1

Reuters Institute Fellowship Paper

University of Oxford

Crowd sourced journalism and democratic

governance: the case of Cameroon.

By: ASHU NYENTY

Trinity Term 2013

Sponsor: Thomson Reuters Foundation

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Table of contents

Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………4

Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………6

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 Background to the study…………………………………………………………9

Chapter 2.

Literature review…………………………………………………………………………12

Chapter 3. Overview of the traditional media in Cameroon

3.1 Print media…………………………………………………………………………….19

3.2 Radio………………………………………………………………………………………20

3.3Television………………………………………………………………………………21

Chapter 4.

Overview of the use and potential of social media in

Cameroon……………………………………………………………………………………24

Chapter 5. The use of crowd sourcing by traditional media in

Cameroon.

5.1 Methodology……………………………………………………………………..29

5.2 Crowd sourcing examples……………………………………………………30

Chapter 6. Discussion, recommendations and conclusion

6.1 Discussion……………………………………………………………………….34

6.2 Recommendations……………………………………………………………..37

6.3 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….37

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Bibliography……………………………………………………………….39

Appendix 1

Interview protocol……………………………………………………………………42

Appendix 2

List of traditional media studied……………………………………………….42

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Abstract

This work explores the strengths of ‘crowd sourcing’ as used by

traditional media. Due to the accessibility of mobile devices like

smart cell phones, ordinary citizens known technically as the ‘crowd’

are helping traditional media in the collection of news. This happens

by way of photographs, sound bites, video incidents and

documented reports sent to traditional media through tweets,

emails or SMS. The ‘crowd’ is the source of information in a

collaborative setting.

The aim of this research was to investigate how traditional media in

Cameroon use crowd sourcing to cover issues that impinge on

democratic governance that they would not have been able to report

about were it not for the collaboration from the ‘crowd’. Theories

that highlight collective intelligence and wisdom of crowds are used

to give insight into the strengths of crowd sourcing. I also examine

the potential downsides of crowd sourcing, if it is not used with

caution.

The methodology consisted of in-depth interviews with editors,

publishers and senior journalists from traditional media outlets.

The research based on two case studies found that while traditional

media in Cameroon use some sort of crowd sourcing to enhance

their coverage ability, the practice is still very timid and embryonic.

Traditional media do not have coherent, well-structured guidelines

based on consistency both at the critical stages of news collection

and verification.

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Acknowledgements

I am indebted to the Thomson Reuters Foundation for the

opportunity and rare privilege given me both to master the modern

tool in journalism which is crowd sourcing, and to have access to

some of the finest academic minds and resources at the University of

Oxford.

I should thank David Levy, James Painter and John Lloyd who were in

charge of the programme and provided immense support, guidance

and most importantly an academically stimulating and challenging

environment during the Fellowship.

My profound gratitude goes especially to James Painter who was

always ready with invaluable counsel and did much of the proof-

reading. My academic supervisor, Keith Somerville was outstanding.

His steady hands, intellect and supply of invaluable documentation-

including some decisive books as a gift- assisted me greatly in my

work. His assistance and regular insights kept me on track.

I also thank all the editors, publishers and senior journalists I

interviewed in Cameroon for this work. I also wish to seize this

opportunity to extend my gratitude to my employer, the Cameroon

Radio Television (CRTV) and especially the Director General, Amadou

Vamoulke, for promptly granting me a partially paid leave of absence

to pursue this course.

Finally, my regards go to all the staff of the Reuters Institute who

were fun to be with, but whose names because of the risk of leaving

out some I am not going to mention specifically. My greetings also go

to my fellow Fellows for their camaraderie and professional

solidarity.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

This project explores the practice of “crowd sourcing” by traditional media in Cameroon. Crowd sourcing as defined by expert Jeff Howe who helped to coin the term, is “…the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally, large group of people in the form of an open call”(Howe, 2006:n.p).

When applied to journalism, crowd sourcing news in its broadest

sense might mean soliciting reporting, editing, photographs, video

clips - or all of the above - from amateur users-readers, listeners,

viewers (technically known as “the crowd”) rather than being

collected manually by traditionally trained journalists. As mobile

phones proliferate, local populations can now report [from] human

rights violations to electoral fraud. (Morozov, 2010:p.270).

In the light of this study a cogent example occurred in South Africa

in March 2013. The country made international headlines when

Johannesburg residents caught local police on video dragging a

handcuffed taxicab driver to death. The video captured by mobile

devices showed the police dragging the man behind a vehicle. After

its release, the video went viral, igniting local and international

outcry and fuelling local media and security investigations.

The use of video is important here. The fact that citizens, as part of the crowd, can record abuses like these on a relatively inexpensive device without the camera equipment of the past buttresses the new status and credentials of crowd sourcing. This example particularly shows how the misdeeds of politicians and government agencies can be exposed.

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On the strength of these developments, crowd-sourcing has established itself as an effective information-gathering tool for mainstream journalism. However, there is a flip side to an unguarded use of crowd sourcing. It does not only help in exposing ill conduct. It can be a double-edged sword. According to the Morozov thesis1, crowd sourcing and other social media tools can be used by governments to spread their propaganda, to infiltrate civil society or dissenting groups, to control and distort democracy, and to discredit the media. Both sides in a controversy can also use it as a manipulative tool. Morozov used the uproar following the 2009 elections in Iran as a vivid example of how this negative end was achieved. A militant female journalist who had gone underground for her safety was crowd sourced as dead by government infiltrators with the news going viral, only for her to resurface soon after on state television to the discredit of the media that had relied on the initial hoax and reported her killed.

But this does not mean that such material lacks value if properly utilised.2 In a related development, in a statement on the media landscape in Cameroon, Reporters without Borders reported that in March 2011, the government of Cameroon blocked for about ten days twitter via SMS, following anti-government demonstrations. The significance of the Morozov thesis is that traditional media that use crowd sourcing must establish a robust system of vetting and data verification of material they receive from the crowd; and technology that allows the crowd to bypass the state censorship is also exceptionally important (Morozov, 2011), if the tool is to work.

Crowd sourcing is a recent concept. As already mentioned it was first used in 2006 by the journalist Jeff Howe. But it must be distinguished from a related concept of User Generated Content which is “citizen journalism”.

1 EVGENY MOROZOV: Author of the Treaties: THE NET DELUSION, How Not To Liberate The World. (2011).

2 “Akagi and Linning”, Columbia Journalism Review, April 29, 2013

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Unlike citizen journalism, crowd sourcing does not ask readers or viewers and listeners to become anything more than what they have always been; eyewitnesses to their lives. The users do not write the stories, they only contribute to it: the final decision of its treatment and broadcast still lies in the professional’s hands (Niles: 2007).

1.1 Background to the Study

In 1998 and 1999 Cameroon was ranked the most corrupt country in

the world by Transparency International.

Despite the declared political will for the fight against corruption,

little has changed in a tangible manner. As an example, the report

Global Corruption Barometer released in December 2007 by

Transparency International highlights Cameroon as the country with

the worst results with 79 percent of Cameroonians admitting to have

paid a bribe for services in the previous year3.

In a similar vein , each election in Cameroon since the return to multi party democracy in 1992 has been criticised for allegations of election malpractice and even cases of human rights abuses, which in many instances are difficult to document. This study was informed by the fact that these ills cannot be brought to light and hence corrected, or serve as a deterrent, if the task is left only in the hands of professional journalists who cannot, even with the best of intentions, be everywhere. Their efforts will need to be complemented by self-appointed sleuths who will provide a regular supply of photographs, videos, sound bites and even documents to mainstream media.

This justifies the development of the idea of crowd-sourced media which is fed and replenished by the people who are daily affected by bad governance, human rights abuses, corruption, nepotism, and police or military brutality.

3 Copyright 2008 Anti-Corruption Organsiation.

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It is difficult for political leaders to earn the confidence of the people and foster economic and social growth in the midst of corrupt leadership. Udogu (2008) argued that poor education and information dissemination were partly to blame for the failure of leadership in emerging countries. The function of the news media is to provide leadership in the area of education and information to empower the citizenry to participate actively in the democratic process. By seeking information from ordinary citizens, the traditional media does not only help to better inform other citizens but also builds up their spirit of civic commitment.

The purpose of this exploratory research is to understand whether crowd sourcing can help traditional media to improve democratic governance in Cameroon, and if so, how.

This study is also about the future of journalism in Cameroon epitomized by crowd sourcing. Currently, the pattern of public or private control of the news media through ownership, legal control and recruitment of journalists minimises the effectiveness, management and performance of journalists. Consequently, there is limited press freedom and freedom of expression, and abuse of human rights (Obe, 2007). It is the goal of this study to explore how through crowd sourcing, the traditional media could influence the governance and media landscape in Cameroon, and hence promote good governance.

The principal research question that underpins this study is: how do the traditional media in Cameroon use the tool of crowd-sourcing to investigate ills in society in the area of democratic governance?

In this connection we will be looking at the traditional media’s perception of crowd sourcing and answering the question whether the environment is propitious for the development of crowd sourced journalism.

This study draws attention to the major country within the Central African Economic and Monetary Union (CEMAC) – namely,

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Cameroon. Our hope is that it will be an important contribution to our understanding of the promise of crowd-sourced journalism to enhance democratic governance in a fledgling democracy.

By embracing crowd-sourced journalism, the Cameroonian media industry could enhance its reportorial appeal and also buttress its relevance in unravelling or getting to the root of some of the most difficult stories.

The study is also significant for the governing elite. For as the Cameroonian publisher of the Weekly Post, Chief Etahoben puts it:4 “When government and security operatives know that the eyes, ears, microphones and lenses of mobile phones [of ordinary people] are focused on them wherever they may be, they would be reticent and think twice before perpetuating corruption, violating the rights of the common man or taking the law into their hands generally.”

This project will start by taking a succinct look at the evolution of the

traditional media landscape in Cameroon. Then there will be a

cursory look at the growth of social media, especially in the context

of the existing regulatory framework, to see the extent to which they

are used through cell phones and other platforms. Next, I will

explore how the traditional media have been making use of social

media. Some examples will be taken. The results of face-to-face

interviews done with publishers, editors and senior reporters of

traditional media outlets will be analysed and discussed with a view

to identifying some of the key issues that need further examination.

4 Interview with author, 2012

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Chapter 2. Literature review.

Crowd sourced journalism is important because people can send

anonymous input through phone text messages or the internet

giving information about crimes they are victims of or about

corruption incidents they are witnesses to (Luis Sierra, 2010). In this

chapter, we review some of the works of other researchers that are

directly or indirectly relevant to the main research question of this

work, which is how crowd sourcing by the traditional media can

influence democratic governance in Cameroon. The review will be

carried out first through works that postulate theories on crowd

sourcing and then dissertations and books that explore the

applicability of crowd sourcing.

The theoretical backbone of this study includes the democratic-

participant media theory (Uchena, 2010) and the concept of crowd

sourced journalism. The main thrust of this theory in the opinion of

McQuail (1987) is the right of the audience to have relevant

information and the right to use the means of communication (this

could be as in our study, the use of cell phones). I should point out

that although this theory was put forward many years before the

arrival of “crowd sourcing” as it is practised today, it nevertheless

captures the very essence of crowd sourcing in terms of the

democratisation of the provenance of information. Deuze (2004)

demonstrated how the heart of the democratic-participant theory

could have an impact on the practice of journalism in a crowd

sourcing context. In his view, it is a contemporary development in

journalism worth embracing that we have moved beyond the

traditional journalism where editors and reporters “found” the news

to a new phase where the audience or ordinary citizens technically

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referred to here as the “crowd” have become active participants in

newsgathering..

Oyebode (2008) differentiated democratic-participation

communication from development communication. He argued that

while the former best describes the use of the media in the western

democracies, the latter is more tenable in countries of the south and

especially in Africa. He predicated the survival of democracy in

Africa on the ability of the institutions and those who populate them

as well as the mass media to become truly democratic and

participatory. Democracy and participation are all central to the

survival of crowd sourcing because when information is accessible,

people are empowered and institutions become stronger and

democracy is fostered. This is possibly what the U.S. President

Barrack Obama had in mind when during a visit to Ghana in 2010 he

said: “Africa needs strong institutions and not strong men”. These

strong institutions definitely include strong media. And crowd

sourcing that comes with enthusiastic participation from the crowd

of citizens and that enables the media to unearth even the most

hidden of stories can only make the media stronger.

Jeff Howe subdivided ’crowd sourcing’ into different categories with

each constituting a separate theoretical paradigm. These are crowd-

voting, crowd-founding, crowd wisdom or collective intelligence and

crowd creation. Only the last two theories are relevant to our

purpose in this study. In ‘crowd wisdom’ the central idea of crowd

sourcing is that the group has better knowledge than individuals. In

this case what traditional media houses need to do is only to create

an environment conducive to people being able to express

themselves (Grando, 2012). This could be through the creation of

terminals to attract the information and possibly the readiness to use

the information.

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For its part, ‘crowd creation’ allows the crowd the initiative to create

products or services, or in this case media content. In these theories

each individual becomes crucial in content creation or generation

and every one potentially makes a contribution to the final outcome,

product or news item. The comprehensive success of the Web 2.0

supports the view that people or users want to participate in the

creation of content. This view espouses the democratic participant

theory (Uchenna, 2010).

In this light, Jeff Howe said5:

“Technological advances in everything from product design software

to digital video cameras are breaking down the cost barriers that

once separated amateurs from professionals… as smart companies

and television discover ways to tap the latent talent of the crowd. It

is not outsourcing, it is Crowd sourcing.”

It is relevant here to note that crowd sourcing is possible because of

technological advances but also because people are willing to

participate. Both ideas square with the use of crowd sourcing by the

traditional media. That also ties in with our initial theory of

democratic-participation. What is important then is to pick the

appropriate crowd (Howe, 2008).

What is important here is that the organisation should be capable of

enticing people to participate. This reinforces the theory of

participation. But it is not easy to address the task to the right crowd.

The number of people around the world with an internet access is

around 2 billion (Grando, 2012). Added to these are people with

5 Howe J. (2006) “The rise of crowd sourcing” Wired, June 2006, Issue 14.06, Conde Nast.

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smart phones and other media. But those who can be useful to this

purpose might not be many.

In any community it is possible to find different kinds of crowds.

Therefore news organisations need to address their assignments to

the right people. These should certainly be people who have access

to information, the internet and own smart phones. And it should be

noted that users who want to participate in collective intelligence are

on the increase.

In 2004, the American journalists James Surowiecki published a book

entitled “The wisdom of crowds”. In this book he upholds the view

that large groups of people are collectively smarter than a few

experts no matter how brilliant the experts may be (Grando, 2012).

This theory sustains the view that journalists who are the experts can

do more in terms of reporting on different issues if they can use

crowd sourcing, thereby gathering pieces of news and information

from those who actually live or witness the situations described,

which is often information that professional journalists cannot

obtain. Of the four conditions he described as favouring the theory

of wisdom of crowds, two are directly relevant to our study: the

decentralisation of knowledge and the mechanism of aggregation

(Surowiecki, 2004). Information and news are decentralised in

members of the crowd that have access to them while the traditional

media act as the aggregation mechanism that pools the different

ideas together and packages them for a news report.

Both Surowiecki and Howe use the examples of the ants’ colonies to

explain the importance of cooperation between traditional media

and the crowd. Grando (2012) quoted the author of “The wisdom of

crowds”, himself quoting Steven Johnson and his book, “Emergence:

the connected lives of ants, brains, cities and software”, where the

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author describes how ants work together even if there is no leader

and even if no individual ant knows very little about where to go.

Ants never act individually (Johnson, 2001). But this analogy has a

shortcoming. Although ants never act individually, human beings can

act individually. However, the ant theory is still relevant to this study

in so far as it underscores the importance of cooperation between

traditional media and the crowd which is the essence of crowd

sourcing.

In research by Dare on citizen journalism in Nigeria (2011), three key

questions, among many, relevant to this study were addressed. One,

to what extent has the brand of citizen journalism practiced by

Sahara reporters online impacted civic engagement in the discourse

for good governance? Two, how has that kind of journalism exposed

corruption; and three, in what ways has the traditional media

adjusted to the development of citizen journalism? The work carried

out a content analysis of Sahara reporters and a structured survey of

120 Nigerians and some professional journalists. The conclusion of

the study was consistent with the theories of participation discussed

earlier. The study concluded that citizen journalism through Sahara

reporters has helped to create a cross section of Nigerians from all

walks of life prepared to volunteer news and also to name and

shame culpable Nigerians.

But this conclusion is not straightforward. In the survey of 120

Nigerians, 55 percent said they did not trust Sahara reporters. One of

the respondents even said: “the uninitiated and non-discerning

people love it because of its unvarnished news. But it does great

damage to some people’s reputations” (Dare, 2011:p.47). A possible

interpretation of this statement is that people might love Sahara

reporters because of the sensational nature of such publications, but

the stories are not always true, hence the low-trust level. This is not

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surprising because unlike crowd sourcing which is the focus of this

study, Dare’s citizen journalism eliminates the level of gate-keeping

that can be provided by professional journalists, since at the Sahara

reporters ordinary citizens publish content directly.

Another limitation of this brand was acknowledged by Sahara

reporters itself when they restated their editorial policy in 2010 as,

“we are Citizen Reporters, not professional journalists” (Dare,

2011:p.47). The study also found that in Nigeria there has to be

greater collaboration between traditional media and citizen

journalism. This is a subtle admission that for citizen journalism to be

credible it cannot stand on its own, because “the material doesn’t

pass through a chain of editors that would take a second reading or

for somebody else to correct an error that has been made” (Dare,

2011:p.51) as is the case in the traditional media.

As already mentioned, in 2012, Evgeny Morozov published his

successful book, “The Net Delusion” exploring the web illusion of

liberation. For the purpose of this work it is interesting to focus on

the part of the essay entitled “the Internet Freedoms and their

consequences” in which the author portrayed what he considers as

the shortcomings of technology-driven crowd sourcing in journalism.

The essay describes two different scenarios in crowd sourcing: firstly

natural disasters and secondly, cases of human rights abuses or

election malpractice. In the former case, crowd sourcing produces

trust-worthy data because they are apolitical events and thus there

is no incentive to manipulate information (Morozov, 2012).

In the latter scenario which falls in the realm of governance - the

focus of this work, the documentation of human rights abuses or

election monitoring is difficult to verify and easy to manipulate

(Morozov, 2012). This means that anyone can cook up false reports

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to accuse their adversaries of wrong doing. . While these fears are

understandable, they are nonetheless unjustified in the context of

this study. In fact, the fears will rather lend support to our own form

of crowd sourcing. I will address these concerns in greater detail

during the discussion stage of the work. Suffice it to say that

Morozov’s version of crowd sourcing is akin to citizen journalism as

studied by Dare and hence off the limits of the present study. The

proof is that the example used in the demonstration is Ushahidi

(Morozov, 2012) which is an aggregation online site that directly

posts online reports from citizens with no mediation.

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Chapter 3. Overview of the traditional media

landscape in Cameroon.

A detailed description of the Cameroonian media is a prerequisite for

understanding the analysis of media discourse. This overview will

seek to present the situation in print, radio and television, and the

contemporary issues in the media. We will examine the space left by

the traditional media that crowd sourcing has the potential to fill.

3.1 Print media

Based on empirical observation, the golden age of the media in

Cameroon could be situated in the fifteen year period 1990-2005,

which saw the enactment of the 1990 law on social communication

that laid down conditions for the creation of newspapers and the

April 2000 decree on audio-visual communication. According to

official figures,6 there has been a leap in the numbers of newspapers

and magazines from 50 to 500 between the years 2000 and 2005

alone. And the count continues.

The Cameroon Tribune is the only national newspaper. It is a

government-owned bilingual (French and English) daily with an

estimated 20,000 copies for the print version and 800 daily hits for

the online version.7 The paper is distributed countrywide.

The rest are privately owned with more or less regular publication

dates. The most popular include Le Messager, Le Jour, Mutations, La

Nouvelle Expression, le popolli, and The Post.

6 Ministry of communication figures, confirmed by Union of Cameroon Journalists

7 Circulation figures provided by South West regional chief of Sopecam (publishers of Cameroon Tribune).

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Le Messager was first published in 1979. It has an average daily

circulation of 15,000 copies. The paper is published in French

and is known for its anti-government stance and considered a

leading advocate for democracy. The rest of the private papers

were first published after 1990, following the introduction of

the law on social communication.

The Post is a privately owned bi-weekly, published in English.

Since its creation in 1997, it has steadily become the leading

English Language newspaper due to its consistency, regularity

and critical reporting of the government.

Newspapers are expensive for a country and population that is still to

develop a reading culture; the common price per newspaper copy is

400 CFAF (US$0.87).8

3.2 Radio

According to official figures9, there are 163 radio receivers per 1,000

of the population. Mainstream broadcasting includes state and

private companies.

The state–owned Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) is the leading

radio broadcaster in the country. It covers the entire country with

ten regional network stations and four commercial FM stations

(Baffoussam, Buea, Douala and Yaoundé) as well as a pilot FM

station in Kousseri in the Far North region. Being a government

controlled corporation, its stations act in accordance with

government directives.

8 African Media Barometer (AMB) Cameroon report 2008, Windhoek 2008. The AMB is a self assessment

exercise conducted regularly by representatives of media and civil society on the continent. Though the the figures were published in 2008, they are still valid in 2013. 9 Ministry of Communication. National index file: Radio et television detentrice.

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After the liberalisation of the audio visual sector in April 2000 the

number of radio stations increased to about 80 between 2000 and

2005. They are regulated by the ministry of communication through

the broadcasting decree10 ensuring among other conditions that

radio programming is made up of at least 51 percent local content11.

The leading private radios are Sweet FM (Douala), Radio VERITAS

(Douala), TBC (Yaoundé), Magic FM (Yaoundé), Radio Siantou

(Yaoundé), Afrique Nouvelle FM (Bamenda), Radio Hot Coffee

(Bamenda), Ocean City Radio (Limbe) and Eden Radio (Limbe).

The only non state radio stations with a national coverage are

international broadcasters such as the British Broadcasting

Corporation (BBC); Radio France Internationale (RFI) and Africa

Number one (Africa No, 1). (Campbell, 1996:18-20; Nyamnjoh,

2005:54).

3.3 Television

Official figures show that there are 45 television sets per 1,000 of the

population.12

The state-owned Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) is the leading

television broadcaster in the country. State monopoly of television

ended only in 2001 with the introduction of TvMax in Douala, the

economic capital. It has since ceased broadcasting under that label.

Other private TV stations have also emerged. These include

Spectrum Television (STV), which has two channels, Canal 2

International, Equinoxe and Vision 4.13

Although the private TV stations generally have fairly good

programmes including a lot of current affairs analysis, they fall short 10

Decree of April 2000p. op.cit 11

Article 26(1) of Prime Ministerial Decree no. 2000/158/PM of 3 April 2000. 12

Ministry of communication op.cit. 13

Ibid.

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of the government controlled CRTV when it comes to geographic

coverage. CRTV, both in its radio and television components, also

dominates in terms of audience reach since it covers approximately

80 percent of the country.

The media in Cameroon have always had mixed relations with the

country’s authorities who have been in power since 1982. The

conflictual relationship has somewhat escalated since 1990.

In 2012, Reporters without Borders ranked Cameroon as 120th of

179 countries evaluated in terms of press freedom, dropping 23

places from the previous year. The authors of this classification feel

that Cameroon is still wavering between repression and liberalisation

and that taboos are still not to be broken (Le coz 2008).

The Cameroonian media are clearly dynamic14 but journalists who

dare to cross the red lines set in the 1996 law on social

communication are still taking a risk. It is even becoming difficult for

some people to associate openly with members of the media who

are considered as supporters of the opposition out of fear that their

actions will be interpreted as active support for the political

opposition.

Over the years the government has taken steps to give the media a

healthy environment for expression. The law enacted in 1990 and

later revised in 199615 supports the freedom of communication and

abolishes administrative censorship; the decree and order of the

Prime Minister both dated 9 December 2002 institute the press card.

All three were crafted to polish up the tarnished image of the

Cameroonian press (Dassie 2004). By an order of 23 September 2002

of the Minister of Communication, the government instituted public

14

Assessment by Reporters without Borders in the 2012 report. 15

Law of 19 December 1990 on social communication.

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support to private communication in the form of cash aid and

training for journalists. Following this, many new media houses with

doubtful credibility have sprouted in order to be eligible for the

subsidy which is too small to provide the necessary specialised

training. This has also contributed to increasing the media’s

dependence on the state.

Government and judicial censorship has been abolished for the past

17 years, but the government still maintains in the penal code

articles that criminalise media offences. A libellous article can still get

a reporter or newspaper editor sent to prison. The law also confuses

press offences and common law offences and still gives wide powers

to political and administrative authorities and does not adequately

provide for access to information and the protection of sources.

Communication researchers like Nyamnjoh (2005:168-9) have

criticised this legislative framework as being obsolete because it does

not take into consideration freedom of expression and online

journalism. For Eribo and Tanjong (1998) Cameroon is “ensnared in a

vicious loop of a gagged press.”

In Cameroon, poverty and the difficult economic environment have

fostered the emergence of media that are often corrupt and easily

manipulated by political, religious and regional interests.

Unscrupulous newspaper publishers and editors are sometimes also

guilty of excesses. In 2006 for example, the Cameroonian media

appeared divided over a series of scandal-mongering stories about

“the republic’s homosexuals” in several low–circulation newspapers,

a situation which appalled many journalists.

Discounting these excesses and even though reforms are necessary

in the sector, Reporters without Borders has concluded that “press

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freedom is a reality in Cameroon, given the media landscape’s

diversity and the outspoken tone often used by its journalists”.16

This overview shows that Cameroon has a robust, varied and

diversified media landscape. But these media are handicapped by a

shortage of human resources. For the most part, the newsrooms are

under staffed and there is a lot of job mobility within the media

because newsrooms cannot hold onto their staff. Many reasons

account for this. Members of staff are not well paid and often go for

months with salaries unpaid. A tripartite collective convention

agreement reached between media owners, journalists and the

government to improve the remuneration of journalist has not been

put into practice by the media owners.

A renowned media critic, Jean Vincent Tchienehom17, argued that

media owners cannot pay better salaries to their workers because

“they do not have sufficient income”. Speaking on the need to apply

the convention and with the same breath confirming the above view,

Pius Njawe18, (since deceased), was clear: “I have signed up to it [the

convention]. I would very much like to apply it. But for the moment I

do not have the financial resources to do that.” In many media

houses journalists with a first degree hardly end up with more than

150,000 FRS (about £200) a month. Under these conditions, the

media houses cannot hire professionally acceptable staff in quality

and quantity. That means not enough people do the leg work.

However, this shortage of staff could now be compensated by the

advent of f crowd sourcing. Provided they know how to take the

16

2012 report op.cit. 17

Interview to online site Le Journal du cameroun.com 18

Director General of the Free Media Group( publishers of Le Messager op.cit)interview of 22/05/09

24

advantage of crowd sourcing, these media houses could get as much

material even with fewer salaried staff.

25

Chapter 4. Overview of the use and potential of social

media in Cameroon

Since the 1990s, the official UN technology and connectivity policy

towards Africa has been the “leapfrogging” approach. According to

the UN, information and communication technologies would enable

Africa to skip several stages in its development process and reduce

the digital divide between the continent and the rest of the world.

This policy was based on the ideology of information technology,

which assumes a causal link between increased productivity,

economic growth and information technology (Burnett and Marshall

2003).

That is why Africa’s position in the global communication system

changed dramatically in 2001 when a US$700 million, 28,000

kilometre (17,500- mile) underwater fibre-optic cable system, SAT-

3/WASC (South Africa/west Africa to Europe) and SAFE (South Africa

to the Far East) was inaugurated. The project successfully linked the

African continent to the major telecommunications hubs of Europe,

North America, the Middle East, and Asia.

When it was first commissioned, it directly linked ten African

countries to global telecommunication hubs. A further twenty-six

landlocked African countries were scheduled to be connected to the

system (SAT-3/WASC/SAFE 2004). The connection resulted in a

dramatic change in telecommunications capacity in general, and

internet connectivity in particular, on a continent that had been

relegated to the periphery of global telecommunications for decades

(Ndao 2003, Eko 2004; Jensen 2001). The fibre-optic project eased

the flow of global internet content to the African continent. These

26

technological strides have democratised internet access continent-

wide even though the technology has not had an even degree of

penetration in all the countries.

In March 1997 Cameroon became linked to the internet. Bound by

article 33 of the International Telecommunications Union’s (I.T.U)

constitution, which recognises the right of the public to access

International Telecommunication services, the government passed a

law in December 2010, guaranteeing equal access to the internet. In

Cameroon, citizens can freely open websites and blogs without

required registration or permission from state authorities.19

In spite of this apparently encouraging legal framework, a C.I.A.

study published in 2009 (and which is accurate as of February 2013),

the internet penetration rate is still very low. The number of users in

Cameroon that access the internet is about 750,000,20 for a

population of 20 million inhabitants, compared to Zimbabwe and

Senegal both having 13 million inhabitants but with access levels of

about 1.4 million users and about 1.8 million users respectively.

Furthermore the law on cyber security and cyber criminality21 in

Cameroon allows criminal investigation officers to gain access to user

data from Internet Service providers and Internet Content providers

without limitation of time and circumstances; judicial authorities can

also empower individuals and corporate bodies to undertake such

investigations.22 Added to this is the high cost of internet access.

Cyber cafes are the chief mode of access for the majority of

Cameroonian internet users. Consumers pay 500FCFA (US$0.99) for

internet access. The quality of the service is erratic and as of now,

Cameroon relies on a dial-up internet system which is very slow and

19

Article 4 of law no.2010/013, of Dec. 2010. 20

CIA world fact book 2009. 21

Law no.2010/012 22

Article 58 of the law op.cit

27

can only operate through telephone connections as a result of the

absence of generalised fibre optic technology. Cameroon’s internet

speed is currently 236 kilobytes per second as compared to 50

megabytes (about 200 times faster) in South Africa and about 5

megabytes (20 times faster) in Dakar, Senegal. Major media outlets

in Cameroon (mainly print media) have websites that are accessible

to the public but are notoriously slow and irregularly updated. The

implication of this is that Cameroonians rely heavily on the

traditional media for most of their news.

On the other hand, because of poor landline quality, mobile

telephones represent around 90 percent of all telephones in Africa.

Africa’s mobile market is growing at around 50-60 percent every

year.23 In Africa in 2010 at least one of every two persons used the

phone to send a text message. In sub Saharan Africa in 2006, 15

percent had cell phones. By 2010 it had risen to 45 percent.24

In Cameroon, mobile-cellular usage, in part a reflection of the poor

condition and generalised inadequacy of the fixed line network, has

increased sharply, reaching a user subscription base of 50 per 100

persons compared to 0.6 landline telephones per 100.25

There are four telephone service operators in Cameroon - Camtel,

MTN, Orange and Viettel. Camtel is government-owned and provides

both fixed and mobile phone services while the other three are

private companies that are limited to the provision of mobile phone

services. MTN and Orange claim to have approximately 5 million

customers between them (representing 80 percent of users). The

phenomenal growth in mobile phones use has increased the

country’s tele-density from 0.6 percent to 12 percent. Smart phones 23

Paul Budde Communication pty Ltd. 24

BBC 4 monitored program, ME AND MY MOBILE,Nov.27,2010 in “Dare”, Citizen Journalism in Nigeria , 2011 p. 21. 25

Open society Foundation,2012( culled from statistics at the ministry of communication)

28

which are multimedia-equipped are a solution to the challenge of

computer and internet access in a developing country like Cameroon.

These smart phones are becoming more and more accessible in

terms of cost and distribution.

According to Chief Bissong Etahoben26, out of a population of about

20 million, Cameroon has about 7 million mobile phone users; most

of the phones are multimedia equipped to take photographs, tape

voices, and video incidents. With appropriate education these seven

million Cameroonians could become the eyes and ears of their

society and sensitised to monitor the wrong doings of public officials,

police, gendarmes, and the military and other public goods and

services suppliers for the promotion of good governance. They could

secretly tape, photograph or video misdeeds and send them directly

to mainstream media through hubs created specifically for that

purpose for possible publication. The democratisation of cell phones

could help circumvent the difficulties of computer and internet

access.

However, it must be stressed that the reason why many projects that

rely on crowd sourcing produce trustworthy data in reporting

situations like natural disasters is because those are usually apolitical

events (Morozov, 2011). As already discussed, those who report data

on such situations do not have incentives to manipulate it. The

problem of using such crowd sourced tools for governance purposes

(for example, documenting human rights abuses, monitoring

elections, or reporting corruption) is that the accuracy of such

reports could be suspect and easy to manipulate by both

government and political rivals for ulterior motives (Morozov, 2011:

p.270). Anyone can text in deliberately erroneous reports to accuse

26

Chief Bissong Etahoben is the publisher of the Weekly Post newspaper and a long standing researcher in social communication in Cameroon. Interview with author, 2012.

29

their opponents of wrong doing or to discredit the press. One

erroneous report - submitted by mistake or deliberately - is enough

to derail the credibility of the media house. And once media houses

are caught producing information of dubious quality, legal suits can

follow and the government might get the justification they seek to

shut them down.

It is for this reason that such material whether they are photographs,

video or documents have to be subjected to scrupulous verification

to ensure accuracy and balance. According to the BBC’s Trushar

Barot27, they “… have a verification protocol depending on the

sensitive nature of the story. Who is the account holder, why did he

send the information,” are some of the questions that are asked and

tools that are used by the BBC to ensure proper verification. Good

journalistic crowd sourcing takes into consideration the validity,

quality and ownership of the data which journalists are accessing.

When used effectively it is a unique way to engage audiences and

gather information that paints a more comprehensive picture of

what is going on.

27

He is in charge of the BBC UGC hub. (Interview at the BBC on 21/05/13).

30

Chapter 5. The use of crowd sourcing by the traditional media in Cameroon

In the previous chapters we explained the concept of crowd sourcing, reviewing the situation of both the traditional and social media in Cameroon as well as partly answering the question: what are the some of the potential gaps in the traditional media that could readily be filled by crowd sourcing? In this chapter we have to move one rung further, to focus on the question of how the traditional media in Cameroon use crowd sources to enhance their reporting and with what outcomes. This objective will be attained by doing two things, namely: presenting the methodology that we used in this study and taking two examples of the use of crowd sourcing by traditional media outlets.

5.1 Methodology The main data for the present study were gathered using the standardised open ended interview method. In-depth interviews are used to elicit information in order to achieve a holistic understanding of the interviewee’s point of view. This holistic appraisal will therefore allow participant observation and the collection of relevant documents (Maykul & Morehouse 1994:46). The open–ended interviews and probing wherever necessary also ensures that the researcher obtains data deemed useful (Patton,1987, p.113). The interview guide used here was designed to not only focus on their understanding of the concept of crowd sourced media but also to capture narratives about the experiences of these media houses in the use or not of crowd sourcing in their work routine. Because of the open-ended nature of the interviews, the questions served merely as topical entry points rather than as a rigid format that had

31

to be followed slavishly. The six participants in the present study all resided in Cameroon at the time of the study. Each of the six participants was considered to be an expert interlocutor in his everyday media world, and a credible source of insight into how their media enterprise uses crowd sourcing. The interactive dimension of the interview is central in the sense that the interviewer and the interviewee both participate in the process of meaning production (Dalen, 2004), as the researcher always came back with follow up questions each time it was felt that a point was not well understood or needed clarification. As one researcher, Henry Mainsah28 observed, the small number of interviewees allows for the main issues to be explored in greater depth. The participants were recruited exclusively from among editors, senior journalists and publishers of traditional media houses. In fact the guiding criterion was those who have knowledge of newsroom practices in the medium that they represented in this study. The duration of each interview ranged between 10-15 minutes. The interviews focused on crowd sourcing narrative in general in Cameroon and how it is applied in their respective media and with what results. (see Appendices 1 and 2 for details)

5.2 Crowd sourcing examples

The general trend has been that traditional daily newspapers

represent a sort of exception to using crowd sourcing29. This

probably has to do with the peculiarity of this medium, which

normally reports the news after the fact - that is a day (for dailies) or

several days (for other periodicals) - after the events have occurred.

In this way newspapers are really recorders of the history of human

existence. Readers want them to report reliable news coming from

28

In Cameroonians in Oslo, Diaspora and uses p.86 29

Grando (2012) in the use of crowd sourcing by traditional media enterprises.

32

certain sources. Newspapers therefore need to entrust professional

journalists with writing the articles.

However, this does not mean that newspapers in Cameroon are

failing to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the web 2.0,

especially in the domain of investigative journalism. All of them have

already developed their online versions, often reporting the same

content as in the paper format. Users can participate by commenting

on the articles or through discussions in net forums. Recently

though, newspapers have started to develop the concept of crowd

sourcing. Whether literally applying the word or not, the methods

and results are the same as we shall see in the two examples we are

going to study from Le Jour and L’oeil du Sahel.

Le Jour is a French-language daily newspaper. It was created in 2007

with a circulation of about 7,000, mostly in the capital city, Yaoundé.

The paper has a sharp tone critically analysing current events, and

social, political and cultural trends. It has opinion columns where

readers can debate about certain topical issues. The paper relies on

trained paid reporters for most of its content but it is also possible

for readers or users to supply information. It is possible for anyone to

pick up their phone to suggest information to the paper. Each of the

desk editors have their names and phone numbers printed on the

masthead as well as email addresses that members of the public can

use to communicate information to the newspaper. This allows

members of the public to easily contact them with information.

In May 2013, the paper used crowd-sourced material to uncover a

serious problem of bad governance at the Yaoundé University

Teaching Hospital. The workers had gone on strike to protest against

over nine months of unpaid allowances and the “deplorable state of

33

the hospital” - a situation which placed the patients at risk of poor

treatment. The situation in this strategic health institution was not

known to the public. Some of the affected workers called the

newspaper using the telephone numbers that the paper had

advertised on its masthead. The paper used this information as a

starting point to investigate further: to go to the scene, meet other

sources and to get quotable quotes and to improve the story. The

result was a thorough investigation bringing to light bad governance

in a strategic medical institution. In an interview the publisher of the

newspaper said they could not have published the story if it were not

for their crowd sourcing strategy. At the time of writing this research,

and following the revelations, the board of governors of the

institution had become involved, bypassing the management team

and making firm promises to resolve the stalemate within the

shortest possible time.

This example from Le Jour showed how newspapers do use crowd

sourcing, gathering pieces of information coming from the crowd,

from those people who actually live the situations described. The

general idea according to Haman Mana30 is that “newspapers cannot

be present with a reporter all over the country or wherever there is a

situation. We rely on the people to tell us that there is a problem

somewhere”. Yet up to this point only a small proportion of the

content is initiated by the users. This is simply because the

newspapers have not moved to the next stage by actively soliciting

content but rather rely on users to spontaneously provide material

as was seen in the story at the teaching hospital. According to the

publisher of Le Jour, crowd sourcing enables newspapers to

reconnect with their readership and also that this concept has

30

Publisher of Le Jour in interview of 08/05/13

34

interesting prospects for journalism in Cameroon: “we are

complaining that our readership is dwindling. Why is it so? One of

the reasons is that they don’t read information that concerns them

directly. We have to be close to our readers”.

The goal is to enlarge the area of sources, through the use of

ordinary citizens, who are often able to have information that paid

professional journalists cannot get access to. That is why Le Jour

believes that “by training the ears, eyes and minds of our users, they

could furnish us with better stories, especially to denounce

corruption in the neighbourhoods, corruption by policemen, civil

servants, in hospitals or schools”.

Other newspapers in Cameroon have operated along similar lines,

using crowd sourcing to collect information from people, especially

on sensitive issues. An example is the tabloid, L’oeil du Sahel,

created in 1997. The paper is mostly noted for its vitriolic anti-

government stance and for being sympathetic and close to the

political cause of the Muslim north of the country, and its political

elite and oligarchy. It also publishes telephone numbers and email

addresses that allow readers to contact them with specific

information on any issue.

Through such contacts on 12 November 2012 the paper was able to

reveal an alleged scandal insinuating that Frank Biya, the son of the

President of Cameroon had defrauded the state of 100 billion francs.

The facts were that the son of the President of the Republic acting

through his company, AFRIONE, bought over 9,400 government

bonds of one million francs each, which were in fact an

acknowledgement of a debt that the government owed to the

35

national telecommunication company, CAMTEL. By paying cash to

CAMTEL, AFRIONE became the new government creditor and was

supposed to recover the face value of the bonds when they were due

to mature in 2014. Only that the company did not wait for the

maturity of the bonds and decided to sell the debt back to the

government. It was this transaction that the newspaper claimed was

shady. It cited sources and published facsimiles of documents from

undisclosed informants who alleged the dubious nature of the

transaction, which they claimed cost the government 100 billion

francs and that it was only possible because the transaction

concerned the President’s son. An allegation which the government

refuted citing examples of similar transactions with other companies.

Frank Biya did not defend himself personally. However, his defence

was taken up by a number of government officials who painstakingly

explained that there was nothing illegal in the transaction. While not

refuting the facts, the officials claimed that by seeking payment from

government before the due date of the bonds, the President’s son

agreed to give up the interest he was entitled to and also agreed to

sell the bonds back to government at 30 percent less than their face

value, thereby enabling the government to make a profit instead.

The transaction was only made public by the newspaper several

years after it took place.

This story was significant because in the past the President and

members of his family had generally been excluded from any

reference to corruption in the local media. This was the first time the

local media were getting into specifics regarding alleged corruption

in the President’s immediate entourage. Even though the paper

published the information without cross-checking with the

President’s son for his own side of the story, and though the

revelations did not bring any immediate political or judicial

36

consequence, the mere publication of itself was sufficient to cause

political embarrassment to the ruling establishment. This is because

politicians, the public service media and part of the private media

were mobilised in an unprecedented media offensive to exculpate

the President’s son.

A Member of Parliament of the opposition challenged the Prime

Minister during question time in the National Assembly to give an

explanation of the issue and also called for a parliamentary

commission of inquiry to be set up to investigate the matter. The

question was censured according to the MP while the request for a

parliamentary commission of inquiry to investigate such an

apparently serious allegation did not prosper. Many people believed

that the ruling party used its dominance in parliament to thwart the

move. But the report broke the myth or taboo in public opinion that

the President’s family was beyond the reach of media scrutiny.

The reports described could not have been done without crowd

sourcing, because access to official sources is restricted in Cameroon

and so ordinary investigative techniques would have been of no use.

Besides, such stories were unthinkable a few years ago. But now the

environment is more propitious for this kind of enterprise. The use of

smart cell phones has spread rapidly. There is a new feeling of

freedom among Cameroonian journalists as democracy begins to

take a firmer root in the country. Furthermore, in the last ten years,

many young, liberal thinking, daring, well trained and ground-

breaking journalists have joined the profession. According to

Reporters without Borders “…it is clear from the diversity of the

media and the outspoken reporting style that press freedom is a

37

reality in Cameroon”.31 Some traditional media have understood the

opportunities offered by collaboration and “crowd sourcing” and as,

demonstrated by the cases of the “Le Jour” and L’oeil du Sahel, they

were able to take advantage of the crowd by obtaining information

from the citizens.

31

Extract from the 2011 country report on Cameroon.

38

Chapter 6. Discussion, recommendations and

conclusion.

6.1 Discussion.

The overall aim of this study was to explore how traditional media

in Cameroon use crowd sourcing techniques to report on issues

that impinge on democratic governance. As seen in chapter two,

abundant literature exists which demonstrates the importance of

crowd sourcing as a tool in journalism. Scholars like Johnson

(2001) have underscored the need for cooperation between

traditional media and the crowd. This view gained academic

acceptance from other scholars like Surowiecki (2004) who argued

that large groups of people are collectively smarter than a few

experts no matter their brilliance.

The evidence of this is seen in the questionnaire I sent to six

respondents who are all aware of the strengths of crowd sourcing

in the practice of their profession. In this connection, the findings

of the study clearly support the literature. One respondent said

“newspapers and radio cannot be present with a reporter

everywhere”, to justify why the traditional media have to make

recourse to the crowd to complement their work. And there was

further evidence that some stories could not have been done

were it not for the collaboration and perspicacity of some

members of the crowd.

However, most traditional media outlets in Cameroon use crowd

sourcing more in reporting breaking news than in investigating

39

issues like corruption. According to a respondent32 at Canal 2

International, a TV station noted for using such user generated

content, they mostly have “video of accidents taken by people

who are at the scene”. It is not used very much to unearth

corruption. According to the publisher of Le jour there is

“corruption in the neighbourhoods, corruption by the police, civil

servants, in the hospitals and in schools”. But the media does not

pay much attention to these partly because they do not have

sufficient staff to cover all these beats and partly because officials

are often tight-lipped making it difficult to get information from

official sources; journalists are commonly denied access if it is

perceived that they are investigating issues that border on

corruption.

Moreover, editors who are under growing pressure to cut costs

are reluctant to approve budgets for investigative reports;

journalists are under constant surveillance and threats, with the

risk of suffering physical violence. All these have caused the

dearth of such high profile investigative pieces. But crowd

sourcing has the potential to fill these gaps left by the traditional

media, because if properly sourced, victims and or witnesses to

these situations could provide tremendous input for the

traditional media. This strategy can eliminate the demands of cost

and physical harm.

Unfortunately, and this is what this study also found out, the

crowd sourcing infrastructure in the traditional media in

Cameroon is very embryonic. They have not yet put in place a

robust and comprehensive module of crowd sourcing. Canal 2 for

example, does not have a UGC hub where users could use their

smart cell phones to dispatch video incidents. Those who witness 32

Javis Nana, Programme producer

40

and film incidents have to “physically carry the video material to

the station”, the respondent said. The implication is that if the

video contained sensitive material, the source of that information

may be left with very little protection, if any at all.

A major difficulty faced in gathering the data was that the full

picture of crowd sourcing in Cameroon may not have been

revealed because it appeared that some of the respondents were

not completely honest about the their use of crowd sourcing.

Even though they publish their phone numbers, encouraging the

public to contact them with information, some traditional

journalists tend to perceive admission of the role of the “crowd”

as a challenge to their own professional ability rather than as an

opportunity. Some respondents sought to downplay the role of

the crowd in specific circumstances arguing that even in the

absence of the crowd they could “ …still have found a way of

getting the story anyway”. This attitude probably stems from the

fact that crowd sourcing has not yet taken a firm root in the

journalistic culture in Cameroon and not many journalists are fully

abreast of all its possibilities.

However, it is important to note that although the use of crowd

sourcing can help traditional media to better report in ways that

they could not do without it, the accuracy of some reports in

certain kinds of stories is impossible to verify and easy to

manipulate. Two elements emerge here: the need for proper

verification but the impossibility of verification in certain

instances. Both of these views were also observed in the primary

data analysis, which further corroborated this part of the

literature. In our second case study the newspaper L’oeil du Sahel

did not seek the version of the person implicated in its report

41

thereby taking liberty with the risk of manipulation. In this

connection, another respondent33 said: “… a lot of things have

happened, some have got it wrong, leading to uprising and social

strife”, as a way of buttressing the need for proper verification.

Full Peter34 concurred with the observation of Morozov (2011) on

the impossibility of certain verifications, by rhetorically asking:

“how do you prove witchcraft in the African context?”

6.2 Recommendations

Taking into consideration the forgoing discussions and analysis in

respect of the use of crowd sourcing by traditional media, we

arrived at the following conclusions. These can apply to all

traditional media who are hoping to increase their coverage by

appealing to the crowd to volunteer information.

Firstly, as the crowd have been shown to possess a certain

intelligence that small groups of experts do not have, it is

strongly advised that traditional media outlets should

develop a crowd sourcing hub and actively promote it so as

to facilitate public adherence and participation.

Secondly, this research has demonstrated that people are

willing to volunteer information to the media provided it is

judiciously used by traditional media without any personal

risks. Traditional media should make it easy for the public to

use their smart mobile phones.

33

Kange Williams ( Editor-in-Chief FM 94 Radio based in Yaounde) 34

Editor-in-Chief (National station CRTV)

42

Thirdly, the study has shown that reporters cannot be

everywhere; traditional media are well advised to develop a

system of investigating misgovernance that will enable them

to rely on the crowd.

6.3 Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that there is abundant evidence to show

that crowd sourcing is an innovative tool in journalistic reporting

that enables traditional media to report on issues they were

unable to before. This research has demonstrated that the ‘crowd’

is enthusiastic and capable of generating content for the

traditional media.

The primary findings of this study fully concur with the literature,

even though these findings also revealed that traditional media in

Cameroon have not fully grasped all the basics and the

technicalities of crowd sourcing.

The recommendations set out above provide an opportunity for

traditional media to rehash and reinforce their use of crowd

sourcing tools to develop professional guidelines on how to use

the power of the crowd in building their investigative skills.

43

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45

Wired.com

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46

Appendix 1.

Interview Protocol

1. Are you familiar with the concept of crowd sourced journalism?

2. Do you make appeals to the public to volunteer information on

certain issues you will like to report on?

3. When members of the public send you information or

photographs do you independently verify the same?

4. From the perspective of traditional media do you think crowd

sourcing is a welcome development in the trade?

5. Are there any stories you would not have been able to cover if

you did not benefit from the assistance of the crowd?

6. What kinds of ills do you think crowd sourcing could be more

effective to permit you report on?

7. What do you think could be done to popularise this practice in

Cameroon?

Appendix 2

List of traditional media houses studied

A. Audio visual

Cameroon Radio Television

Canal 2 international

FM 94 Yaounde

B. Print

Le Jour

L’oeil du Sahel

Herald Tribune

47

Appendix 3

List of people interviewed*

Haman Mana- Le jour

Javis Nana- Canal 2 international

Kini Nsom- The Post

Chief Etahoben- Weekly Post

Ful Peter- Cameroon Radio Television

Kange William Wassaloko-FM 94

*The list of interviewees indicated in the appendix is

made up of persons who were specifically interviewed

for this work. However, other media sources have been

used, who though not having been specifically

interviewed by me, had made statements that were

relevant to this work.