As part of the Africa Union Media Fellowship programme, Areff Samir and Amira Sayed both who are 2022 AU Media Fellows, hosted Dr. Dinesh Balliah, Acting Director of the Centre of Journalism at Wits University. Naeemah Dudan, Producer at Seen.tv, Veerashni Pillay, founder of news start-up explain.co.za, and Lindokuhle Nzuza, project coordinator at Jamlab Africa and panelists to unpack the changing media landscape, share best practices on how to leverage technology to shape our narratives and discuss sustainable business model's journalist can adopt to survive in the fast-paced media industry. The event took place on the 3rd of December, 2022 at the Wits University.
Speaking during the African Union Media Fellowship meeting, Dinesh Balliah, PhD acting director at the Centre of Journalism Wits University, shed light on the constantly changing needs of media audiences in Africa. She focused on how the needs of media consumers in Africa are changing and concluded that it calls for new approaches in the media industries in Africa. She said, "The media ecosystem is changing, and thus the curriculum of journalism has to improve to meet the dynamic ever-changing needs of the audiences. Today we give assignments to students and we instruct them to present them in different formats like podcasting, Data visualization etc."
Telling Africa stories and creating African content will be more successful in the future when media students and practising media personalities embrace the digital ways of practicing journalism. More people can access the Internet and search for news and media content online on Podcasts, Twitter, blogs, and Youtube, among other platforms. In the near future, African audiences will rely more on getting news and media content on online platforms. This calls for a necessary and immediate revision of the journalism curriculum in Africa.
Also, donor companies and funding stakeholders of different media houses are changing their selection criteria. Naeemah Dudan listed ways of getting funders and donors to support your work as a journalist. she said that media personalities should find better approaches to donors and mentioned that good proposals for any idea are the key to persuading donors. Therefore, Media professionals in Africa can thrive when they master the skill of writing persuasive proposals to donor and funding stakeholders. Journalism and media institutions should teach students how to draft proposals because it will determine how far they go, given that journalism and media require heavy funding.
Lindokuhle Nzuza, the project coordinator at Jamlab Africa, an incubator for innovative journalism and media in projects from across Africa aims to Strengthen innovation in African independent journalism and media, to grow the diversity of the continent's voices in the public space. This is a great contribution to equip journalist to counter stereotypes in the digital edge.
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African Union of Media Fellowship calls upon Journalism and Media Students, Professionals, and Professors to embrace the changes in the industry brought forth by the Internet and digital technology. Africa needs to be at the forefront of telling its own stories. This heavily relies on the Journalism and Media Students who hold the future of Media in Africa.
Note to Editor
The AU Media Fellowship programme, is implemented by the African Union (AU) through the Information and Communication directorate, supported by the Germany Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). Through the fellowship, the AU seeks to boost ownership of key policies and programs, and accelerate achievement of goals under its Agenda 2063, which center around delivering socio-economic and developmental changes on the continent.
