Fellows' diaries 2007: 26th October

Muamar A. O. Nakhla, Wattan TV, Palestine

On Friday, the 5th day of fellowship, we went to Oxford. It was an amazing and very beautiful city. Just after arriving, we went to see the historic buildings, the churches etc. We also toured around to see the old streets and the shopping area. When it was time for lunch, I tried to convince the fellows to accompany me to go and eat spicy food. As usual Mosh (from South Africa) strongly opposed the idea and the others except, Signe, sympathized with me, but I decided to execute the orders from the other girls. So we had lunch at an Italian restaurant. I had pizza! Not bad! 

Then we went to the Reuters institute. Immediately after arriving, we met the Reuters fellows and had a heated and exciting debate with them about the influence of new technologies on the practice of journalism around the world. This generated other discussions on issues like the notion of independent media and the images of developing countries in the Western media.    

Later on in the evening, we attended a lecture by the Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4. As would be expected from any member of the media sector here, she had several biting criticisms for the BBC! This reinforced my perception of the kind of competition that is going on in the UK media.

This, to me, seems very much like the kind of competition going on between political parties in my country (Palestine) and elsewhere. Here, it seems that each media organ is claiming that it is the best, that it is topping viewer's ratings, and that it is absolutely independent of any influences!

After the lecture we returned to London safely.

Fellows' diaries 2007: 26th October

Chanda Mfula, Zambezi FM, Zambia

It's Friday and we all agree it's been a busy, fast and exciting week. The day itself has been thought-provoking. We took a trip to Oxford University. This is a place rich with history and knowledge.

After touring the sites and going up the castle (with Sofia Lopez walking behind everyone else!), we have a very engaging debate with the Reuters fellows at the Reuters Foundation. I introduce the debate on the emerging forms of media emanating from technological innovations and the influence these have on traditional media.

One aspect that has emerged with new media is the notion of citizen journalism. A Reuters fellow from Argentina and Charles Tembei (One-World fellow from Cameroon) vehemently refuse to recognise citizen journalists or indeed the idea of referring to non-professionals as citizen 'journalists'. I can sense that journalists are worried-sick about ordinary people taking over their role.

My own view is that citizen journalism should be encouraged. A lot of good things have come out of it. A lot of big breaking news stories have been brought to the world by citizen journalists at so many times when the so-called professional journalists were unavailable at story scenes. By using their personal gadgets such as phones and cameras, ordinary citizens have been able to record video footages and audio bites for very big stories. In short they have contributed in a big way to giving the world access to information.

Given the heated debate we've had on this issue as well as blogging, it's easy to see the direction media is taking, and that citizen journalists are firmly here to stay!