1. Building “Africanised” New
Media Training into
Journalism Education

2. There are some v good
books out about Online
Journalism

3. .. But they have un-examined
Western assumptions

4. … about journalists

5. … but in parts of Africa…
• Berger (2005) found ―poor skills and worse ICT
infrastructure in many newsrooms‖… [where
computers exist] ―in many cases these devices
do not work, and a great many more are not
even connected to the Internet. This is not even
to investigate the models and performance of
those devices that are wired. Even as regards
unwired computers, in many cases journalists
queue to share these rather than have personal
workstations. Where there is access, such as in
one Malawian newsroom, it is only permitted for
30 minutes per journalists per day.‖

6. … and about the audience

7. Portland Communications (2012)

8. Internet unknown for most
Africans
Gillwald & Stork (2008)

9. Internet broadband
penetration still < 10% at
best
GSMA 2012

10. … though expected to grow
GSMA 2012

11. Will cellphones save digital
journalism?

12. Impressive growth
figures/projections
GSMA 2012

13. The future is already here…
It‘s just not very evenly distributed – William
Gibson

14. Numbers can both under and
over-estimate mobile
availability
•―A report by Buddecomm estimated
that 20-25% of the active connections
in both Egypt and South Africa can be
attributed to second handsets or
SIMs… may be much higher in the
less developed African nations.‖
•On the other hand, shared handsets
enable some access for broader
range of people. (Nyamnjoh 2005:54)

15. Progress is patchy by
country
GSMA 2012

16. … and between urban and
rural, rich and poor
•Rural African mobile penetration = 3%
/13%
•Bottom quintile penetration = 1.6% /
10%
All Africa / Middle income countries
(World Bank 2009)

17. Cost a significant issue
GSMA 2012

18. … for journalists as well as
the public
•―journalists do use cellphones
extensively for their work — but a
disincentive to this is that most of
those interviewed are not subsidised
by their workplaces for doing so.‖
Berger (2005)

19. Business models & demand
for/awareness of mobile-
based news unclear

20. … so much for the supply
side – what of the demand?
―It is regrettable that scholarly focus
has been rather on what ICTs do to
Africans, instead of what Africans do
with ICTs‖ - Nyamnjoh (2005)

21. The case of citizen
journalism
―A chance to replace professional
exclusivity with a participatory
inclusiveness that might lead to a
greater variety among the people who
can enter and even run the news
media.‖ (Beckett 2008)

22. Making citizen journalists –
Cultural barriers
•In Grahamstown, S.A. "there is not an
established culture of individuals en
masse engaging in public
communications, even at the level of
phoning to comment within radio talk-
shows‖ (Berger 2011)
•―the quality of production of youth
citizen journalism has partly hinged on

23. Making citizen journalists –
Skill barriers
•Contributors may need ―a lot of
training around writing, story-
telling, accuracy, verification and
fairness.‖ (Berger 2011)
(A familiar complaint in the developed
world too!)

24. African ‗citizen
journalism‘
•Potentially valuable supplement to
overstretched journalists but…
•May require significant social &
technical capacity building
•Beware over-reliance on content &
views from urban elites

25. Suggested foci for
educators
•Basic digital skills
•Internet research & tools
•Reaching Western or diaspora
markets
•Reaching elite or specialist domestic
markets
•Reaching and interacting with wider
publics in innovative ways

26. Research
• Use of most suitable tools for online
research (bookmark organization, search
engines, etc)
where suitable = low bandwidth, offline-compatible
• Use of social networks like
Facebook/LinkedIn to find Western
experts/interviewees
• Use of open data initiatives to get Western
government & NGO data

27. Reaching Western markets

28. Reaching Western markets

29. Reaching diaspora markets

30. Reaching and interacting with
wider publics in innovative
ways
•Rhodes Uni & Knight Foundation
funded citizen journalism effort in
Grahamstown, S.A.
•Started using SMS
•Went on to use local radio, Mxit
(Berger, 2011)

31. … not always sustainable

32. References
• Beckett, C. (2008). SuperMedia: saving journalism so it can save the world.
Malden, MA: Blackwell.
• Berger, G. (2005). Powering African Newsrooms: Theorising how Southern African
Journalists make use of ICTs for Newsgathering in Doing Digital Journalism: How
Southern African Newsgatherers are using ICTs (pp. 1-14). Grahamstown: High Way
Africa. Retrieved from
http://www.highwayafrica.com/media/guyberger/Doing_Digital_Web.pdf
• Berger, G. (2011). Empowering the youth as citizen journalists: A South African
experience. Journalism, 12(6), 708-726. doi: 10.1177/1464884911405466
• GSMA. (2012). African Mobile Observatory. Retrieved from
http://www.gsma.com/articles/african-mobile-observatory-2011/22136/
• Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2005). Africa's media, democracy and the politics of belonging: Zed
Books.
• Portland Communications. (2012). How Africa Tweets. Retrieved from
http://notebook.portland-communications.com/2012/02/new-research-reveals-how-
africa-tweets/
• World Bank. (2009). Information and Communication Technologies : A Boost for

33. Thank you for your attention
Dr David R Brake, Senior Lecturer
Department of Journalism & Communication
davidbrake@gmail.com
http://davidbrake.org/