Editors should use social media
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday September 9, 2014 11:37
Dan Gillmor from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications said in his keynote address about the potential of the internet to positively transform society and how they consume information.
He encouraged journalists to forge new ways to practice their profession online adding that media literacy and the know-how of the web went hand in hand.
“The technology that is used in the media is collaborative therefore it needs to be exchanged between consumers and creators regarding media and news creation” he said.
Gillmor said journalists needed to be more technology savvy in order to compete with consumers of news.
He added that anyone nowadays had a byline and it had blurred the role journalists played in dissemination of information. This had subsequently dropped down print sales.
“With the level of technology we have now the media consumers know more than journalists as anyone can commit an act of journalism whether we are called a journalist or not, we are capable of being participants in the process,” he said
Gillmor further said while journalists were being encouraged to use technology, they should advocate for fair and true reporting as often-false information was broken on social media.
He said often the audience ended up questioning who they had to trust therefore media makers should rely on principles of accuracy, transparency, fairness, independence and thoroughness.
Meanwhile after different speakers’ input on social media, participants were taken through different panel discussions including social media and civic engagement, managing social media: activiating the “community” in community media which explored the intergration of citizens in the making of news and policy changes.
The conference also included workshops on digital tools for the newsroom, the mobile reporting tool application for citizen journalism, using data for accountability and transparency, how to engage the public in an interactive dialogue using social media and many more.
Barclays Africa that has been partnering with Highhway Africa Media for 12 years training journalists across Africa on Sunday night hosted a dinner in recognition of journalists who attended the pre-conference training from the 3rd to 5th. A total of 15 journalists were awarded certificates of excellence for participating and successfully finishing the three-day course based on reporting data driven stories.
The two day conference ended yesterday with the second day’ panel discussion focusing on topics such as identifying politics and the rise of individual voices, social media and elections in Africa, privacy, safety and security in cyberspace which explored implications for freedom of expression and many more.
The conference was held under the theme “Social Media:from the margins to the mainstream”, the 18th installation of the conference that kicked off on Sunday interrogated the role social media has played and will be playing on journalists’ work as media makers and how such technology has enabled African journalists to report the continent to its people through their own perspective, and making their voices heard in new ways.