By Julieta Romero Güeto and Simon Didszuweit
After witnessing investigative journalism almost disappear in Latin America, Peruvian journalist Gustavo Goritti, director of IDL Reporteros, thinks there is now hope for rebirth. Continue reading
By Julieta Romero Güeto and Simon Didszuweit
In Germany 1989, social change started with people gathering in a church. This year in Egypt, cameras and mobile phones played a key role during demonstrations. That’s how Marek Tuszynski, co-founder of the international NGO Tactical Tech Collective, opened the workshop “Navigating the Digital: Getting your Message Heard and Staying Safe” during the second day of the FoME Symposium. Continue reading
By Natalia Lazareva and Eira Martens
YouTube: 8 years of video content is being uploaded every day. Facebook: 250 million of photos are being uploaded every day. Twitter: while in September 2010 about 100 million of tweets were posted daily, their number reached 250 million in September 2011. What will the figures be for the year 2012? This question was posed at the workshop on the Day 2 of the FoMe Symposium by Gavin Sheridan, Innovation Director for Storyful, a news agency for the social media age, based in Dublin, Ireland.
By Gerhard Schneibel and Eira Martens
On Day 2 of the FoME 2011 Symposium, participants joined workshop sessions for a more in-depth look at specific topics. Adam Thomas, of Prag-based Sourcefabric shared with participants some strategies for implementing open source software in their newsrooms.
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By Toqa Pia Hilal, Srinivas Mazumdarum and Eira Martens
The role of social media in past, current and future revolutions is becoming not only a widely discussed but also a highly controversial topic. Highlighting the impact of Facebook and Twitter on supporting the so-called Arab Spring revolutions, the speakers of the session on “Security Threats” portrayed not only the bright side of this rapidly evolving social media usage, but also the ugly side.
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By Mohammed Al-Sarray, Srinivas Mazumdaru and Eira Martens
The second day of the FoME 2011 Symposium started with a discussion on new media platforms and their usage by “traditional” and citizen journalists. According to Ivan Sigal, Executive Director of Global Voices, a non-profit online initiative for citizen media, information now a days flows through complex networks between citizen journalists and media organizations. Partnerships always exist in one way or another.
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By Christine Bukania and Eira Martens
In Africa, where access to technology and the internet is still extremely low, open source software through initiatives like Freedom Fone and FrontlineSMS are turning mobile phones into the major drives for meeting information demands and enabling citizen participation across the continent.
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By Natalia Lazareva, Srinivas Mazumdaru and Eira Martens
Data Journalism was one of the afternoon sessions on Day 1 of the FoME Symposium in Bonn. A diverse mix of speakers discussed the present and future of data journalism: A concept still new to many media and development practioneers.
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By Christine Bukania and Eira Martens
Giving his keynote address at the FoME 2011 Symposium, Justin Arenstein of the Association of Independent Publishers and Rest of the World Media, highlighted: “There is no one future for journalism, there are multiple futures. There is no one platform and there is no one solution.”
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By Gerhard Schneibel and Eira Martens
Mark Thompson, of the Open Society Foundations Media Program, opened the FoME 2011 Symposium with a keynote speech on digital media which his organization is mapping in the 60 countries.
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