Dibussi Tande
The last decade has witnessed a dramatic surge in “citizen journalism” which has effectively asserted itself as a legitimate alternative voice to the mainstream media. Bowman and Willis describe citizen journalism as:
The act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires.
According to Dan Gillmor, a leading advocate of citizen journalism,
What became known as citizen journalism is the result of the digital era’s democratization of media – wide access to powerful, inexpensive tools of media creation; and wide access to what people created, via digital networks – after a long stretch when manufacturing-like mass media prevailed. Blogging was one of the first major tools in this genre....
Without doubt, weblogs or blogs have been the driving force behind the exponential growth of citizen-generated media in recent years. According to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere / 2008 report, there were an estimated 184 million blogs worldwide as of August 2008. Today, thousands of Africans at home and in the Diaspora have joined the blogosphere to create vibrant cyber-communities that provide alternative analyses and fresh perspectives on events taking place in the continent. As Zimbabwean blogger Zimbabwean Pundit explained in an August 15, 2005 post titled “The State of the African Blogosphere”:
This miracle of cyberspace – that it allows for cheap communication unfettered by geopolitical boundaries – has made it possible for the African odyssey to share center stage alongside the big issues in the west, thanks in part to Africa’s bloggers… African bloggers are retelling the African story from their authentic perspective with an avid passion for their countries and continent to boot. It is impossible to read the posts on any of the blogs in the African blogosphere and come away without a sense of the writer’s deep connection to the country and continent.
And all over Africa, regimes which once had absolute control over the flow of information are taking note of, and trying to adapt to, this new phenomenon.
In January 2006, I joined the fast growing and vibrant African blogosphere when I launched my blog, Scribbles from the Den – a platform where I could provide that alternative perspective on events and issues, particularly Cameroonian issues, and which would also serve as an unfettered space for readers to freely comment on these issues without fear or favor. For half a century, Cameroonians have been systematically deprived of the appropriate repères historiques or historical reference points that would enable them to analyze political and other events in the country in an informed manner, and place these events in their appropriate historical and geo-political context. Over the last three years, Scribbles from the Den has, from its little corner in the blogosphere, tried to recreate those reference points by taking a fresh look at events of the past and going beyond the official narrative when interpreting today’s events. The growing popularity of the blog seems to indicate that it is playing a role, albeit a small one, in shaping national discourse on key issues of our time.
Today, Scribbles from the Den is one of the most consulted alternative/non-traditional media sources of news analysis on Cameroon. At the beginning of April 2009, it had 400 posts (including podcasts and videos), 2,463 reader comments, over 300,000 individual page hits and over 168,000 unique visitors from a record 195 countries. Scribbles from the Den has consistently ranked as the number one Cameroonian blog on Afrigator, Africa’s largest social media aggregator and blog directory. It also won the Judges’ Vote for the Best International Blog during the 2008 Black Weblog Award.
This volume consists of 49 selected essays which appeared on Scribbles from the Den between 2006 and 2009. They cover a variety of key issues such as Cameroon’s stalled democratic transition, the country’s never-ending higher education crisis, the “Anglophone problem,” and the brain drain, among others. It also includes a couple of non-Cameroonian articles on the political crisis in Zimbabwe and the impact of the Obama presidency on Africa. Hopefully, the general public, from the casual observer of the Cameroonian political scene to researchers and students of African/Cameroonian affairs, will find this collection of essays useful.
While editing this text, I tried as much as possible to remain faithful to the look and feel of the original blog postings, many of which were interactive articles with hyperlinks and/or embedded videos and podcasts. This is why there are no footnotes and endnotes in the text. This omission is also explained by the fact that a good number of the hyperlinks in the original postings are now broken due to “the ephemeral and transient nature of Web pages" – a growing problem for digital libraries and academic citations. I have, however, included a reference section at the end of each chapter whenever possible.
This collection of essays would not have been possible without the dedicated readers of Scribbles from the Den, whose regular visits and comments have made the blog a very dynamic, interactive and entertaining one, and encouraged me to keep on blogging, in spite of an increasingly busy schedule. Special thanks go to Kangsen Wakai who meticulously proofread the manuscript. I am, however, most indebted to my wife Terese and son Mokali who have selflessly and lovingly given me the necessary time and space to pursue my interest in blogging and writing at the expense of more quality family time. This collection is especially dedicated to them.
Chicago, April 14, 2009
References
Bowman, S. & Willis, C. (2003). We Media: How audiences are shaping the future of news and information. Reston, Va.: The Media Center at the American Press Institute.
Gillmor, D. (2008). Where Did “Citizen Journalist” Come From? Retrieved March 15, 2009 from The Center for Citizen Media Blog: http://citmedia.org/blog/2008/07/14/where-did-citizen-journalist-come-from/
Heavens, A. (December, 20 2005). African bloggers find their voice. BBC Focus on Africa magazine. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4512290.stm
Jewels in the Jungle. (2005). African bloggers find their voice: My reflections. http://jewelsnthejungle.blogspot.com/2005/12/african-bloggers-find-their-voice-my.html
Sellitto, C. (2004). Web Cit(ation)es in scholarly articles. http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw04/papers/refereed/sellitto/paper.html
Technorati. (2008). State of the Blogosphere / 2008. http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/
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