Bloggers hail use of new media

A key focus of the Pan African Media conference has been new media forms and how they are likely to shape the future.

Mr Aly Khan Satchu, chief executive officer at Rich Management remarks, through a posting on social media networking site, Twitter, that what struck him “the most at the Africa Media Conference yesterday (Thursday) in Nairobi was the Twitter feed and how this has upended how such a conference is reported”.

Mr Kahenya Kamunyu, an avid blogger notes that sometimes online forums are the only source of news.

Give views

This weeks’ conference was the first in Kenya to be covered “formally” through Twitter by a big media company like the Nation Media Group.

The company’s AfricaReview.com and www.nation.co.ke websites incorporated Twitter stream (a live log of discussions by users) by Monday–four days before the conference.

This gave those who could not be physically present at the official ceremony a chance to give their views.

This is important for social journalism, and as a web developer Julius Bett notes, it gives a higher search engine rating on the web for news websites.

At the opening ceremony, President Kibaki acknowledged the power of the new media, especially for the youth.