What we’re reading this week
Take a look at some of the things we are currently reading in our newsroom that you should be aware of
Tech Crunch | Twitter expands Spaces to anyone with 600+ followers
Twitter Spaces, the company’s new live audio rooms feature and rival to Clubhouse, is opening up more broadly. The company announced it’s making Twitter Spaces available to any account with 600 followers or more. It also officially unveiled some of the features it’s preparing to launch, like Ticketed Spaces, scheduling features, reminders, support for co-hosting, accessibility improvements and more. Twitter Spaces will soon support multiple co-hosts, and creators will be able to better market and even charge for access to their live events on Twitter Spaces.
Daily Maverick | Covid-19 ‘media extinction event’ is a chance for renewal of journalism
The pandemic has had a negative impact on journalism, it accelerated the many problems that the industry was facing. However the pandemic has revealed the heavy reliance the South African journalism industry has on advertising revenue. It is suggested that South Africa amend’s its law to make multinational platforms like Google and Facebook “pay for news”, which will support local journalism.
Mail & Guardian | World Press Freedom Day
In 1993, the United Nations agreed to adopt the Windhoek declaration and to declare 3 May World Press Freedom Day. This article looks back at that day by commemorating the journalists who were present during the adoption of the declaration and looks at the impact the declaration has had.
The South African |Ramaphosa reflects on SA media freedom in his weekly letter
In his weekly letter, President Ramaphosa reflected on how the media has changed since from Apartheid to the current problems the industry is facing. Ramaphosa commends journalists on how they have reported on corruption and the state capture inquiry but says that journalists should cover other problems which impact South African’s.
The Conversation | Philip Ochieng: Kenyan editor and author who did it his way and inspired a generation
Philip Ochieng was a pioneer for journalism in East Africa, the author celebrates his life by looking back at Ochieng’s achievements and the mark he left in journalism. During his career, Ochieng wrote two books and a long running column which aimed at teaching young journalists.
