NEW MEDIA: A REVIEW OF SOME TRENDS IN JOURNALISM TRAINING IN AFRICA

Abstract

The growth of the Internet and World Wide Web has brought about newest medium for journalism, otherwise called online or cyber journalism. This development has engendered inevitable revolutions in both the practice and training of journalism. This development, for instance, has brought about certain phenomena which include Convergence. For instance, newspaper websites now include video, podcasts, blogs and slideshows. These developments have triggered up new challenges for the journalist who must be well acquainted with the new media, and for the journalism teachers and schools who must be up-to-date in knowledge, resources and facilities. This new development has also challenged the corpus of mass communication theories, to the extent that some sorts of reviews have been attempted. This paper considers the foregoing, and specifically examines how the digital developments have impacted on both the formal and informal training of journalism. The paper observes that while many journalism schools in Africa are yet to grasp the full import of the new phenomena, a certain few are doing pretty well. The paper also acknowledges the informal training in ICT Journalism being provided on platforms such as Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies’ annual Highway Africa Conference, Panos Institute West Africa, International Institute for ICT Journalism (PenPlusbytes) et.c.  The paper concludes with a call for a review of curriculum in most of journalism schools, a re-training of journalism teachers through informal platforms, adequate provision of infrastructures to enhance teaching in New Media, and a consideration of new business model for Journalism, in view of the new developments.