Between November 2016 and March 2019, Kamahl Santamaria was the regular host of Al Jazeera’s daily interactive news programme newsgrid, which earned Al Jazeera English an International Emmy Award nomination in 2018.
newsgrid used four core elements of modern journalism – REPORT, LIVE, CONNECT, EXPLORE – to refocus the thinking on a story, and to extract as much value as possible from Al Jazeera’s field teams, online resources, and in-depth programmes.
It was the first time one programme had reached across the Al Jazeera Media Network in such a way, and the first time a show had been simultaneously broadcast live on-air, as well as streamed on Facebook Live, Periscope, YouTube, and at aljazeera.com.
In addition, the traditional TV screen was reworked to incorporate social media reaction and audience participation as a regular part of our storytelling, rather than an add-on.
LAUNCH PROMO for ‘newsgrid’
NEWSGRID: U.S. PULLS OUT OF PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT (2017)
OCTOBER 1, 2018
Kamahl represented Al Jazeera English at the 2018 News & Current Affairs Emmy Awards in New York, following newsgrid’s nomination in the International News category.
While newsgrid didn’t win - that honour went to Sky News for their coverage of the Rohingya crisis - the nomination was a tremendous achievement. newsgrid successfully went through a six month judging period, which included three elimination rounds, to reach the final four.
Kamahl accepted a nominee medal on behalf of the newsgrid team, and delivered a brief speech encouraging all journalists to keep demanding press freedom in the face of government obstruction.
