What Is KHULANI!
Khulani publishes feature stories from and for South African youth, and is an agency for re-publication of these stories to provide wider coverage and understanding of the realities of youth in South Africa.
Where are we BASED?
Khulani! is a project of the Department of Media and Communication of Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, Eastern Cape.
How are WE FUNDED?
This initiative is funded by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) through a University Capacity Development Programme (UCDP).
Why Is KHULANI! IMPORTANT?
The majority (39%) of South Africa’s population are youth between the ages of 14-35 (Stats SA 2011). Youth are in different life stages (high school, higher education, adulting) but have different needs and interests. Research has shown youth interests and ideas are often ignored or marginalised to issues of urban youth, and those involving education or crime in ways that may misrepresent youth identity and limit agency to reshape South Africa. This is significant to achieve inclusive social development.
Why is Khulani! IMPORTANT to the media industry?
While media bemoan their lack of young readers and subscribers, there is a lack of understanding of this diverse demographic and representation of their interests. Khulani! makes youth stories about themselves available to youth and a wider audience to expand the narrative and build audiences. Globally, there is recognition that access to technology has enabled ‘peripheral journalism actors’ including bloggers, data scientists, technologists and even campus media. These actors are becoming significant to help fill the gaps in coverage and representation of geographic and sometimes specialised communities that are referred to as ‘news deserts’.
How Do We Use GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ?
This media project is the first local of its kind to innovate with radical transparency which declares how artificial intelligence has been used at any level of the story production process: from ideation, to fact-checking, headline writing, tag generation, summarising, copy-editing or rewriting. This is to help maintain transparency, trust and accountability as GenAi itself a particular form of knowledge source with its own affordances, accuracy limitations and bias. The declarations also attempts to educate the public how Ai is integrated into editorial processes in different ways and to help readers respect the authenticity of original journalism. We believe this will help develop best standards and practices for our students who will work in journalism and content creation fields.
I AM A PUBLISHER or BLOGGER. How do I use content from this site?
The stories on this site are available under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license. We merely ask that you a) use the author byline b) backlink to us at the end of the story. In the following form: “This article was originally published by Khulani!“. The licensing of content under an Attribution-Non-Commercial International deed is to ensure the circulation of youth-generated and focused journalism, the fostering of academic and student linkages with digital publishers.
Who publishes student-driven youth digital journalism?
Our youth digital stories has been shared by a digital publishers and syndication partners including:
Health4Mzansi
Successful Journals
Yo-School Mag
041-Online
MyPE & MyZA
StudentLivingSA
Food4Mzansi
GoodThingsGuy
RugbySearch
Ethics & Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed on this website are those of the sources and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Khulani!, Nelson Mandela University or the entities the source represents. This publication subscribes to the South Africa Press Council’s Code of Ethics and Conduct. Any editorial breaches should be reported to the editor. Serious breaches can be reported to the Press Council for arbitration at enquiries@ombudsman.org.za