Countdown to Highway Africa 2008

“I am happy to announce that over 700 journalists from more than 40 African countries will attend this year's Highway Africa to discuss issues relating to digital media and journalism,” Prof Berger said.

“Twelve years is quite a long time and this shows that this conference is not only going but also growing, and this gathering has become such a valuable tool to communicate a wide range of media issues, more especially with regard to communication technology.”

‘Citizen Journalism, Journalism for Citizens'

The theme of this year's conference is ‘Citizen Journalism, Journalism for Citizens', and a significant number of workshops on new media, social networking and blogging, among others, will be held to help journalists to be well prepared to deal with challenges arising from today's fast-changing media environment.

The 2008 conference will also seek to address a number of questions related to the goals of journalism in society and how the ordinary citizen fits within those goals as a consumer and producer. Via formal presentations, keynote addresses, workshops, interviews and practical examples, Highway Africa will explore the challenges of print, radio, TV, online and multimedia.

Apart from workshops and seminars, there will be book launches, exhibitions, debates, meetings of the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF), the African Editors Forum and community radio representatives, as well as the live TV ceremony of the SABC New Media Awards. The third annual Digital Citizen Indaba is a freeparallel event where 150 digital citizens will gather to take a closer look at the technologies that empower Africans to have a digital voice.

International speakers at the conference include Dan Gillmor (Arizona State University), Adam Clayton Powell (University of Southern California), Georgia Popplewell (MD of Global Voices) and Prof Robert Kabushenga (MD of New Vision, Uganda).

Flourishing partnership

For the past six years, Highway Africa has flourished, thanks to a partnership between Rhodes University and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), with the support of various partners, development agencies and sponsors such as MTN, the French Embassy, Absa, MDDA, the Department of Communications (DoC), and many more.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago, who has ‘freshly' returned from Beijing, China, after watching the 2008 Olympics, said, “The SABC has in the past supported events of this nature, and as the public broadcaster, we will continue to support and form partnerships.”

The SABC also said that it will broadcast live proceedings and recorded interviews of Highway Africa in the following channels: SABC News International (180 degrees, Point Blanc, African Views, In-depth News and Award Alive), Channel Africa (English, Swahili, Chinyanga and French), SAfm (Morning Talk, Media@SAfm), Umhlobo Wenene fm and Tru fm.

The SABC is appealing to all journalists who are willing to attend the 2008 Highway Africa ‘free-of-charge' to contact Thandiwe Mathibela through its department of communications on +27 (0)11 714 7363 [apparently this is for sports journalists].

For more information, go to http://highwayafrica.com, www.sabc.co.za and http://dci.ru.ac.za.