TICAD IV - Yokohama, Japan

This week I am in Yokohama covering the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) IV for AllAfrica as part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) press team. I am not here as a delegate but as part of the press corps, which I feel is significant.

This is another example that increasingly the line between the traditional mainstream media and citizen media is blurring rapidly. The rest of the UNDP press team here at TICAD is made up of traditional journalists from print, TV and radio, now they have a blogger not only on the scene but embedded with them as another outlet off TICAD coverage. We saw during the 2007 Kenyan election, how bloggers in particular and the citizen media in general stepped up to cover angles of the election that the mainstream media were not covering and/or were ignoring. We also saw bloggers step up and fill the gaps when the mainstream media was gagged in a draconian ministerial ban on live broadcasting. Bloggers as part of a traditional press team is a welcome move, long may it continue.

I have watched this change in the role of bloggers with interest. At TEDGlobal in Arusha last year the Google PR team was enthusiastic and insistent that bloggers joined the traditional journalists at any Google announcement. At Highway Africa, Africa’s biggest conference for journalists, bloggers have graduated from being a sideshow at the Digital Citizens’ Indaba (albeit a very significant and extremely worthwhile sideshow) to being included in the main conference programme. Indeed the Digital Citizens’ Indaba is now a draw for traditional journalists, at least those with the foresight to see where the future lies. In January Internews Kenya organized a media forum entitled Media Coverage of Post Election Violence Before and Now. It was an opportunity for the media in Kenya to reflect and to critique each other and themselves on coverage during the 2007 elections and the violence that followed. It was refreshing that I was invited as a blogger to take part in that conversation as an equal member.

Coming back to TICAD IV, it will be a challenge to find the correct tone and angle as a citizen journalist as I feel there will be no point in reporting what happened and who said what to whom as the traditional mainstream media seems to have the covered. If there is anything you feel I should look at please let me know in the comments or via email.

If you are interested in following TICAD or want to know what it is all about have a look at the website. If you want to see and hear what is going on in the main hall check out the Live Broadcasts. There are more than 40 African Heads of State/ Heads of Government here; surely you will find some them fascinating!

TICAD IV | TICAD