How Africa tweets …

New research reveals how Africa Tweets

South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco lead Tweeting on the continent

 

Nairobi, 26 January 2012 – Young people Tweeting from mobile devices are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa, according to How Africa Tweets, new research launched in Nairobi today.

In the first ever attempt to comprehensively map the use of Twitter in Africa, Portland Communications and Tweetminster analysed over 11.5 million geo-located Tweets originating on the continent during the last three months of 2011. This pan-African analysis of Twitter traffic was complemented by a survey of 500 of Africa’s most active Tweeters.

How Africa Tweets found:

·         South Africa is the continent’s most active country by volume of geo-located Tweets, with over twice as many Tweets (5,030,226 during Q4 2011) as the next most active Kenya (2,476,800). Nigeria (1,646,212), Egypt (1,214,062) and Morocco (745,620) make up the remainder of the top five most active countries.

·         57% of Tweets from Africa are sent from mobile devices.

·         60% of Africa’s most active Tweeters are aged 20-29.

·         Twitter in Africa is widely used for social conversation, with 81% of those polled saying that they mainly used it for communicating with friends.

·         Twitter is becoming an important source of information in Africa. 68% of those polled said that they use Twitter to monitor news. 22% use it to search for employment opportunities.

·         African Twitter users are active across a range of social media, including Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Mark Flanagan, Portland’s Partner for Digital Communications, says: “One of the more surprising findings of this research is that more public figures have not joined Africa’s burgeoning Twittersphere. With some notable exceptions, we found that business and political leaders were largely absent from the debates playing out on Twitter across the continent. As Twitter lifts off in Africa, governments, businesses and development agencies can really no longer afford to stay out of a new space where dialogue will increasingly be taking place.”

How Africa Tweets found that Twitter is helping to form new links within Africa. The majority of those surveyed said that at least half of the Twitter accounts they follow are based on the continent.

Beatrice Karanja, Associate Director and head of Portland Nairobi, says: “We saw the pivotal role of Twitter in the events in North Africa last year, but it is clear that Africa’s Twitter revolution is really just beginning. Twitter is helping Africa and Africans to connect in new ways and swap information and views. And for Africa – as for the rest of the world – that can only be good.”

This post is from an Email of  matthew.gould@portland-communications.com (Matthew Gould)

The State of Media freedom in francophone Africa

This is the topic for today’s web chat organized by the VOA (Voice Of America) in Washignton DC at 01.00pm GMT (04.00pm Madagascar time).

This discussion will be live broadcasted on VOA TV, VOA Radio, and on internet. The guest will be Ferdinand Ferella, the managing director of the French to Africa service at the VOA. Ferdinand Ferella, through his tremendous experience of covering the news and events throughout Africa, especially in French speaking African countries, is among the journalists who know very much (in details?) the real situation of press freedom in Africa.

The situation of African journalists is quite difficult because they have to face a lot of “direct and indirect obstacles” when doing their jobs. “JOB, this the term which is among the sources of journalists’ problems”, African journalists do their jobs because they are paid to do so and not because it is their passion. In most of Francophone African countries, journalists become the ”agents” or the ”spokepeople” of political movements or parties. Nevertheless, let us not also forget that in some “western” countries, press companies ”work” for very influent economic entities.

The Francophone African journalists are aware of their weaknesses and are willing to strengthen their status and their independance, but the reality on the ”battlefield” is really something else and is always able to ”redirect” them in a ”wiser” way.

Felaka

Felaka is the ironical term to name corruption of journalists in Madagascar. Felaka means ”slap”. This has always been deemed as a ”normal” practice in the world of journalism in Madagascar. If you want something to be published or to be reported, you have to give money carefully hidden in a little white envelope to the targeted journalists. According to Malagasy journalists, this is not corruption, this is just a donation … I believe that such practice is also widely expanded in most of French speaking African countries. The funny thing is that there are even Malagasy communication agencies which straightly advise their clients to give ”felaka” to journalists. This practice is so expanded in Madagascar that I’m just afraid that the Malagasy state would legalize it (through the new code of communication that the ministry of communication and the journalists’ union are now preparing).

Source of information

Information sourcing is vital for the work of journalists. In Madagascar, most of  journalists just wait for the said information to fall into their hands. Press conference and Press release are considered as the only trustworthy sources of information. The concept of journalism of investigation is not well popularized yet in Madagascar. As a friend journalist told to me one day: “it takes time and it costs money … Investigation is not part of my job description, I’m not a cop …” Most of Malagasy journalists do not make efforts to overlap the information they got, and when they do it, they do it between journalists when they meet.

Malagasy journalists also … shhhhhhhhh … okay, let’s stop criticizing our good friends from ”traditional” media and let’s listen to Ferdinand Ferella this afternoon at 01.00pm GMT instead, I guess he has a lot of interesting things to share.

If you have a good internet connection and if you are eager to listen to what he will say, just log on http://statedept.connectsolutions.com/africamedia/