the Workforce in Africa and Diaspora.

Project Timelines/ Work Plan

Activities	Specific Activities	Timelines	Expected Outcomes	Remarks
Self Pace Awareness	Collation of Resources Release of content under CC-BY-SA Design and launch of Program dashboard for measuring Project metrics Design of project landing page (Meta) Registration of participants on and off-wiki. Call for participation Social media engagement (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)	1 November – 10 November, 2021
Live Training	Basic Wikipedia Editing and How to Cite a Wikipedia Article Wikimedia Commons: Licenses and the Use of Freely Licensed Images on Wikipedia Work-Flow of Creating Wikipedia page> Cheatsheet of Wikipedia Editing Application of Neutral Point of View (NPOV) on Wikipedia	15 – 19 November, 2021	The Virtual Training will take place concurrently in English, Arabic and French and it will focus on basic modules on Wikipedia (hands-on)	Duration (2hrs) per Webinar session. Each session will be recorded and make available before the next session on the landing page
Mentorship Class	Attending to feedbacks resulting from the virtual training Allocation of assignment to students Tracking of articles Review and correction of articles before publishing to avoid harassment of newbies on-wiki and speedy deletion of articles	22 – 26 November 2021	The following modules are expected to be covered: Wikipedia Essentials Editing Basic Evaluating Article and Sources Sandbox and Mainspace Sources and Citation Plagiarism + Copyright Violation Editing Journalism Tools Contributing Images and Media Files
Editathon	New editors to create their account before the event (if it has not been earlier created) Assign an event creator for the event Participants to sign up to the event dashboard Revision of all submitted names to confirm their notability status. Participants are assigned with names that satisfy Wikipedia's notability guidelines Articles review by a mentor before publication	29 – 3 December 2021	At least over 50 articles about African women within the space of women in the media in Africa will be created on Wikipedia At least over 30 participants will become Wikipedian editors

Webinar Sessions

S/n	Agenda	Date	Time (WAT)	Facilitator
1	Five Pillars of Wikipedia, The Cheatsheet of Wikipedia Editing and Wikipedia Notability	15 November 2021	4pm-6pm	Ayokanmi Oyeyemi
2	Application of Neutral Point of View in a Wikipedia article (NPOV) and Text Copyright	16 November 2021	4pm-6pm	User:Princess of Ara
3	Basic Wikipedia Editing and How to Cite a Wikipedia Article	17 November 2021	4pm-6pm	Princess of Ara
4	Work-Flow of Creating Wikipedia page	18 November 2021	4pm-6pm	Ayokanmi Oyeyemi
5	Wikimedia Commons: Licenses and the Use of Freely Licensed Images on Wikipedia	19 November 2021	4pm-6pm	Isaac Olatunde

Webinar sessions

Classes

S/n	Description	Number
1	Class A
2	Class B

Outcome

Name/Username	Articles Published	Articles Improved	Words added	References added
Arel88	Motunrayo Alaka Ruth Osime	Morayo Afolabi-Brown	1936	28
Flowerchilde	Sandra Ndebele Candace Mwakalyelye	Rebecca Chisamba	850	4
IamMide	Laila Johnson-Salami Bukola Samuel-Wemimo	Lamide Akintobi Fade Ogunro	2181	24
Infotrackeronline	Amina Yuguda Hannah Ojo Ajakaiye Siene-Alwell Brown Funmi Wakama	Funke Egbemode Stella Din-Jacob	1562	42
Iniabasialive	-	-	-	-
Ini John-Mekwa	Olusola Momoh Angela Emuwa Stella Din-Jacob	Maupe Ogun Peace Anyiam-Osigwe Ijeoma Nwaogwugwu	4356	32
JCJokejournalist	Tundun Abiola\| Lizzy Evoeme	Bimbo Oloyede Moji Makanjoula Oluremi Oyo	1406	16
Kay Kayzee	Tobore Ovuorie FK Abudu	Dayo Amusa Nadine Ibrahim	1434	22
Nansubuga madinah		Josephine Karungi	8	-
Amanda Ellen Nicola Jojo	Yvvone Mangunda Kudzai Violet Gwara	Haru Mutasa Tami Moyo	1065	14
Yourmmy	Sonia Irabor Ngozi Alaegbu	Abimbola Adelakun Helen Ovbiagele Joke Muyiwa	3049	44

Partners

Project is owned by AWIM
The program was designed by Wikimedia User Group Nigeria