“Yomkom” – a new current affairs source for young people in the Near East

Yomkom is a dynamic, modern website that informs, entertains and forms young people. It has been developed so that it can adapt to any format: tablet, PC or mobile device.

Planet News Business already publishes Yomkom, a printed newspaper that is very popular amongst 8-to-11-year-olds. Yomkom is its second publication. Its aim: the act as mentor for the development of KelYom's readership, and also to create a new offering targeting adolescents, enabling them to follow, understand and analyse current events and at the same time to shield them from misinformation and hate discourse.

The website is proposing information and entertainment sections, using multimedia formats: articles, videos, photos, computer graphics and cartoons. Above all, however, it provides an opportunity for the youngsters themselves, by becoming subscribers, to pass on information. Given that young people these days are keen "to produce information", a significant proportion of the website's content will be provided by the readership, using a template and user guide proposed for each section. The aim is to help subscribers learn how to produce content.
Their YomikYomak personal page allows them to post their own content, to save for later anything that interests them, to comment on what others are publishing, and to follow their friends' pages.

Yomkom is available in French and Arabic 'mirror' forms, with a view to promoting the universal nature of the two languages and to debunk the stereotypes whereby certain content is assigned to certain languages, for example, pieces on warfare feature in Arabic, scientific discoveries in French or in English, and so on. Content is updated on a daily basis.

Design of this website was made possible with support and funding from CFI, the French media development agency.