Citizen Journalism in South Africa

By Bob Toovey - 24 February 2006

Citizen Journalism is catching on all over the world and that includes South Africa. Johnnic Communications, South Africa's leading media and entertainment company, has created a site whose content is entirely created by its readers, totally fuelled by Citizen Reporting.

Reporter.co.za features articles, images, audio and video from ordinary members of the public. From their about page they state…

"...it is a truly South African and African enterprise. In a continent where social reform and economic progress are critical goals, Johncom stands proud. It is a profitable - and equally important, ethical - South African company owned and operated by South Africans..."

The lead article is about Cricket against the Australians and something about sledging. I did read the posting to find out what sledging is but unfortunately it was not explained. However there seems to be plenty of rivalry as there are some posters to down load with rather poor taste captions though I am sure it is all in good spirit. There does not seem to be any shortage of content, there is a wide range of topics covered and from what I have seen so far, written rather well.

The layout of the site is good though it seems to be designed for a resolutions of 1024 x 768, those with a lower setting may get annoyed by scroll bars.

Anneta said on 23 July 2010

I am sure it is very interesting and difficult at the same time to work in Africa. Here's a short video with Helen Theron who works as journalist there and what she thinks about the country, people and all the rest - http://www.tubehome.com/South-africa-science-journalism-helen-theron

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