Championing Digital Rights, Mutinta Nachengwa’s Journey Post-RNTC training

Since I completed the Digital Media to Counter Hate Speech and Disinformation course in 2023, I have continued to work in the civil society space, with particular focus on digital rights. In my current role of Communications and Engagements lead, I am working with multicultural teams across the region to upskill digital rights professionals, as well as solidify networks of skilled trainers and technologists. I was instrumental in the development of our first communications strategy as an organisation. The work we do focuses on journalists, civil society actors and grassroots organisers. Having a communications strategy that is clear and focused, also helps us to deliver information that our audiences can appreciate and understand. This has a trickle down effect - the journalists then transmit clear and actionable information to their audiences and so on.

The role requires creativity, problem solving and effective communication, skills I had learned during my time at RNTC. We had a session on effective fact checking, that was both thorough and rigorous. As i share information in my network, or even prepare for events like webinars or our monthly online convenings, the session has helped me to research all information thoroughly and question the motives behind why a particular piece of information was published and if there is any form of gain from the publication of that information. It has allowed me to deliver information that is relevant, appropriate and as far as possible, free from bias.

Following my course at RNTC, I had the opportunity to co-lead a cohort of 6 content creators. The training focused on youth civic engagement through podcasting and video formats. I trained the cohort on audience segmentation, a skill I had learned from RNTC. The cohort learned to segment audiences into hyperspecific segments, rather than broad categories. Beyond capacity building, applying the skills I had learned  led to a tangible change in how I wrote civic and youth engagement  podcast scripts - shifting from broad ‘information dumps’ to clearer and more focused communication.

Challenges and growth

Breaking out of the mould of what you already know or what has always ‘worked’ has been a big challenge. This is where creativity comes in- if faced with a brand-new challenge and people resistant to workflow, how can I incorporate new and radical ideas to them with the least friction? This provides a fun way to approach civic engagement - working with empathy, curiosity and fostering a spirit of collaboration allows teams to push past the frustration and end up with a finished product that everyone enjoys.

What's next?

I am currently pursuing a Masters in Political Science and International Relations. I would like to harness my two passions - media and politics to strip away the jargon from trending issues. We live in an era of Artificial Intelligence, prevailing political disinformation and an electorate that swings between detached and curious. I would like to use frameworks from everything i have learnt to capacitate others, whether through webinars at my current job or facilitating training with local groups such as the Women in AI and Data Science Zambia.

I would like to see more concerted efforts towards tackling disinformation. I still believe that the only way to fight disinformation is with knowledge, and so I would like to get more involved in imparting knowledge in bite sized pieces for the young urban populations in Zambia. The more people are equipped with knowledge, the more they are able to identify when information is being manipulated.