Media Community Newsletter September 2024

Hello,

Find out how your work can benefit from A.I, meet the digital investigative journalist who  is a Nieman 2025 Fellow at Harvard, and read stories that reflect Africa’s progress, innovation, and opportunity.

1. Journalism trends: Can A.I benefit journalists and newsrooms? The Columbia Journalism Review believes that while the effects of AI on the news industry remain poorly understood, there’s a strong case for news organisations to adopt tools like ChatGPT and Scribe, stating, “AI’s potential to increase efficiency in news organizations is a central motivator for its adoption. Various examples demonstrate that efficiency and productivity gains have been achieved, including dynamic paywalls, automated transcription, and data analysis tools in news production.” Will you be taking up A.I? It may have a slow uptake with journalists, as Muck Rack’s State of Journalism 2024 study found. Only 28% of journalists report using the technology and another 20% plan to explore its uses. Meanwhile, 31% said they don’t plan on using AI, while 21% said they were not sure if they’d use the technology. Amongst journalists who used A.I, it was for behind the scenes tasks like brainstorming (52%), research (51%), drafting headlines (34%), outlines (31%), social media posts (28%) and  story copy (20%). About 14% used the technology for proofreading copy, transcribing meetings, and data analysis. Will you be using A.I?

2. Who’s funding: Do you want to write about issues that affect African communities? Whether it’s the effects of fast fashion in Lesotho, coastal erosion in Ghana or oil drilling in Uganda’s national parks, the Pulitzer Centre offers grants to fund underreported issues that affect communities in Africa. Issues supported by the grant include water and sanitation, land degradation and coastal erosion, education, maternal health, and climate resilience. Projects inform behaviour and policies that improve the lives of the communities reported on are a priority area. Deadline: Rolling. More info.

3. Training Opportunity: Are you an African investigative journalist aged under 30? Apply for a fellowship to attend this year’s African Investigative Journalism Conference in Johannesburg. The fellowship covers flights, visas, shuttles, accommodation and meals. Fellows must produce investigative work inspired by the conference. It’s open to print, online, and broadcast journalists. Deadline: 10 September. More info.

4. In the spotlight: From reporting about anti-LGBTQ disinformation surges online in East Africa and Kenya police’s misleading using old protest photos in online hunt for March 2023 rally participants, to how Zimbabwe election disinformation spread on WhatsApp and the false political quotes that fueled online disinformation ahead of Kenya’s election, digital investigative James Okong’o is passionate about fact-checking and uncovering digital disinformation. A winner of awards that include the 2023 Fact-Check of the Year Award from the African Fact-Checking Awards, he is a Nieman 2025 Fellow at Harvard, one of the most prestigious journalism fellowships globally.  Okong’o is studying the relationship between online influence and coordinated disinformation campaigns in sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on operations to weaponize information in Kenyan elections. He’s a digital investigation journalist for Agence France Presse.

5. Stories that moved us: Who are the ten African footballers with the most trophies in history? This list is a celebration of Africa’s most accomplished footballers. Find out what happened when tourism leaders met in Zimbabwe to set an agenda for gastronomy tourism in Africa. A new study, ‘The 2024 RMB Where to Invest in Africa report,’ shows that investors are looking beyond markets with big populations and larger economies. Instead, they are seeking smaller African countries to invest in. Lastly, air travel demand in Africa will drive a massive surge in aircraft orders, with Boeing forecasting that 82% of new purchases will be for expansion, not replacement. These are some of the stories published by bird Story Agency, which produces news about progress, innovation and opportunity in Africa.

It pays to tell better stories about Africa, so we partnered with the Thomson Foundation on a digital course called African Stories: A guide for journalists on how to tell better stories about Africa. It’s free and takes three hours to complete. Then you can pitch to bird story agency and get paid to publish stories that better represent Africa.