Word to those who think the Internet spells the end of traditional print media : "hacker journalists" have arrived to save the day.
Although newspapers have gone through 150 years of evolution away from popular contributions and towards fully professional writing, technology is rapidly re-empowering non-professionals. Anyone who has rudimentary access to technology can blog or Twitter, take cell phone photos and video of dramatic moments, and quickly get them ’out there.’
The purpose of this task is not to promote yourself on the blog - but rather to spend time watching, listening and observing how the blog operates with the goal of letting what you learn help shape your own blogging strategy.
There is a lot that a blogger can learn about spending time on other blogs (particularly those who are doing well). You can pick up all manner of ideas, strategies and tips both things that they do well that you might like to emulate but also things that they’re missing that could help you to differentiate yourself.
Within ICT4D practice, there seems to be little debate, at least when you look at implementation funding, that bringing Internet to rural areas in places like Africa that had been previously “cut off” is good idea and potentially transformative. Until recently more recently, “bringing the Internet” has meant usually plunking down a VSAT, setting up a small computer lab and hoping someday that one day it will become sustainable.
The Associated Press is taking a multimedia approach to its stock footage business, offering program makers in key international markets access to its vast still photos collection in tandem with its archives of film and video, via AP Archive at
www.aparchive.com..
At the end of adjudications by the pan-African jury, four prizes were awarded: three prizes corresponding to the three categories announced, and a special award of encouragement.
The jury has rewarded blogs that illustrate good editorial line, quality of expression, interaction with internet users, originality, regular posts, a variety of format for content, blog developed by African journalists working in African media.
10 other blogs (all categories) have also attracted the attention of jury members and received their congratulations.
All best blogs will be properly promoted.
Africa Interactive is working to build a network of African journalist, photographers and filmmakers. This network consists of 400 individuals in 35 African countries. Last year we started documenting water and sanitation projects for International NGO’s like Akvo.org.
Local journalist use mobile phones as a tool to document and report on Water and Sanitation projects (See example below). The first videos we produced were used for fund raising efforts in the Netherlands. We were surprised to see that each project immediately received the funds they needed. We hope to go back later in the year and document the progress and to show the end result.
I’ve recently been following a superb series by Michelle McLellan on the Ideas that get in the way of saving journalism. In this series of blogs, she does a superb job of raising some very uncomfortable questions for newspapers, most importantly, whether they are in fact so wedded to the idea of the newspaper that they’ve lost sight of the journalism.
During the past few months, the crisis in journalism has reached meltdown proportions. It is now possible to contemplate a time when some major cities will no longer have a newspaper and when magazines and network-news operations will employ no more than a handful of reporters.
Kakuma News Reflector (KANERE) is an independent news magazine produced by Ethiopian, Congolese, Ugandan, Rwandan, Somali, Sudanese and Kenyan journalists operating in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. KANERE urgently seeks the support of international organisations and advocacy groups everywhere, as the group is facing pressure from local organisations that do not fully support an independent refugee press.
