African Journalism is the New and Old

The Digital Citizen Indaba is a platform for discovering innovative ways of rapidly transporting information.

Traditional forms of communication are being broken at a radical pace. Gone are the days where schools would send out newsletters to inform parents of school meetings, changes in schedules and other important notices. School’s can now use short message services(sms’s)- the simplest, fastest and cost effective form of communication. So yes, this means there will be no more lying or hiding of letters from your parents.

Disbussi Tande, a blogger from Cameroon, was the keynote speaker at the State of Social Justice and Digital Media in Africa – one of the many session at the 2009 DCI. Tande said that “Once you have determined the tool, you need to identify the story you want told, and in which form and medium.” He emphasised that journalists need to figure out who they are targeting, in order to find objectives which then need to be accompanied with a strategy. This will determine the tool which can work best.

A perfect example of this is Facebook and Twitter- two of the greatest and newest forms of communication. These contain all sorts of interesting devices such as chatting to friends, showing off pictures and creating a community where citizens can voice their opinions.

Tande stated that traditional forms of communication are still very much alive however the process in which to obtain and publish information has not fallen away.

By: Amanda Onamandla Mathe