On November 10 the Africa-China Reporting Project (the Project) held the first Africa-China Journalists Forum at Wits University. The Forum convened working journalists to accentuate a hitherto largely muted African perspective for understanding journalistic representations of relations. African, Chinese and foreign Forum delegates were called upon to take a step back from Chinese and/or Western perspectives to contemplate an Africa-China journalistic viewpoint based on reporting experiences in their respective African countries and/or regions.
The full programme for the event can be viewed here; abstracts for all the presentations delivered at the Forum can be viewed here. For more background on the event, please refer to our previous post and the original announcement.
The Forum also marked the launch of the new look and branding of the renamed Africa-China Reporting Project. The formal proceedings were followed by a social event on the Wits Library Lawns. Here are some of the scenes of Forum and the social event:
The following are the presentations delivered at the Forum (click to download in PDF, not all presenters made use of overhead presentations):
Panel 1: Framing the debate on African reporting perspectives
Panel 2: Africa-China reporting and investigations on ground level
- ZHANG, Zizhu (Shirley): Behind the perception barrier: Why are African perspectives missing in Africa-China reporting?
- SHI, Yi: Who are the Chinese involved in wildlife crime in Africa and how did I investigate them?
Panel 3: Perspectives on Africa-China as reported in the media
- GUEDEGBE, Gerard: How Africa-China is reported in West African media
- MARSH, Vivien: Framing China in Africa: Perspectives from African TV news programmes on CCTV and the BBC
- KUO, Lily: China in Africa in digital media: A case study of a Quartz obsession
Panel 4: New opportunities and challenges in Africa-China reporting
- OLUKA, Herbert Benon: Taking the lead in Africa-China reporting: The Ugandan experience
- HU, Jianlong: How to conduct investigative journalism in the DRC
- AJAYI, Itunu: The Chinese operational mechanism in Africa: The Nigeria journalists’ experience
- ZHANG Jiexian (Sissy) & YU Meng (Morrie): The two existing gaps in Sino-(South) Africa reporting
- JALATA, Gedion: United pan-African voice and agencies as the missing links in the current Africa-
China partnership
The Project aims in 2017 to publish a volume of short pieces on Africa-China journalism by all the participants of the Forum.