Why Tanzania should tell its own story
At its February meetup, Hacks/Hackers Tanzania was privileged to host two speakers of note: the BBC’s digital lead in Tanzania, Tulanana Bohela, and co-founder of Pamoja Initiatives and Kinu Group, Cathrine Rose.
Top on the agenda was the need for Tanzanians, and more specifically, Tanzanian women, to own their power of self-representation.
How does the world see Tanzanian women? A simple image search yields some interesting results, from beauty queens, to half naked women and of course European tourists dangling with pointed cameras from safari trucks in the Serengeti. But, all the Hacks/Hackers agree, there’s so much more to Tanzania than that.
For Bohela, the issue is very clear cut, Tanzanian’s digital landscape is one of the most densely populated in Africa. Yet local stories are still not being told prominently enough to change the over digital perception of the country.
“We have over 50 million internet users, 88% of these users access the internet on their mobiles, and 45% of their time online is spent on social media,” she says. With so many local users, it’s crucial that we own our own online space and tell our stories.
“I’ve always loved stories, we think in stories. We have mental constructs of things and places and people bases on the stories we tell about them. Stories inform our ideas about everything.”
WikiWomen Tanzania
Bohela and Rose decided to combine their joint love of storytelling and the imperative need to create a more reflective picture of Tanzanian online to create the WikiWomen Tanzania (#Wikiwomentz) campaign.
Cathrine shares the story of WikiWomen Tanzania with the HH crowd:
“There are so many amazing Tanzanian women doing amazing work, but unfortunately they don’t even have a simple wiki page in their honor.”
The dynamic duo then formed a team of six writers who were trained as writers. They then used a simple crowd sourcing technique where the public suggested the women from different fields; human rights, media, health and entertainment, who they would like to read about on Wikipedia.
“We chose the Wiki platform because of its simplicity, the text is quick and precise, so we can highlight what these women are doing. Wikipedia also has a wide range of audiences both local and international so its a good avenue to showcase Tanzania.”
The key lesson that Bohela and Rose have for us as media producers is that we must always think of the best platform for our conten. According to Bohela, the best way to do this is to know your audience, and where they are. Social media offers many Tanzanians a rich and active audience, who spend almost half of their online time on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.
Bohela shares tips on how Tanzanian content producers can create more engaging content and reach a wider audience.
Be “Mobile First”
The trend of audiences consuming content on their smartphones will only grow.You need to commission, promote and deliver mobile-first digital and social content. For instance, video content should be:
- Square and vertical
- Subtitled
- Between 30 seconds and a minute long
Engage visually
Make sure your content is optimised for social media platforms
- Use the top and bottom (text) headlines to sell your content
- Use bright and engaging images for your thumbnails
- Try to burn text onto the image as an extra way to sell your content
Be platform-specific
Creating for the internet is not a one-size-fits-all. Tweak and change content for different platforms eg Facebook, Twitter etc.
Try not to use the same piece of content across all platforms. You need to adapt and tweak it. A video (vertical and square) on Facebook, for instance, will be very different from how it will be seen on YouTube.
Look at your analytics
What are your numbers telling you? Engagement, over views and likes Keyhole
(Thanks to Princely Glorious/OnaStorie)
The worlds of hackers and journalists are coming together, as reporting goes digital and Internet companies become media empires.
Journalists call themselves “hacks,” someone who can churn out words in any situation. Hackers use the digital equivalent of duct tape to whip out code.
Hacker-journalists try and bridge the two worlds. Hacks/Hackers Africa aims to bring all these people together — those who are working to help people make sense of our world. It’s for hackers exploring technologies to filter and visualize information, and for journalists who use technology to find and tell stories. In the age of information overload and collapse of traditional business models for legacy media, their work has become even more crucial.
Code for Africa, is the continent’s largest #OpenData and civic technology initiative, recognises this and is spearheading the establishment of a network of HacksHackers chapters across Africa to help bring together pioneers for collaborative projects and new ventures.
