Mobile Reporting: New Perspectives for the Dark Continent

Africa — a continent of backwardness, wars, crises and catastrophes. This picture is firmly anchored in many people’s heads. But the Dark Continent has more to offer. For example in the area of the media: on account of the much-cited digital revolution, the relationship between traditional and new media is changing, even in Africa.

Where the discussion of media developments on the African continent is concerned, the term “mobile revolution” has become a catchphrase. The term alludes to the rapid spread of mobile phone technology. And it doesn’t only apply to the mostly more advanced north of the continent but also, and above all, to the majority of Africa’s Sub-Saharan states. An article published by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation tells us that almost 70% of the telecommunications net of Sub-Saharan Africa is controlled by mobile phone operators.

With the advent of the mobile phone, a new form of reporting has developed for those involved in the media as well. It offers completely new perspectives for the African continent: mobile reporting. Here the mobile phone is used as a tool of journalistic reporting. By way of an external keyboard attached to his mobile phone, a journalist writes articles, takes photos or records videos with the built-in mobile phone camera and then sends them off for publishing. Mobile technology allows for live multi-media reporting from any individual point without elaborate transmission technology ― directly to the media company. Hence mobile reporters can provide information about events both easier and quicker ― information, that is, which tended to be intercepted earlier on by censorship, for example during elections.

The project Voices of Africa already uses this new form of mobile reporting. The Voices of Africa Media Foundation was set up in 2006 in the Netherlands with the aim of strengthening the media in Africa and offering young Africans the chance to become journalistically active. The initiative towards founding the project originally came from the Dutchman Elles van Gelder who felt that western reporting on Africa was strongly fragmented and not very realistic. The aim of the project was therefore to present a balanced picture of Africa. That is why the project attempts to give young Africans a voice and to encourage them to play an active role in reporting on their home continent. The company headquarters is still in the Netherlands and it is here that young Africans are specifically trained by journalists as mobile reporters.

By now these mobile reporters are sending their reports from all corners of Africa via mobile phone and are in this way changing the public media landscape. Up to now, more than 400 journalists have been involved in the project with articles, recorded interviews or short films. To date, Voices of Africa is the first organisation to use mobile reporting in this way.

This new form of media reporting opens up completely new perspectives for the African continent and is clearly of great advantage. For instance, the mobile phone is suitable as an addition to already existent media. The reporters can send their contributions from regions into which no western journalist can venture. They can also overcome linguistic hurdles easier because they speak the local dialect, for example, and can thus communicate with the local people. What’s more, there is also a greater trust among Africans themselves. For instance, village people are more likely to give their “brothers and sisters” information than a foreign reporter from the west. In view of the very small number of foreign correspondents in Africa, mobile reporters who send their reports to foreign online portals are a considerable enrichment. Issues can then be presented from the perspective of Africans ― possibly in contrast to western-orientated reporting.

There is great potential, and this has already been tapped in many places in a productive way. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work on practical media implementation that needs to be done and to be professionalised.

This then shows us the weak aspect of the project: the mobile reporters are for the most part journalistic laypeople. There has been a broad debate on this for some time, not just since the attacks on Mumbai. The so-called citizen journalists have to ask themselves the following questions: How do they deal with sensitive information and sources? How serious is their research work? How sensationalistic a quickly sent piece of news ― was content from different information sources properly checked? These are possible targets which could be exploited by powers that are not interested in transparent reporting in the first case. Many examples of this can be found on the website Medioslatinos.

Nonexistent journalistic competence cannot be taught at a workshop. However such competence is a prerequisite, if the media are to carry out their public task, democratic role and social responsibility in the service of human development. Media which are independent and act professionally are called upon to whet the public consciousness for this. At the end of the day it is not merely a question of receiving more positive news from the poorest continent but also of eradicating poverty. That is why those with the responsibility must be measured against whether they really do continue to work on the UN Millennium Goals. It is the role of the media to support this process professionally. After all, the trend is clear already: Africa is using mobile phones in a form that could be of interest to many worldwide.

Daniela Waber-Keutieu

Daniela Waber-Keutieu, a student of the University of Bonn in the MA course “Media Sciences”, enjoys researching and working on topics related to the media and Africa. Her BA dissertation was on “The picture of Black Africa in the over-regional German press between 2000 and 2005, using the examples of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Süddeutsche Zeitung. During her studies she also wrote further texts on further topics such as female genital mutilation and community radio in Cameroon.

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Prof. Dr. Tino Schuppan, Scientific Director of the Institute for eGovernment at the University of Potsdam. He does consulting and research for international, European and national stakeholders. Within the area of development cooperation he analysed reform processes in the Egyptian and African administration.

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