Yes. I do believe that if you're a regular visitor, you have already seen this picture, or something like it here. Trumpets blow, pls. It's the so-called "Ghana-India Kofi Annan ICT Centre of Excellence". A cumbersome title indeed, and a cumbersome URL, to boot!: http://www.aiti-kace.com.gh Truth be told, however, it is the sub-region of West Africa's quintessential ICT Centre, with state-of-the-art computers, and a place, where there is regular ICT hub-bub-ing, of sorts;-)
Here is the entrance into the building. You first have to go through a narrow gate (I guess to register your presence, 'cos when you don't, a man hisses at you (classic call to strangers in Ghana) motioning you to pass through). I took this picture yesterday as I made the intrepid step to attend the open "seminar" on "e-media". On the panel were reputed journalists from Ghana's local scene (you can check out the names here) in radio, newspaper editting, including the Africa correspondent for the BBC Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, and former editor of Ghana's premier Saturday paper Daily Mirror...who is also my former boss at work!;-)
Here's a snapshot of the audience who appeared to be listening intently to ideas on whether the new tools for the media (mini-disc; Cool-Edit software; video camera with laser backup discs(!); etc) will as much as hinder us as they will help journalists improve news-writing...and the journalist!! (given how blogging is threatening to take over the qualified jorunalists)
To the right is Dorothy Gordon, DIrector-General of the ICT Centre, and to the left is Kwaku Sakyi-Addo. His brief profile is enviable: Kwaku Sakyi-Addo is a freelance journalist working part-time for BBC World service as a television correspondent. An experienced journalist and television presenter in Ghana, Sakyi-Addo has conducted many roundtables for the media in his country. Sakyi-Addo is interested in using journalism as a means for improving the lives of persons involved in the urban agriculture food production chain. from: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-93818-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html Tags:
e-media; ghana media ; accra ; ghana ict ; ghana ict journalism ; ghana journalism ; kofi annan ict centre ; ecowas ; ecowas ict; bbc africa ; kwasi gyan-apenteng ;ghana mirror ;ghana;ghana journalists ;ofori-atta ;citifm ;
5 comments:
Good to see Ghana on the forefront of the digital revolution! Lives for journalists like us are going to change dramatically over the next 5-10 years especially with the advent of video journalism and VNOD...all very exciting!
...But I don't think bloggers are threatening proper journalists..most bloggers (your good self excepted of course!) are rubbish! ;)
Adam, flattery will get you anywhere:-)) my. I am glad Ghana is getting enlightened on that, also. Challenges remain, such as ensuring that the sub-region is affected, considering the strategic point of the ICT Centre, but I guess we'll get there.
Video journalism is all exciting, innit, but I have to say that I espouse a visceral belief that journalists are far from dead. In the long run, these are TOOLS, TOOLS, and TOOLS, NOT substitutes. When all else fails, we need our journalists to do the quintessential work of, erm, journalism, no?
Am no luddite, but I think it's the same way the argument over audio K7s disappearing went; they have NEVER disappeared, and they are not about to any time soon. Sometimes, society makes a lot of hype over nothing. Look at WAP and GPRS. Useful? Yes, but only with those who have fat loads of cash to waste when they can easily go to an Internet cafe. Most of us are not as rich as those businessmen who use WAP regularly; they are few and far between...
just some mental pabulum...
hi, nice to see the (familiar) pictures! Quite a male audience :)
I forgot about that hissing part. For some reason, here in Central Africa, people don't hiss at all.
Congrats :o) I miss Accra.
journalists can be bloggers too - in fact the more the better - I agree blogging is a tool, the threat lies in so many forms competing for attention, journalists need to just use any forms that are available to them... in a way the printed matter isn't alwasy that accessible either ...hopefully access to computers will become more of a reality in the near future ......
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