Title
& Description
News Outlet
& Journalist
Date
& Location
MEDIA TYPE
& LENGTH
16 June 2021
United States
Text
1500-3000 Words
All over the country, students are using the internet to call out racism. Young people are publishing open letters, creating Change.org petitions and Google Docs “with lists of racist people in their classes, and usin...
22 April 2021
Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Text
800-1500 Words
In India, where women face high rates of harassment by men but rarely report abuse because they view the police as hostile, the Telangana State Police encouraged more reporting by turning WhatsApp into an anti-harassm...
15 April 2021
Kwale, Kenya
Text
800-1500 Words
As a way to combat unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to prevent further deforestation in Kenya, local rangers are using smartphones, satellite feeds, and global mapping to monitor their forests. The projec...
31 March 2021
Gboko, Nigeria
Text
1500-3000 Words
Maternal Expert Thinking Analyzer is a pilot project to prevent maternal mortality that uses a mobile diagnostic, training, and outreach application to help midwives assess the risk of their patients in rural areas. M...
4 March 2021
United States
Text
1500-3000 Words
State and federal parole officials have rushed during the pandemic to embrace the use of smartphone apps that monitor the location and behavior of a person on parole. The apps and related data analytics save courts mo...
25 February 2021
Zambia
Text
800-1500 Words
StrongMinds Zambia began offering teletherapy, in part due to COVID-19 related restrictions, but also to address the many new stressors that came with the pandemic. Counselors hold group calls with five people twice a...
16 February 2021
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Text
1500-3000 Words
Since its April 2018 founding in Malaysia, the Be My Protector app has enabled interventions in 120 cases of suspected human trafficking, sparked by anonymous reports that its app enables. In about a third of those ca...
10 February 2021
Samalout, Egypt
Text
800-1500 Words
A new government pilot program in Egypt is allowing farmers to use technology to tell them when their soil is dry and how much water it needs, which can aid the country as it navigates its water crisis. Sensors buried...
24 October 2020
Nigeria
Text
800-1500 Words
Fearful and distrustful of corrupt and abusive police forces, Nigerians by the thousands have downloaded locally developed mobile apps like Sety and Aabo to call friends for help during abductions or other emergencies...
22 October 2020
Switzerland
Podcast
Over 15 Minutes
Contact tracing apps have received a lot of attention since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but researchers caution they should be used in conjunction with other tactics and not be relied on to help on their ow...
4 October 2020
Oklahoma, United States
Multi-Media
800-1500 Words
Oklahoma mental health and police agencies supply free tablets to police departments, enabling officers summoned to a mental health crisis to connect on the spot with a licensed mental health professional. The telehea...
19 September 2020
United States
Text
800-1500 Words
Vote Tripling is a get-out-the-vote strategy where volunteers set up outside of polling places, a safer pandemic option, and ask voters to text three friends with a reminder to vote. A randomized trial showed turnout ...
18 September 2020
San Francisco, California, United States
Text
800-1500 Words
Soon after the federal government imposed a second moratorium on evictions, SixFifty, a tech firm, released Hello Landlord, a mobile app for tenants to generate a legally compliant form letter invoking the law with th...
15 September 2020
Brazil
Radio
Over 15 Minutes
Rainforest Connection makes a smartphone app that is part of a system using solar-powered phones in the rainforests of Brazil, Sumatra, Costa Rica, and Peru to stream audio of suspected illegal logging. This system, u...
11 September 2020
Kenya
Text
Over 3000 Words
Mobile banking in Kenya has increased economic mobility for families living in poverty. The mobile money system is not connected to bank accounts, making it accessible to the overwhelming majority of Kenyans who don't...
7 August 2020
Asheville, North Carolina, United States
Text
800-1500 Words
Mental health agencies in North Carolina have partnered with a mobile phone carrier to provide data-enabled smartphones to individuals who lack access to technology during the pandemic. Because this doesn't provide a ...
16 July 2020
South Korea
Video
5-15 Minutes
In South Korea, the government is using smartphone technology, including various independent apps and text messaging, to implement contact tracing. This has enabled the country's economy to avoid a full shutdown. Earl...
11 May 2020
South Sudan
Text
1500-3000 Words
To tell the stories of victims of forced displacement, property destruction, and occupation in South Sudan, a team of journalists devised a phone survey to gauge the extent of the problem. By surveying hard-to-reach p...
27 April 2020
Alberta, Canada
Text
800-1500 Words
An Alberta Health Services’ text messaging service called Text4Hope is giving people text messages to help them cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The texts, written by mental health therapists, use cognitive behavioral...
20 April 2020
Jerusalem, Israel
Text
800-1500 Words
The use of mobile phone technology can aid in contact tracing and the collection of public health data. In Israel, the government’s use of GPS phone locations to trace cases of COVID-19 raised scrutiny regarding priva...
14 April 2020
United States
Text
1500-3000 Words
Significant growth in the availability of text-to-911 technology has meant greater safety for people whose speaking ability or dangerous surroundings prevent them from making voice calls to 911. Various states have us...
North Carolina Health News
Anne Blythe
11 April 2020
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
Text
800-1500 Words
The University of North Carolina's healthcare system is utilizing virtual care centers and mobile communications to more efficiently prioritize potential COVID-19 cases and better track people after they've been teste...
8 April 2020
New York, New York, United States
Text
800-1500 Words
Cell phones are being used as a new tool during the coronavirus pandemic to help people who have lost loved ones to process and cope with their grief. Although mobile therapy platforms and online counseling options ha...
7 April 2020
Alexandria, Virginia, United States
Broadcast TV News
Under 3 Minutes
Connecting to a priest—by video or telephone—can offer relief to those dying alone. The Virginia Theological Seminary and General Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, recently launched Dial-A-Priest, a servic...
The Verge
Kim Lyons
23 March 2020
South Korea
Text
Under 800 Words
Governments across the world are using data from cell phones to better track the movement of those under quarantine restrictions during coronavirus. While each country using this containment strategy is implementing i...
Our issue area taxonomy was adapted from the PCS Taxonomy with definitions by the Foundation Center, which is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International License.
Photos are licensed under Attribution Non Commercial 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license / Desaturated from original, and are credited to the following photographers:
Fondriest Environmental, David De Wit / Community Eye Health, Linda Steil / Herald Post, John Amis / UGA College of Ag & Environmental Sciences – OCCS, Andy B, Peter Garnhum, Thomas Hawk, 7ty9, Isriya Paireepairit, David Berger, UnLtd The Foundation For Social Entrepreneurs, Michael Dunne, Burak Kebapci, and Forrest Berkshire / U.S. Army Cadet Command public affairs
Photos are licensed under Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license, and are credited to the following photographers:
Ra'ed Qutena, 段 文慶, Fabio Campo, City Clock Magazine, Justin Norman, scarlatti2004, Gary Simmons, Kathryn McCallum, and Nearsoft Inc
Photos are licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons license / Desaturated from original, and are credited to the following photographers:
Burak Kebapci and SCY.
Photos are licensed under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) and are credited to the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Conference attendee listening to speaker, Jenifer Daniels / Colorstock getcolorstock.com.
Photo Credit: Kevork Djansezian via Getty Images
Photo Credit: Sonia Narang
