DAKAR, SENEGAL - For Sophiane Bengeloun, 27, a journalist for L’ Enquête, a daily newspaper in Dakar, one item is essential in her work toolkit: her Smartphone. In it she keeps all the information she needs to effectively do her job.
“I’m a print journalist,” she explained, “but my phone allows me to do videos, and audio and editing.” “I have loads of applications that I’m able to use to contact a lot of people. I’m also connected to a lot of social networks,” she continued. “I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumbler, YouTube, StumbleUpon, Vine and as for the Internet, I use it to verify information, to do research. It’s important to be well-informed before going out to do an interview.”
“I have seen the huge potential in social media in raising important development issues from the human rights perspective,” said Joseph Quaye Amoo, 25, a journalist in Accra, Ghana who works primarily in radio and also blogs.
These days, using new media technologies is no longer optional for journalists doing their jobs, it’s become a
requirement, said Mame Fatoumata Diallo, 24, Culture
Desk chief and writer in Guinea, Conakary for the website, www.guinénnews.org. This is true, she said, even in a country such as Guinea where despite having all the natural resources to provide abundant energy supplies, lack of development has made power cuts a regular occurrence. “In Guinea even though we’re confronted with problems of electricity or even having a high speed connection, we couldn’t do our work without using ICTs [Information and Communications Technology] in collecting, treating or even disseminating the information,” she said.
“While the Internet is a major element of the ICTs, it’s not the only one,” she continued. “Digital cameras, cell phones, computers, etc. are the equipment used to treat and transmit information which we work with daily,” she said, adding, “All of the articles that we post on our site
Guinéennews.org are illustrated with photos and now reporters don’t have to do all their writing by hand. Each reporter has a mini-computer. ICTS are indispensible for us.”
Internet and new media technologies have increasingly become the “new normal” across the Continent for a growing number of people, in general, and for journalists in print and audiovisual media, in particular. The speed with which this new development has taken place has surprised many observers including those who were active early in this domain, people such as Basile Niane, a journalist in Dakar, Senegal.
Niane, 28, is considered a pioneer among his peers for having been one of the first Senegalese journalists, based in Senegal, to carve out the web as his main domain for doing journalism. A practicing journalist since 2006 when he completed studies at a private journalism school in Dakar, he identifies himself as a “journalist-blogger, activist, community manager and Consultant in social media strategy and Web 2.0 trainer.”
Just a few years ago, in 2009, in a posting on the senegalmedias.blogspot.com, a blog that reports on
African Journalists Linked to Digital and Social Media
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g By Wilma Jean Emanuel Randle
Mamadou Ndiaye, a New Media instructor and webmaster, and CESTI director Ibrahima Sarr have transformed the journalism program into the digital age.