“In case you haven’t noticed, printed newspapers became irrelevant to the average person years ago. Ironically, they are still the biggest originators of news content. They just aren’t directly benefiting from it. And as they go, they are tearing at the core values of the news business. Staff reductions have nearly destroyed local news in many markets. Visible, but impotent newspapers drag down the credibility of all news sources in the public’s mind… Content has been chopped, lightened and dumbed down repeatedly. Newspapers’ primary strength, local coverage, has been replaced by syndicated content that is available everywhere.”

Above: Nigerian youth stand beside a newspaper seller in a taxi rank reading sports newspapers at Lewu St Railway Station, Agege, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria on October 9, 2009. PHOTO: Mohamed Abdou/Twenty Ten

Loundy’s solution, proposed by others in this month’s very challenging issue of The Digital Journalist, is to close the printed editions and invest that money into good quality content distributed online. Dirck Halstead, the editor and publisher of The Digital Journalist, agrees: “The future, if there is one for those content providers, exists solely online. But as long as publishers continue to try to save their print product, they are unable to give their new online editions the financial support they need… Our concern is in trying to save journalism. We don’t care about what form that content comes in. Doctors, when confronted by mass casualties, realize the first thing they need to do is identify which ones stand a chance of survival and which don’t. The resources must go to those who may live. Unfortunately, we are facing that choice today in journalism. The choice must be made now.”

What does this mean for African journalists? And is there any good news here at all?

I believe so. First, it potentially means that international newspapers will look to other sources of content. Perhaps they will start to use good quality African journalists, now that they can’t afford to have their own staff covering Africa’s stories? And secondly, they will start to use different types of content – perhaps more personal, somewhat different in tone to conventional newswire reporting.

In the heady spendthrift past, publications could afford to have entire teams of journalists cover an event like the World Cup. Now projects like Twenty Ten can provide the information and stories – authentic and local – if those publications are willing to try a new, more cost-effective model. (By subscribing to Africa Media Online’s Twenty Ten offer, they can have access to the stream of more than 400 products – text, photographic, radio and multimedia – that are being produced. And these can be used across all of a publication’s media: both its print editions as well as its website.)

One thing should remain a constant, however: whether the world moves to publishing its news online rather than in print, our concern should be for good journalism: authoritative, transparent and well written.

In spite of the challenging traffic situation both our radio and photojournalists managed to capture some fascinating stories from the watery slums of Makoko to the glitz of Bar Beach, Victoria Island. They have all returned now to their home nations and are taking on their second assignment with zest. We look forward to their output. In the meantime, the team at Africa Media Online are hard at work getting their content online and available for sale.

Above: The Nigerian team in front of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism in Ogba, Lagos. PHOTO: Gbile Oshadipe

Nigeria also squeeked through in the final minute of their game against Mozambique when they scored the only points of the game to keep alive a dim hope of making it to South Africa in 2010. Their fate is still very much in the hands of Tunisia who also won their game against Kenya. The matches next month will decide who goes to the finals in their group. In just a few days Nigeria becomes the centre of world football for a few weeks when they play host to the U-17 FIFA World Cup in 8 cities around the nation.

The Twenty Ten project, in the meantime will be gearing up for the final training workshop for journalists this year which will take place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from November 11-17. The workshop will all be in French with French speaking photographers, text journalists and radio reporters. We are looking forward to French content coming online for the first time on Africa Media Online.

By Emmanuel Kele

A study in contrasts: Dominique and Emmanuel share a laugh with some of the other Twenty Ten Allstars

Twenty-four young African Journalists from twelve countries of Africa have concluded their Twenty-Ten World Cup media coverage workshop in Cairo, Egypt.

The workshop brought together a genuine united Africa from South Africa, Angola, via Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan, Liberia, Ghana, and many other countries from the continent. The one week workshop which is preparing journalists for the coverage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa focuses on production skills and story-telling.

The workshop and training for the journalists were conducted under the theme “African’s telling African stories”.

The Twenty Ten is a multidisciplinary media project focusing on strengthening African journalists from the various disciplines. It aims to encourage media professionals to creatively produce and distribute articles, images, broadcasts and multimedia productions related to African football and the society.

The workshop was organized by the Free Voice, in partnership with the Localmondial, Africa Media Online, and the World Press Photo.

Challenges for the Journalists

The journalists are facing huge challenges in the coming months by delivering challenging stories on football until June next year when the World Cup convenes in South Africa. The first articles of the journalists delivered will be distributed to the world via Africa Media Online. Stories like “legacies of players on the field” or “Women in Egypt challenge the Egyptian tradition” are stories having an impact on society.

Above: Participants in the Twenty Ten Egypt Workshop. The workshop involved radio and text journalists from countries in every region in Africa

Egypt is an Arab and Islamic country with a society largely governed by Islamic norms and tradition, thus, it is an unlikely setting for women’s soccer to flourish in the country. However, women’s football has made some inroads into Egyptian football where soccer was being dominated by men for years. During the workshop which includes outside coverage, the journalists managed to find out that women’s football league has been in existence since the 1990s although it faces some challenges but it is expected to rise to the level of its male counterpart. The female football in Egypt was established by Dr. Sahari Al Hawari who is now a referee and a member in the Egyptian Football Association in the mid-1990s.

Dream Team

Football in Egypt has become a passionate game whereby the young, elderly, women, and everybody is playing the game. Thus, Egypt is organizing the Under-20 World Cup tournament which coincided with the workshop, and the journalists also covered the event.

However, in the round sixteen of the Under-20 competitions, Spain will play against Italy for the first time in the finals of the youth competitions. The two sides are among the most successful national sides in the European Union Football youth competitions. Other matches included, Paraguay playing against Korea Republic, Ghana verses South Africa-this is the sixth African derby in the history of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup. The host, Egypt, will play against Costa Rica, while Nigeria verses Germany, Brazil against Uruguay and the other teams in the round include Hungary, Czech Republic, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates.

Similar workshops will be organized in Ghana, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso in which other journalists will participate.

In this project, a total of 108 participants have been selected, by an independent professional commission, and this group is known as the All Stars. At the end of 2009, a selected few of the All Stars will qualify to become part of the Dream Team that will travel to South Africa during the World Cup in 2010 to report on the event.

During the World Cup in South Africa, the non-selected journalists in the Dream Team will cover the World Cup tournament from a truly African perspective not within South Africa, but by reporters throughout the continent.

Emmanuel Kele was one of two Sudanese journalists who participated in the Twenty Ten training in Cairo. This is the report he posted to the website of his radio station when he got back home.

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http://www.africamediaonline.com/mmc/gallery/detail/542?tab=features
http://www.africamediaonline.com/mmc/gallery/detail/544?tab=features
http://www.africamediaonline.com/mmc/gallery/detail/547?tab=features

The remainder of the audio features will be uploaded in the coming days, together with the text features also produced during this, the second of the Twenty Ten training courses. And the pace of the Twenty Ten project is only increasing, with the official branding launched in the past week, and the third training module kicking off this week in Nigeria.

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We have put them up on the features page of our own web site. If you click on a feature and then click on the “View in CoolIris” you can have an enhanced viewing experience.

Here are some places that the press has picked up on the project: Pictorial Online; Bizcommunity; Lightstalkers; Digital Picture Library Manager; World Press Photo

Above: February 2009 – Africa Media Online’s media manager, Dominique Le Roux (right) with Hollandse Hoogte’s Adriaan Monshouwer (centre) at the offices of Hollandse Hoogte picture agency in Amsterdam, Netherlands

These are some of our distribution partners around the world that are getting the work out there and there are more to follow:

Belgium: Belga; China: China Foto Press, Imagine China; France: Sipa; Germany: Fotofinder, Ullstein Bild; Netherlands: Hollandse Hoogte, Poland: East News; Russia: Fotolink; South America Other Images; Spain: Album United Kingdom: Panos Pictures, Photoshot; United States America: Image Works, Newscom