Journalists as the new audience

 By Florence Dallu, Internews in Kenya.

Increasingly, news is first broken on social media. Journalists in Kenya are waking up to the reality that the mainstream media is no longer the main source of news.

The journalists recently came together to explore the new relationship between journalists and their increasingly social media savvy audience.

The master class session led by Ethan Zuckerman, Director of the Center for Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab and co-founder of Global Voices, centered on ways that journalists can remain relevant in this era of civic or participatory media.

“With the changing pace of convergence, news now breaks first on the web and phone. Journalists need to be part of the civic media ecosystem…and find productive ways to engage with issues,” said the US-based media scholar, blogger, and Internet activist.

PAWA 254 and Internews Europe facilitated the session.

 Internews Europe  introduced crowdsourced journalism training to Africa last year after receiving more than $600,000 from the International Press Insitute News Innovation Contest.

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