All Africa Media leaders have converged in Nairobi, Kenya for a three-day summit to discuss issues affecting the sector and the critical role media plays in shaping Africa’s future.
The Summit will take place from the 8th-10th May 2024 at Radisson Blue hotel. The participants who are also expected to address the state of African Media are media leaders from various African countries and relevant stakeholders.
Speaking Tuesday during the pre-summit press briefing, All Africa Media Leaders Director Dr. Tendai Mhizha said that the summit is expected to come up with strategies on how to compete in the social media era.
Dr. Mhiza said that over 40 countries will be represented by top level media practitioners including Editors in Chief, CEOs and MDs, influencers, digital and camera crews.
She noted that the summit will have over 200 media leaders in attendance where 60 speakers will be on the panel, whereas another event with a total of 500 people will take place at the University of Nairobi, which will not only include students, but will also be open to the youth within the Nairobi region.
“We have partnered with a company called Ubuntu Drive and they have set up a metaverse for the event to showcase live and mixed reality experience,” said Mihzha.
The metaverse refers to the convergence of physical and virtual space accessed through computers and enabled by immersive technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.
She added that the summit will release the State of African Media Report and also have a panel discussion which will address how technological changes are affecting the news room transformation.
Additionally, she stated that the summit will cover standards and media governance, peace building, misinformation and information, the deep fake, the role of media in solving the conflicts among others.
She said that All Africa Leaders will form a Council that will not only mediate media matters across the continent since sometimes media is left vulnerable but also tackle information and disinformation.
“We will have a training programme on how we digitally transform our newsrooms and have a declaration that we can all get behind that gives some direction to the fourth state in terms of coming together in Africa,” she stated.
Mhizha announced that All Africa Media has kicked off the youth innovation challenge which engages them in traditional media and sees their position in media while adding that it has put the challenge out to the youth across the continent to address what can be done differently in the newsrooms.
All Africa Global Media Chairman Amadou Mahtar said that Kenya is a driving force when it comes to technology as it is one of the biggest technology works in the continent and the beacon of hope in media development.
“The media in this country has always been strong and actually one of the biggest resolutions around the new world information communication order which was championed by the Venus group,” he said.
He acknowledged that the summit will have and awards ceremony which will have various categories including youth innovation challenge, young journalist award for the Kenyan journalist who have been chosen across academia and from the media fraternity, African capacity building journalism award, Africa development award, journalism African award and government reporting and regional integration for impact and the continent award.
Additionally, he explained that there are other awards including a lifetime achievement award, which is given to all sorts of different people across Africa, while adding that All Africa Media has a total of 300 people who are already participating in the awards event.
By Sharon Atieno and Gathigia Ng’aari
