South Africa: Reporting the World Cup 2010

International reports on Africa often focus just on famine, disease and violence. Participants of DW Akademie's workshop in the South African city of Johannesburg are currently helping to show another side of Africa. Johannesburg is where DW Akademie has invited 19 journalists, producers and camera operators from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East to a special TV and online workshop.

The participants have come from Mexico, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Syria, Bhutan and Vietnam. With support from six DW Akademie trainers, they’ll be reporting on events surrounding the World Cup.

"Africa - that's the 'lost continent' for many journalists," says Dr. Andrea Rübenacker, head of DW Akademie's Africa Division. "We feel that it's important for our participants from developing and transition countries to be able to develop their own impressions - not of the entire continent, but at least of South Africa."

Whether they're on the streets where people are playing football and celebrating, or in pubs and hotels where fans are getting together to cheer on their teams - the participants will be reporting from locations where the World Cup takes place beyond the confines of the stadiums.

"A huge event like this offers a great opportunity for intercultural reporting teams to absorb this international atmosphere. Their reports can then reflect the color and excitement of the World Cup itself," says Rübenacker.

The TV reports will be produced on location and shown on a web portal especially designed for the project. The participants will also blog their World Cup experiences and upload photos and sound (africangoals2010.info - see link below). The online platform is supervised by DW Akademie in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

The reports produced during the workshop will also be available to the participants’ own TV stations. This way, this unique, intercultural DW Akademie workshop "Reporting the World Cup 2010" can bring viewers in Mexico, Syria or Vietnam even closer to the World Cup in South Africa.