Last year, PREP4BLUE put out a call seeking enthusiastic content creators, age 30 and younger, to form a team of Mobile Journalists, or ‘MoJos’, to spotlight Mission Ocean and Waters through the lens of a younger generation. The goal was to motivate and engage new audiences, especially youth, in learning about and committing to the Mission through the creative and diverse storytelling of young professionals.
At the same time, the planning team for Virtual Early Career Ocean Professional Days 2024 (V.ECOP Days 2024) was preparing to spotlight ECOP contributions to the UN Ocean Decade at an official satellite event of the Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona; this event was partially sponsored by PREP4BLUE as a Mission Ocean event. The V.ECOP Days planning team also decided to hire MoJos to provide live coverage from the Conference during V.ECOP Days 2024.
The two MoJo teams’ content would be featured together across PREP4BLUE Mission Ocean and Waters social media channels as part of a larger campaign, “Generation Blue”, for the first two weeks of April 2024. Under this umbrella, the focus of the channels was dedicated to publishing stories either by young professionals, for young professionals, or both. Indeed, youth and ECOPs are integral to the success of the Mission and Decade, and this campaign was aimed at addressing that component for a larger impact utilizing social media as the driver.
The four PREP4BLUE Mojos came from across the different Mission Lighthouse areas and were tasked with creating engaging digital content to spotlight Mission Ocean-related stories. This new form of content allowed for different types of storytelling and perspectives to be shared with our growing audience to further foster and promote citizen engagement in the Mission across diverse demographics, especially by youth and ECOPs.
The V.ECOP Days 2024 MoJos also came from diverse backgrounds and countries and were tasked with moderating various V.ECOP Days 2024 sessions as well as covering multiple side- and on-site events through live and pre-recorded interviews with key attendees and leadership at the Ocean Decade Conference. The interviews were incorporated into the full 3-day V.ECOP Days 2024 program.
Working with PREP4BLUE partners and a specialist social media advisor, all of the MoJos received training on content creation, social media, and more. Their skill-sets were varied and included everything from the sciences to photography and videography, etc. Most importantly, each MoJo is passionate about protecting our oceans and waters and has a keen interest in conservation and sustainability issues.
Together, the MoJos’ content shed light on both Mission Ocean and Waters and the UN Ocean Decade through the eyes of young professionals who love our ocean – allowing PREP4BLUE to engage more people from across diverse populations to both better understand the Mission and Decade and to hopefully inspire them to join the collective efforts to help protect and restore our ocean and waters.
You can check out samples of the MoJo’s work below. All of the MoJo’s content can be found across the PREP4BLUE Mission Ocean and Water channels from April 1-14.
