Compiled by Wangethi Mwangi, former editorial director at the Nation Media Group (NMG) and Wanjiru Waithaka, this book is based on the speeches, presentations and discussions of the two-day Pan Africa Media Conference held on March 18-19, 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The conference was a collaboration of NMG and the African Media Initiative. Speakers included President Mwai Kibaki, Rwandese President Paul Kagame, His Highness the Aga Khan, CNN correspondent David McKenzie and Google Africa’s Ory Okolloh.
Global speakers and leading media professionals from across the African continent gathered at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre to talk about the issues that have long plagued the media fraternity such as media freedom, media and conflict, governance and democracy as well as the role of the media in educating the public on environmental preservation.
New media was a key topic and participants explored the issue of citizen journalism, movement of audiences to online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, MySpace, SMS and MMS and the role of these new media platforms in developing the African continent.
The conference was held to commemorate Nation Media Group’s 50th anniversary and was attended by University students, lecturers, local and international journalists, businesspeople, policy makers and the general public. The book titled ‘Media and the Africa Promise’ was launched on Wednesday June 22, 2011.