Meet us at Highway Africa 2014
I could not be more excited to attend the Highway Africa conference this year. Sourcefabric has visited Highway Africa several times and some of our prime partnerships, such as our cooperation with @Verdade in Mozambique, were conceived thanks to the event.
I’m eager to gather perspectives from African media. You may be able to help me, but more on that below. First, about Highway Africa.
If you need to understand African journalism, Highway Africa is the best place to be. Each year for the past 18, all the buzz from Africa’s newsrooms, media schools and technology rooms has moved to the Rhodes University in Grahamstown for two days in September. Last year nearly 700 delegates attended the event.
Verifying eye witness media
This year’s theme is social media – from the margins to the mainstream. It opens a debate about the social media’s promise of democratisation of communication and sets it in contrast with the vulnerabilities of online communication to abusive powers or criminals.
Social media are a constant aspect of our work. At the very least, digital news outlets must accommodate users’ desire to share on social networks. Nowadays incorporating social media into news channels is just as important as sharing.
We have been working with @Verdade in Mozambique on the exciting and closely related Citizen Desk, a project which helps media readers take ownership of the public debate by providing their own account of daily events in their country.
User generated or eye witness content presents an opportunity for media to keep up with reader demand for outreach, authenticity and relevance. Several new tools, such as the Storymaker app, are responding to the needs of citizen reporters.
Citizen Desk focuses on the other side of the citizen reporting by addressing the needs news organisations have to gather, verify and publish citizen content.
What citizen journalism means to you
As I prepare for Highway Africa, I want to know how ready media organisations are to work with citizen reports. What concerns do African media have about citizen journalism? We have learned that communication ecosystems vary greatly from country to country. We are interested in learning how to incorporate specific local communication patterns into media citizen reporting operations and Citizen Desk.
The conference programme is still a work in progress, but I am looking forward to meeting colleagues from the African Media Initiative, Mich Atagana of Memeburn, Songezo Zibi from Business Day, Chris Roper from Mail and Guardian, human rights activist Levi Kabwato from Malawi, Radio Dialogue radio editor Zenzele Ndebele from Zimbabwe and many many others. I hope to discuss new project ideas with African news organisations of all shapes and sizes.
In the meantime, I would love hear about your news organisation’s experience with citizen reporting. Please fill out this tiny survey and let me know.
Thanks, and see you in Grahamstown!