Citizen Journalism Programme - Call for Applications

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The Citizen Journalism in Africa Programme invites you to apply for a scholarship to attend this year's conference 'Reporting Africa: 2010, Development & Democracy'. Highway Africa conference is the largest gathering in Africa of journalists and information workers where journalism and new media take the centre stage.

If you are interested in attending this prestigious event, send us a 500 word motivation about why and how you think your participation will benefit the Citizen Journalism Programme (CJA). We will also consider how active you have been in the CJA community when making the final selection.

Criteria

1. The applicant must be a member of a CJA participating organization from Uganda,
    Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa
2. The applicant must submit a 500 words motivation about why and how your participation
    will benefit the CJA programme and your organisation. Please note: Think about what
    you want to say and write a structured and informative piece.
3. The applicant must have shown interest in the CJA programme by:

• Being an active user on the CJA portal,- records will show that
• Interaction with the programme through other forms of communication
• Having submitted at least 2 articles to the porta
 

4. You will be required to participate in specific workshops during the conference and
    also write an article with pictures and sound on the conference, and may be asked to
    makea presentation.

5. You will have to arrive on a specified date, stay for the duration of the programme
    and leave on a date specified by CJA. Should you not comply with this, you will have
    to re-imburse CJA for any costs incurred and CJA will not pay for any excess fees.
6. A full organisational profile must be attached to the application.

Please send your application to noma@hivos.co.za

Please note that applications will be reviewed with strict adherence to the criteria and any other factors deemed important by CJA. Successful applicants will be announced on 14 August 2009

Deadline: 12 August 2009 at 4pm, late applications will not be entertained.

Remember, places are limited and applications that do not conform to the criteria will not be considered.

We are looking forward to receiving your applications

Source : http://www.citizenjournalismafrica.org/event/1807

AP To Create Registry to 'Track' and Protect Online Content

Associated Press has taken the first move to protect its content online, with plans to create a news registry to tag and track all AP online content "to assure compliance with terms of use," according to an announcement following a board decision.

"The system will register key identifying information about each piece of content that AP distributes as well as the terms of use of that content, and employ a built-in beacon to notify AP about how the content is used," it adds.

"What we are building here is a way for good journalism to survive and thrive," Dean Singleton, chairman of the AP Board of Directors and vice chairman and CEO of MediaNews Group Inc, said in a statement. "The AP news registry will allow our industry to protect its content online, and will assure that we can continue to provide original, independent and authoritative journalism at a time when the world needs it more than ever."

AP added that the registry would initially cover all AP text content online, and be extended to AP members in early 2010: "Eventually, it will be expanded to cover photos and video as well. AP will fund development and operation of the registry through 2010, until it becomes self-sustaining."

The AP Board of Directors announced in April, at its annual meeting, that the news organization would launch an industry initiative to protect news content from unauthorized use. At a meeting today, the board voted to approve creation of the news registry.

"The registry will employ a microformat for news developed by AP and which was endorsed two weeks ago by the Media Standards Trust, a London-based nonprofit research and development organization that has called on news organizations to adopt consistent news formats for online content," the announcement explained. "The microformat will essentially encapsulate AP and member content in an informational 'wrapper' that includes a digital permissions framework that lets publishers specify how their content is to be used online and which also supplies the critical information needed to track and monitor its usage."

The registry also will enable content owners and publishers to more effectively manage and control digital use of their content by providing detailed metrics on content consumption, payment services and enforcement support. It will support a variety of payment models, including pay walls.

In other action, the AP Board also voted to approve rate assessment reductions for broadcast members of the Cooperative. Under the plan, AP will reduce local TV members' basic text assessments by 10 percent in 2010

 

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003996916

Africa Elections Project at Digital Bridge Initiative, Abuja, Nigeria

Eric Osiakwan, a man of many talents and almost as many responsibilities, discusses his
African Elections Project. Like Juliana, Eric was in Kenya during the electoral crisis. He found himself wondering, "How do we avoid these situations?" Somewhere between the polling stations where local vote counts were announced and the electoral commission, the vote count changed.

Eric and his friends realized that there's widespread interest in these elections, and widespread enough use of SMS that SMS could be used to report on and help cover these elections. The African Elections Project is built around a simple idea - let's take announcements made in local areas and broadcast them widely to help prevent the theft of elections. This involves reporters at polling places, SMS as a transmission mechanism, and the use of broadcast technologies like newspapers and radio to disseminate the information, as well as the internet. Eric is clear that this is a journalistic, reportorial project, not a monitoring one.

Based around this simple idea, AEP has grown to include a much wider set of information around elections. Sites for different country's elections include pictures from polling places, blog posts, links to news stories and a broad range of information sources about these events.

The main problem with AEP has been a fundamental problem with African elections - the project has been prepared to monitor elections in the Ivory Coast and Guinea, but both elections were put off. So far, the project has monitored Ghana's elections as well as Malawi's.

Ghana's election was close enough that it presented some real challenges for Eric and his colleagues' team. Their vote count suggested that the opposition was going to win, but the electoral commission hadn't yet certified the vote. They held off announcing, while one of their media partners went ahead and declared their projections, which angered the sitting government, which lost power.

Eric fields a thorny question about when one reports results - in Nigeria, it's possible that reporting these results before announcement would be illegal. He's very clear that the project stays within what's legal in each country, but tries to collect as much data as possible, for forensic reasons as much as publicity ones.

AEP's great success may be the replicability of its model - based on AEP training, a team is currently monitoring the Mauritanian elections using the AEP model.

http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/07/14/afternoon-sessions-at-the-digital-bridge-initiative-abuja-nigeria/

 

Call for Nominations – SABC-Highway Africa New Media Awards in Association with OSIWA and MTN

Call for Nominations – SABC-Highway Africa New Media Awards in Association with OSIWA and MTN

 

 

www.highwayafrica.com

 

The Highway Africa Conference 2009 hosted at Rhodes University, Eastern Cape South Africa is set to host the 8^th edition of the SABC-Highway Africa New Media Awards. These unique and prestigious awards within the profession of journalism on the continent reward pioneering, innovative and creative use technology in doing journalism that serves Africa and its citizens. The Awards were pioneered 7 years ago to highlight the role that digital technologies play in journalism and the media.

The 13^th edition of the Highway Africa Conference, September 6-8, Rhodes University, calls for the submission of nominations for the 8^th SABC – Highway Africa in 3 categories:

·         Individual/Student – awarded to individual persons who design or appropriate new affordable applications of communication technologies to overcome the limitations of existing infrastructure and/or capital resources.

 

·         Not-for-Profit – awarded to users of appropriate media technology to advance and assist communities and persons limited by infrastructure and/or technological access.

 

·         Corporate – awarded to corporate groups for creative and appropriate adaptation of technologies within the continent to complete effectively in the wider environment.

 

 Open Society Institute of West Africa (OSIWA) ICT Journalism Awards Media Awards!

 

This year an exciting new partnership with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA – www.osiwa.org) will see 5 new categories added to the prestigious The SABC-Highway Africa Digital Journalism Awards.

 

The Highway Africa-OSIWA ICT Journalism  Awards for project aims to:

 

• encourage media professionals to produce well researched and informed stories on ICT usage and policies
• encourage innovative use of new media in journalism in Africa

The 13^th edition of the Highway Africa Conference, September 6-8, Rhodes University, calls for the submission of nominations for the Highway Africa-OSIWA ICT Journalism Awards, to be awarded at the 8^th SABC – Highway Africa in the following 5 categories:

• Best story on ICT use in communities
• Best Woman ICT reporter
• Best story on ICT policies in West Africa
• Best story on ICT and public governance
• Best story on ICT use by media

The above awards are restricted to entries from West Africa (both Anglophone and Francophone)

 

Broad Criteria for entries

 

The judges will consider the use of new media technologies to:

·         advance press freedom on the continent

·         encourage social empowerment amongst marginalised communities

·         highlight innovative and creative applications of global technology for the benefit of the continent's overall media development

 

Technical Requirements for all entries

 

1. Digital/Online platform must be functional and updated
2. Multimedia components, print, web and post
3. Aesthetic appeal (creative use of limited resources)
4. Stories should have been published in the period August 2008 and July 2009
5. Please supply details of the media in which article will have been published
6. The judges' decision is final and no correspondence will be entertained after the closing date and when the final announcements are made
7. Highway Africa reserves the right not to award prizes in any category.

 

Submissions are to be made electronically to: awards@highwayafrica.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it copied to c.kabwato@ru.ac.zaThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

The closing date for the nominations is 21 August 2009, 16:30 Pretoria Time.

Winners will be announced at the prestigious SABC – Highway Africa Awards ceremony on the evening of Tuesday, 08 September 2009.

For more information please contact awards@highwayafrica.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Website: www.highwayafrica.com

JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN AFRICA: NEW TECHNOLOGIES, NEW PRACTICES AND THE RENEWAL OF MEDIA TRAINING IN AFRICA

JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN AFRICA: NEW TECHNOLOGIES, NEW PRACTICES AND THE RENEWAL OF MEDIA TRAINING IN AFRICA

(August 23 – 27 2009)      

 

Tentative Programme for Journalism and New Media conference, August 23-27, 2009

 

Sunday, 23rd August, 2009           Arrival of conference delegates

Monday, 24th August                    9.30am                 Opening ceremony

                                                                                                Welcome address by  the Dean, Prof. Emevwo Biakolo

                                                                10.00                     Inaugural address by Prof. Dora Akunyili

                                                                                                Honorable Minister of Information & Culture

                                                                10.45                     Keynote address by Prof. Alfred Opubor

                                                                                                Secretary General,

                                                                                                West African New Media & Development Centre,

                                                                                                Cotonou, Benin Republic

                                                                11.00                     Tea

                                                                11.30                     Plenary session I: 

Prof. David Kerr

                                                                                                University of Botswana

                                                                12.15                     Panel I

                                                                2.00                        Lunch

                                                                3.00                        Plenary session II: The Role of ICT in Media Enterprise

                                                                                                Ben Murray-Bruce

                                                                                                Group Chairman, Silverbird group

                                                                4.00                        End

Tuesday, 25th August                    9.30                        Communication, Policy & Journalism Practice

                                                                                                Ernest Ndukwe

                                                                                                Chairman,

Nigerian Communication Commission   

                                                                10.30                     NASRDA presentation

                                                                11.00                     Tea

                                                                11.30                     Plenary session III: ICT & Broadcast Journalism

                                                                                                Ben Egbuna

                                                                                                Former Director-General FRCN

                                                                12.30                     Panel  II

                                                                2.00                        Lunch

3.00                        Plenary session IV: From Instantaneous GSM camera images to Holograms: The expanses of New Media and Implications for Development

                                                                                                Prof. Jenks Okwori

                                                                                                Participatory Communication Dept.

                                                                                                Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

                                                                4.00                        Panel III

                                                                5.00                        End

Wednesday, 26th August             9.30                        Plenary V: Restructuring Media Training in Nigerian                  

                                                                                                Universities: A Tentative Proposal

                                                                                                Prof. Des Wilson

                                                                                                Dean

                                                                                                Faculty of Arts

                                                                                                University of Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State

                                                                10.30                     Presentations from corporate organizations

                                                                11.00                     Tea

                                                                11.30                     Panels

                                                                1.00                        Plenary VI

                                                                2.00                        Lunch

                                                                3.00                        Closing ceremony

                                                                4.00                        Departure

 

Thursday, 27th August   Departure of conference delegates

 

--
Website: http://www.smc.edu.ng/

TIC et élections en Mauritanie : LES JOURNALISTES RENFORCENT LEUR CAPACITES

COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE



Un atelier de formation sur la couverture des élections en utilisant les techniques de l'information et de la communication (TIC) a été organisé le 9 juillet 2009 dans les locaux de l'Université Virtuelle Africaine à Nouakchott en Mauritanie à l'intention d'une trentaine de journalistes provenant de tous les médias mauritaniens.
Le séminaire organisé par l'Institut international des journalistes TIC ''Penplusbytes'' en collaboration avec le soutien de Open Society Initiative for West Africa visait à renforcer les capacités des journalistes afin qu'ils puissent couvrir de façon efficace les prochaines élections dans le pays, grâce aux TIC.

Le jour de cette table ronde, les journalistes issus de la télévision, de la radio, de la presse en ligne, de la presse et des radios communautaires ont eu droit a des communications sur ''le cadre légal des élections'', ''l'organisation pratique des élections'', ''l'excellence dans la couverture des élections avant, pendant et après'', ''le rôle du reportage d'investigation dans la couverture des élections''.
La présentation sur le système électoral a été faite par Me Cheikhany Jules, Juriste et Expert des questions électorales à la Commission Electorale Nationale Indépendante (CENI) .

La deuxième communication a été essentiellement consacrée à des exercices pratiques sur le journalisme d'investigation en période électorale animée par Gérard Guedegbe, Secrétaire général du Forum Africain des Reporters d'Investigations. Les journalistes ont suivi dans un premier temps des démonstrations sur la création d'un blog, la mise en ligne des photos, des sons.

Par la suite, les professionnels des médias ont été invités à créer leurs propres blogs, assistés des organisateurs.
Quant au Président du Penplusbytes, M. Kwami Ahiabenu II, il a fait une présentation sur l'importance des TIC dans le journalisme et a exposé les composantes du projet sur les élections en Afrique mis en œuvre grâce au partenariat agissant entre Penplusbytes et Osiwa.

Le séminaire sur la couverture des élections en utilisant les TIC a été ouvert par le Président du Penplusbytes, M. Kwami Ahiabenu II, le Chargé de Progamme Média et TIC à OSIWA, Ben Akoh, M Hassan Diouk Chargé de Programme à l'IPCD, partenaire local de Penplusbytes. Dans son intervention il a tenu à saluer la structure pour le financement de cet atelier. Mais surtout, M. Kwami Ahiabenu et le Penplusbytes pour la contribution à la formation des journalistes Mauritaniens sur la couverture électorale aux moyens des TIC.

Le président du Penplusbytes, M. Kwami Ahiabenu II, lui a insisté sur la nécessité de former les journalistes à l'utilisation des TIC pour réussir les élections en Mauritanie. Mais surtout permettre à ceux-ci de participer à la création de contenu sur le net.
 
www.africanelections.org/mauritania