Mobile phones change the media landscape in Africa

AfricaNews (www.africanews.com) starts working with mobile phone reporters. The mobile reporters cover current events in their area, using the mobile phones to produce video footage, written reports and photographs. With this innovative project, African citizens - from the sprawling metropolises to the most isolated villages - can let their voices be heard across the continent and around the world.

Africa is witnessing impressive growth in the development and use of mobile communication networks and the Internet. This development is changing the face of media and the way people are informed. Open communication and uncensored exchange of opinions are helping to build transparent societies. This serves good governance and helps to build stronger democracies.

Citizen journalism is the act of individuals playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and publishing news. By inviting citizen journalists to report almost instantly with their mobile phones on the website, AfricaNews wants to provide a sound often unheard. In this way AfricaNews offers a different perspective to the continent in comparison to traditional media.

As of today, AfricaNews will present the content from reporters in South-Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique who will be reporting on www.africanews.com. This pilot is an initiative of the Africa Interactive Media Foundation. The foundation's objective is to support talented African citizens working in, or aspiring to work in, the media industry.

Analysis of ITU (International Telecommunication Union, 2007) shows that, in Africa, digital opportunity is undoubtedly mobile. Mobile phones now outnumber fixed lines by five to one, a ratio that is even higher in sub-Saharan Africa, where nine out of ten subscribers use a mobile. As a region, Africa's mobile market has been the fastest-growing market in the world, averaging 50% growth per year since 2000.

The technology partner of the mobile reporters project is SKOEPS. This Dutch company is known for creating the world's first national news site (www.skoeps.com) that consists entirely of eyewitness images. People capture news events with their phones and send the pictures and videos directly to the website.

Thanks to tremendous progress achieved by the General Packet Radio System (GPRS), the wireless communication protocol, it is now possible in Africa to send articles and images (still and moving) to someone else without using a computer and without having a traditional Internet connection. The mobile reporters only need access to a cell phone tower, a GPRS enabled phone and some credit.

About AfricaNews: AfricaNews is an online interactive platform sharing views on Africa.
www.africanews.com
www.africanews.com/site/page/voicesofafrica
Pim de Wit, pimdewit@africanews.com, +31 (0)23 531 5040, +31 (0)653775799
Hidde Kross, hidde@skoeps.com, +31 (0)206248796, +31 (0)620254226