Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

<strong>the</strong>m to send regular elections
updates, especially during voting
day. Incoming messages were
processed and used for news articles
<strong>after</strong> <strong>the</strong>y had been received at
<strong>the</strong> newsroom through a contentga<strong>the</strong>ring
system. Messages were
also posted on Twitter and followups
were undertaken to generate
full-blown stories that were subsequently
publicised via SMS alerts to
subscribers.
Twitter was used in all ten countries
“Thanks to this,
<strong>the</strong>re are new
opportunities for <strong>the</strong>
mainstream media in
news development,
especially when
professional
journalists can’t
respond quickly or
comprehensively to
news as it happens.”
as a news ga<strong>the</strong>ring and reporting
tool. Journalists working with <strong>the</strong>
African Elections Project used it in
four distinct ways:
• Connecting stakeholders as part
of <strong>the</strong> news ga<strong>the</strong>ring process:
Reaching out and connecting
with stakeholders such as politicians,
political parties, elections
observers, electoral management
bodies, citizens and
civil society.
• Distribution: Publishing SMSs
from <strong>the</strong> citizens and <strong>the</strong>
project’s journalists to a wider
audience. This included using
<strong>the</strong> Twitpic feature to publish
pictures from <strong>the</strong> field. An
example from <strong>the</strong> Togo poll
can be found at http://twitpic.
168 | Media in Africa - 2011
com/photos/togoelections. The
micro-blogging feature was
also used to point to published
media monitoring reports.
• Alerts: As a key feature in
election monitoring, Twitter was
used to inform voters, as well
as <strong>the</strong> African diaspora, about
information that needed to be
sent out with some immediacy.
Usually, <strong>the</strong> alerts announced
new content as soon as it was
published on <strong>the</strong> website. In <strong>the</strong>
case of Ivory Coast, alerts were
also used to report on incidents
of violence against journalists
who were targeted during <strong>the</strong>
conflict.
• Content dissemination: Twitter
was used for news production
and for content dissemination
of elections results from polling
stations, as <strong>the</strong> results were
released.
The project encountered a number
of challenges in <strong>the</strong> ten countries.
Journalists have low access to <strong>the</strong>
internet and appropriate bandwidth,
and <strong>the</strong>y lack access to real-time
information. It is a norm to see
journalists using public cyber cafes
to file stories, since some of <strong>the</strong>
newsrooms do not have computers
and a stable internet connection.
The low level of user content generation
was ano<strong>the</strong>r challenge for media
outlets undertaking online news
operations. However, <strong>the</strong> growth of
cheap and widely available internet
access could, in <strong>the</strong> near future, improve
<strong>the</strong> access to and uptake of
web-based news services and <strong>the</strong>se
could become as relevant as traditional
print and electronic media.
Notwithstanding <strong>the</strong> current hurdles,
ICTs still remain <strong>the</strong> main avenue for
journalists to overcome government
restrictions – as was witnessed in
Ivory Coast when newspapers were
shut down but <strong>the</strong>ir respective websites
continued functioning.
Although online and social media
coverage is not yet as influential as
radio, TV and print, it is assuming
greater importance – not only for
local audiences but for citizens
living abroad.