IMC is an annual media challenge for Universities/Institutes offering Journalism and Mass Communication as a major course in Uganda. The premise of IMC is to create a platform for aspiring journalists to exhibit their skills and talents but above all to expose their talents to media houses for possible employment opportunities. IMC is premised on three categories; News anchoring and reporting, essay writing and photography competitions. The Media Challenge aims at skilling the aspiring journalists, preparing them for jobs and promoting professional journalism and ethical reporting among them.
TV SYNOPSIS FOR THE NEWS ANCHORING AND REPORTING COMPETITION
Based on the concept of replicating a live-TV studio situation on stage, the Media Challenge will pit university students against each other to determine the best news anchor and reporter. Students will be tasked to produce a news bulletin. This year’s challenge will require students to replicate what happens in a TV newsroom by; identifying a camera man, editor, reporters and anchors to produce a news bulletin. Students shall gather their own stories, record them, voice them, write their own news script and present it in a real studio setting. Each university will send their best news anchor and a bulletin based on the stories covered by their reporters. The Anchor will be recorded presenting the prepared bulletin in a real TV studio (NTV). Students will be guided to edit their complete work and present them to the organizers. All the recorded work will be unveiled for mass viewing on large screen before judges during the grand-finale on the 21st November 2015 at the Conference Hall, Office of the President.
The Awards Night
On the2 5th December 2015, in a grand red carpet, black tie event, students shall receive their awards. This night will bring together media practitioners and students to celebrate and receive their awards since the same night is the launch of the Media Night Awards awarding the mainstream Media. Nominations and voting for this category shall be done online.
Grand Prize
The Best News Anchor in the media challenge wins a 1 year contract with NTV Uganda. Other awards include Glass Awards, Certificates of participation for all participants and other goodies from sponsors
Judgment Criteria
Judgment will be based on the following: content, voice quality (vitality and pace), diction and phonetic, pronunciation, pace and flair, articulation, posture, countenance, intonations, time management, Body language, style (identity, image, and creativity), eye contact and stage organization. In terms of production, judges will be looking out for best camera work and best edited work of the day.
Awards
The winning News teams for both Luganda and English will walk away with the IMC Trophy. The Best News Anchors for both English and Luganda stand a chance to win a 1 year contract with NTV. We shall also award reporters under their beat categories like; Best Health Reporter, Best Sports Reporter, Best Environment Reporter, Best Political Reporter, Best Business Reporter, Best Entertainment Reporter, Best Media Watch Analyst, and Best Technology Reporter. The 3 best essays and photos will also receive awards. We shall also award the best camera work and best editor.
SUPPLEMENTARY CATEGORIES:
Category 2: IMC Cancer Essay Writing Competition
At the beginning of this year, the media fraternity in Uganda lost three media icons in Dan Kyazze, Bbale Francis and Rose Mary Nankabirwa to different kinds of cancer. The experience and knowledge of these media icons can never be replaced. Both Dan Kyazze and Bbale Francis had for the last two years been leading our incredible team of news anchoring judges for Luganda and English news respectively in this Media Challenge. The three media icons represent over 20,000 people who die annually from cancer related illnesses. According to the Uganda Cancer Institute 22,000 cases of cancer are received annually, of these 20,000 die within the year, which means the survival rate for cancer patients is very low. This of course is attributed to late diagnosis or people being ignorant that they have cancer. Simply put people lack the relevant information about cancer which brings in the role of the media in sensitizing and educating the masses about cancer. The media is obligated to provide information that is central to helping the public learn about the disease, defining the norms of acceptable behavior and information on prevention and treatment of the disease.
In this year’s Essay Writing Challenge, students are tasked to write a feature story on a theme “Know about Cancer: Increasing knowledge and awareness about cancer challenges in Uganda” NOT exceeding 1,500 words. The essays can range from basic information for cancer diagnosis, prevention and treatment, the economics of cancer, systematic inequalities like lack of infrastructure, donor funding for cancer, personal experiences as a patient and caregiver, surviving cancer to stigma associated with cancer. We are looking for writers who demonstrate the authentic ability to create awareness about cancer highlighting the role of the media in providing health and educational information. We want essays that make the case for cancer awareness and also influence the reader to act. The purpose of this essay competition is to engage students into contributing solutions to the cancer epidemic. The best 3 articles will be rewarded. Please submit your essay by 6th November 2015.
Essay submission rules
• Write a feature story not exceeding 1500 words. Entries must only be in English.
• The story must be on a theme : “know about cancer: increasing knowledge and awareness about cancer challenges in Uganda”
• Contestants are required to submit their stories by 6th November 2015
• Submit both hard and an e-copy to (globalmediaenterprise@gmail.com)
• Only five entries will be allowed from each University
• The story must be original and un-published plus any sign of plagiarism will be detected.
• Essay must be saved and named under the student name and name of the university
• Essay must include the title of the essay and student’s name as a by-line
Category 3: IMC Cancer Awareness Photography Challenge
Our 3rd Category, is more than just a photography challenge, it is also an advocacy campaign geared towards raising cancer awareness in Uganda. This year’s theme is “Know about Cancer: increasing knowledge and awareness about cancer challenges in Uganda.” The task is take a picture that depicts children/child in a special and joyful moment of their life illustrating innocence and happiness that would appeal to the public to act against cancer robbing such children of their lives and special moments. The students must form a photography team of 5 people and submit 10 photos. Each and every photo submitted MUST have either of the two hastags #Don’tLetCancerInterruptLife #EarlyCancerDiagnosisSavesLife or #Don’tLetCancerWintheGame #EarlyCancerDiagnosisSavestheGame. Realizing the power of photography and this advocacy campaign, submitted photos should be able to create awareness about the cancer epidemic but also influence the audience to act. Students can participate in both the individual and team category to compete for the best photo and Best photography team awards respectively. This calls for high level of imagination and creativity. Please submit your photographs by 6th November 2015.
Photos Submission Rules
• IMCIndividual Category: Individual students can submit 2 photos under the Best Photo award following the theme and instructions of the competition as listed below
• IMCTeamCategory: Form a photography and advocacy team comprising of 5 students who are passionate about photography
• Each member takes 2 different photos that depict children/child in a special and joyful moment of their life illustrating innocence and happiness
• Each and every photo submitted MUST have either of the two hastags: #Don’tLetCancerInterruptLife #EarlyCancerDiagnosisSavesLife or
#Don’tLetCancerWintheGame #EarlyCancerDiagnosisSavestheGame
• Photos must be saved and named by names of the submitting student, category title, and names of their universities. For example Name (Joseph …….), Individual category, Name of the University
• Photo must be original and unpublished, in other words it must have been taken by a contestant in a place that can be traced in Uganda. Creativity and uniqueness of photo will be a major plus.
• Each team will have 10 minutes to make a case for their campaign live on stage and call people to action on 21st November 2015.
• Submit an e-copy to (globalmediaenterprise@gmail.com)
• Photos submitted must be in digital formats in JPEG
• The maximum file size is 10mb per photo.
• Captions are critical. Each photo must be accompanied with a short conceptualisation caption (maximum 300 words) describing what is taking place in the picture and relating it to the theme and hastags. Well-written captions are needed so that judges understand the context of the image.
