2013 citizen journalism/news blogger in Ghana talks plus and minus of social media future in Africa


Jemila Abdulai is the founder and writer of Circumspecte.com and a consultant at the African Center for Economic Transformation in Accra, Ghana. She is very passionate about Africa as I came to discover in my recent talk with her about social media and its effects on the youths of Africa during which she made a passionate call on political leadership on the continent to be more involved with youths and carve out workable policies to make ICT more practical.

Miss Abdulai sees herself as a Creative problem solver with an analytical mind and a multicultural perspective. She also comes across as very passionate about media, communications, women, youth, and African development. In  the first quarter of 2013 she was adjudged the best Citizen Journalism and News Blogger in Ghana by Blogging Ghana, the official mouthpiece for bloggers of Ghanaian origin in the world.

My conversation whith Jemila lasted almost half an hour and could be listened to in the audio above. We talked a bit about the first ever bilingual Google+ hangout organized under the auspices of Blogging Ghana and moderated b Jemila. The English and French speaking hangout highlighted experiences and lessons of the various social media campaigns for elections in West Africa with participants coming from Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria.

While praising social media for the power it has to bridge information gaps and bring people together all cross the world, Jemila felt most of Africa was far behind the ICT curve. The lack of constant or at least regular supply of electricity and Internet connectivity was not helping the situation as well.

Social media, like anything else has its associated negatives. Some of the major ones that would negatively impact on countries in Africa as more people become users of this technology include infrastructural constraints (little or no access to electricity, computers and or Internet connectivity), lack of skills required to maximize social media usage beneficially and credibility of information obtained from social media enthusiasts and websites. The problem of identity theft and child pornography were also concerns that came up in my chat with Jemila.

As she prepares towards finishing up a Masters of Arts in International Economics and International Affairs with the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitz School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington DC. The well travelled Ghanaian blogger in an answer to my question of what she was doing to positively impact Africa and the world told me that she plans on reinventing her blog as a start.

On her new site, bloggers will have the opportunity of being guest featured as she plans to also put together a communications consultancy that offers basic services to help people improve upon their writing and basic communication skills and strategizing, as a way of giving back to society. Get all the download from the horse’s own mouth by clicking this link to listen to our conversation now and watch out for more about this prolific Ghanaian woman.

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