Event reports
The regional Media Program Sub-Sahara Africa has been working increasingly in the field of digital political communication and, in this context, the KAS E-lection Bridge Africa has been established. This regional conference of African and German election experts took place for the first time in Accra at the end of April/beginning of May 2011 with the participation of Angola. Following up on the successful event in Ghana, the Angolan participant at the E-lection Bridge, Rafael Massanga, asked the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung for further activities in the field of Web 2.0. Subsequently, the country program Namibia/Angola and KAS Media Africa created a set of measures for the week of 11-15 July in Angola, including the workshop described here, “Web-TV for Political Parties”, on July 12th in Luanda. “This showed again that the KAS E-lection Bridge Africa has given our partners on the continent important impulses for the new political communication,” says Markus Brauckmann.
Brauckmann, who led the internet television of the CDU in Germany’s super election year 2009, explained to the workshop participants the philosophy, strategy and application of the innovative communication instruments. Two thoughts took centre stage: first, the realization that the traditional tools (posters, informational stands, etc.) will continue to be needed and that the Web 2.0 is merely complementary. Second, internet TV opens up new possibilities for integrating the grass-roots foundation into the participation and decision-making processes. The many videos which the lecturer had brought to Luanda as visual aids provided useful examples.
The Web TV seminar was rounded off with practical implementation on site. Together with the local media professionals, KAS Media Africa created video material from the workshop and other activities of the foundation in Angola, which were later consolidated into one film. Especially worth mentioning in this context is the visit from Chancellor Angela Merkel. The country program Namibia/Angola had organized a top-class round of representatives of civil society to meet with the Chancellor and for one hour Angela Merkel discussed political issues with the selected participants. (The English version of the “KAS in Angola” video can be found under: www.kas.de/mediaafrica and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhYtUmueOcc). The Portuguese version will follow.)
Instruments such as Web TV are important for the political opposition, concluded Alcides Sakala from Unita. After all, they may have no, or barely any, access to the national mainstream media. The collaboration is already reaping its first digital fruits: After the visit from E-lection Bridge Africa, Unita is now the first political party in Angola to be on Facebook. According to Holger Haibach, the foundation’s new Country Representative for Angola, the successful cooperation will continue.
