MEDIA RELEASE: 12^TH Highway Africa 2008 Conference Explores Citizen Journalism

Mobile chat services such as MXit can no longer be viewed simply as tools for mobile social networking. Ordinary people are using such platforms to produce and distribute the news.

The MXit phenomenon will be one of the topics of discussion during 12^th Annual Highway Africa Conference, which takes place from 8-10 September in Grahamstown. 

 The theme for this year’s conference is “Citizen Journalism, Journalism for Citizens”. The advent of citizen journalism means that audiences not only consume media, but are able to generate and publish it too, using popular online platforms such as MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube.

Technology has transformed the traditional media landscape as well as newsrooms. Dan Gillmor, one of the top notch speakers at this year’s conference and author of the book, We the Media, says readers are no longer content with just being on the receiving end of the news. “These readers-turned-reporters are publishing in real time to a worldwide audience via the Internet,” says Gillmor.

Over the past few years ordinary users of the World Wide Web have taken advantage of the increasing popularity of new media. Instant messaging sites such as Skype, MSN and Yahoo along with many others have shifted the function of the internet by enabling internet users to generate content.  

Mobile technology has not been left behind, with more and more citizens being able to access and generate information using their mobiles.  These are some of the topics that will be discussed at the conference. Among the many questions to be addressed at the conference, are questions around the technology that is driving citizen journalism and how ‘traditional’ media should respond to citizen journalism. 

The programme is a mix of keynote addresses from top-notch international speakers - such as Dan Gillmor, Adam Clayton Powell III and Georgia Popplewell- plenary sessions, seminars, short skills training workshops, book launches, exhibitions, demonstrations of technology and a variety of networking events.  

The Highway Africa conference, which has been at the centre of Africa’s debates on journalism and new media for eleven years, has become the largest annual gathering of African journalists on the continent, with 701 delegates in attendance at the 2007 conference. A similar number of delegates are expected to attend this year’s conference. The conference is open to journalists, academics, bloggers, students, publishers, and other interested media professionals.

ENDS

Contact: Highway Africa Media Team

Khaya Thonjeni: thonjeni@yahoo.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , 078 117 3402

Boitumelo Mpete: tumimpete@yahoo.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , 082 358 9047

Solomon Moyo: ss.moyo@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , 079 601 2886

Moagisi Letlhaku: m.letlhku@ru.ac.zaThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , 082 295 1581

Fax: 046 603 7189, Website: www.highwayafrica.com