Africa's cell phone media gets mobile

With this innovative project, African citizens – from the sprawling cities 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 cell phone 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 cellphones on the website, AfricaNews wants to provide a sound often unheard. In this way, the organisation offers a different perspective to the continent in comparison to traditional media.

As of today AfricaNews will present content from reporters in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique and their reports will be posted on http://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 Africa's digital opportunity is undoubtedly mobile.

Cellphones 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 cell phone. As a region, Africa's cell phone market has been the fastest-growing market in the world, averaging 50% growth per year since 2000.

The technology partner of the cell phone reporter's project is SKOEPS, a Dutch company that is known for creating the world's first national news site (http://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) without using a computer and without having a traditional Internet connection. The cell phone reporters only need access to a cell phone tower, a GPRS enabled phone and some credit.