Internews: South Sudan
Case Study
The Community Partner
Our partner organization is Internews in South Sudan; the South Sudan office is one branch of the greater Internews organization. Internews provides trustworthy information and media resources to communities throughout the world. Their goal is to stop the spread of misinformation in locations that lack reliable news outlets. Specifically, Internews in South Sudan has dedicated the last fifteen years to serving in the country by providing its people with trustworthy media outlets. Their perseverance has allowed them to build one of the first radio networks in South Sudan. Today, they passionately continue to execute their goals.
The Team
Who participated in the design and research process?
Our group consists of one fellow and four research consultants. Lexi, our fellow, provides us with guidance and advice that helps us stay on track with the course schedule. Two of our members, Maggie and Vaughn, both have taken B:Social before and so they have been very insightful during the design/research process. Finally, Nicole and Olivia are new to the course. They provide fresh input on our project and have worked well with their fellow group members. All in all, we work very well together!
Who was involved in the project and what were the roles?
There are four research consultants involved in our semester-long project with Internews in South Sudan. Vaughn is the group analyst and co-content creator. He writes analytic memos for our group and works with Nicole to create content for our project. Nicole’s roles are facilitator and co-content creator. Nicole guides our conversations with Internews South Sudan during our bi-weekly meetings. Like Vaughn, Nicole is involved in creating content for our group and project. Maggie is both the notetaker and documentarian. Maggie takes notes based on the conversations in our meetings so that we can reference back to them in the future. As the documentarian, Maggie is in charge of visually documenting any videos or pictures for our group. Finally, Olivia is the organizer and scheduler. As the organizer she tracks the progress of our group. Furthermore, Olivia keeps a calendar for the group and sends out reminders about any important approaching deadlines/dates.
When and where did the project take place?
Our project took place in the Spring semester of 2021. This semester at SJU has been greatly affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but we have found ways to take advantage of the virtual learning environment throughout the completion of our project. As a group, we met virtually two to three times per week, every Tuesday and Thursday, as well as every other Monday with the Internews team. We collaborated through Slack and iMessage to keep in touch, although we could not be physically together during our collaboration.
What was your relationship to the community partner and how was that relationship developed over time?
Our relationship with our community partner changed quite a bit over the course of the semester, mainly because our main point of contact switched during our project. Although this was a major change for our group and presented some confusion at the beginning, it allowed us to develop a relationship and build connections with many different people. Our relationship to our partner was really fundamental to the connections we made, as we met and worked with people residing and working in different countries, including South Sudan, Amsterdam, and Thailand. This gave us a well-rounded viewpoint on the work we are doing.
The Process
What was the collaboration and co-creation process?
Throughout the duration of this project, our group was able to collaborate on everything from coursework to web design ideas for the Internews webpage. This course was held virtually this semester, so we frequently collaborated amongst group members through zoom, meeting twice per week, as well as through chat features such as Slack and iMessage. With our community partner, we met once every other Monday to keep in touch with one another and exchange frequent updates. We got the chance to interact with many employees of Internews South Sudan, but two employees who took the lead on this collaboration were Omnia and Tony. They were so helpful in shaping our understanding of the mission of Internews, the work that South Sudan does, and the meaning of our work together throughout the semester. This co-collaboration helped us to understand the flow of nonprofit work and adapt to changing circumstances so that we were able to achieve a successful partnership. By combining the skills of the Internews staff and our B:Social team, we were able to co-create some great ideas for the living legacy webpage that will live on the Internews Headquarters website.
What was the guiding design/research question?
We actually have three design/research questions that we have referenced back to throughout the semester. However, our guiding design/research question is, “How can we effectively remain loyal to Internews while still focusing on the work in South Sudan?” Throughout our collaboration we experienced what it is like to have to wait for updates from headquarters. In our case we talk directly with Internews South Sudan and then the South Sudan team informs HQ about our meetings. Though we are collaborating with Internews South Sudan, we still have to follow the guidelines provided by Internews headquarters. This process has exposed us to the world of nonprofits in a way that none of us had experienced before. We now understand the structure of non-profit organizations, which has helped us gain a better understanding of what we can and cannot do during our collaboration.
How was the research/design process determined?
Like all strong research projects, when our team set out to meet these goals with the Internews team, we began by coming up with a design question. The original goal of our collaboration was to produce a fully functional website for Internews South Sudan. We determined that the problem we were trying to solve was the South Sudan branch’s lack of platform to showcase and centralize their work. We then considered the information we had about Internews South Sudan, along with the different constraints and solutions that we thought could potentially address our design question. We ended up framing our design question as three questions: (1) How can we spread information about what Internews South Sudan does? (2) How can we promote the integrity of news/information in South Sudan? (3) How can we effectively remain loyal to Internews while focusing on the work in South Sudan? These three questions helped shape all of our work with Internews for the remainder of the semester.
What were some of the challenges of the research/design process?
Throughout the project, we faced some challenges which affected our research and design processes. Things did not always go as planned, but we learned to adapt quickly in order to make this a productive and mutually beneficial partnership. One challenge that we faced was the variability in the Internews organization. Because we were working with a branch of a headquartered organization, there were frequently delays and changes in information. These changes were challenging at times, but they were a fundamental part of this partnership and they taught us as students how to adapt quickly and practice flexibility.
What values/mindsets/principles/theories guided your work?
Internews South Sudan had an incredibly large impact on the news scene in the country. South Sudan struggles daily with widespread misinformation, and Internews and its partners gives citizens of the country access to reliable and trustworthy news. We were sure to make sure that our information we were showing was accurate, and from now on, we have become even more aware of fake news and misinformation spreading throughout the media. The importance of reliable and trustworthy news, especially during a global pandemic and a time of heightened racial tension, is something we have worked more on during this project. These values will continue to live on in later works. Showcasing the importance of this large impact as part of their living legacy was crucial to this project, and was at the forefront of our thought processes throughout the course of the semester.
Did these values evolve or deepen during the course of this project?
We all know how widespread fake news can be. We all know that we should be checking information before we share it online and on social media. However, as Americans, we have regular access to information. We have to sort through misinformation regularly, but we still are able to find reliable sources and know the latest information during crucial times. During this project, we have learned more about our privilege of having access to this information in our country. Our thoughts on misinformation evolved. We are not only lucky to have reliable information; we are lucky to have quick and easy information at all. This thought makes it even more important to showcase the impact that Internews and its partners have had in South Sudan as their project concludes.
The Results
Who benefitted from the project? What kind of impact did the project have?
The primary beneficiaries of this project will be the South Sudan branch of Internews. We have spent the last couple of months gathering information and conducting analysis for Internews to enhance their social media and determine what they want their legacy story to entail. We’ve held a number of meetings that included an exchange of ideas and suggestions about how to reach desired goals. These meetings have been beneficial for both sides, as the Internews team has learned new methods of analysis and ways to improve their social media strategies while our team has learned how to navigate working with a partner that has a third party to report to. This project will also shine a light on how the people of South Sudan have benefited from the branch through their efforts to share accurate information and maintain the integrity of news.
Who was harmed or potentially harmed from it?
The only harm done in the process of this collaboration was on the element of time. The unfortunate thing about these collaborations is that they are limited in duration, which becomes a major factor when an organization’s headquarters is also involved. Our B:Social team and the Internews team worked diligently to come up with possibilities for what a final product could include but the Internews team had to wait to hear back from HQ in certain instances. This shortens the time frame they have to relay new ideas/information to our team as well as shortening the amount of time we have to work on the project itself. This of course has led to reshuffling plans and altering target dates as we continue to work on finding a feasible goal to complete in time. This likely means that not every goal will be met by the end of this term, but we have created alternative options for the project to be seen through to its completion and the steps to take in the interim that will allow a seamless transition from one term to the next. When taking B:Social, we’re advised to expect the project to change direction at some point and make adjustments accordingly, and this adjustment in timeline limits the harm done.
How does the project live on?
This project lives on in the form of a research hub that was requested by the Internews team. This hub will reside on the Internews HQ site detailing the legacy and impact the South Sudan branch has had on the community. The field work we have done will be turned over to the Internews team to aid them in their work with the branch for the remainder of the project’s existence. B:Social is also working to find ways of continuing this project throughout Summer 2021,using B:Social interns that will take what we’ve accomplished with Internews thus far and expand upon it to reach the originally desired goals set at the beginning of our collaboration.