Shaping the future of journalism
Last week, the second conference on sustainable journalism took place at the Aga Khan University in Nairobi, Kenya. For three days, top-notch speakers, experts and enthusiasts shared knowledge, connected with peers and discovered the latest trends and innovations in the field.
What a success it was! More than a 100 participants joined the 3-day conference. Dinesh Balliah, Director of Wits Centre for Journalism in South Africa, who also co-hosted the conference together with Fojo Media Institute, The Sustainable Journalism Partnership and Aga Khan University, shared her commitment with the participants in the room;
“This conference is a gesture of an international commitment to make journalism sustainable financially, socially and culturally. We are deeply committed to sustainability and to journalism that is shaped by Africa and its everyday realities”.
A concrete action plan
The keyword of this conference? Practice, practice, practice! We, the organisers, asked ourselves how we can bring this concept into the realities of the practitioners of journalism. That is why attendees of the conference were divided into different discussion groups to develop innovative ideas on how to put sustainability into practice within areas of content, business, research, education, inclusivity and production/development.
As a result, participants discussed and shared good examples of sustainable journalism that cover several areas: from collaborations with academics and climate experts to sustainable journalism trainings for citizen journalists and financial independence – the conference covered it all.
As Dinesh Balliah puts it: “The main goal of the sustainable conference is to learn what is being done on the African continent and make a commitment to sustainable journalism. Success will be measured by examining the actual reporting of bloggers, podcasters, writers, visual journalists, and multimedia journalists to see what has shifted in their work since the conference and what new elements related to sustainability have been incorporated.”
What a success!
We just wanted to take a moment to say a BIG thank you to all of you who made the Sustainable Journalism in Practice Conference a massive success! We had such an awesome time collaborating with the Wits Centre for Journalism, the Aga Khan University and the Sustainable Journalism Partnership and hosting such an incredible group of people.Your contributions were nothing short of amazing, and we couldn’t have done it without you. Your energy, enthusiasm, and expertise were truly inspiring, and we feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from and work with each and every one of you.
We’re so excited to see what’s next for sustainable journalism, and we can’t wait to continue the conversation with all of you.