National Press Club Discussion Evening
The National Press Club hosted a discussion evening on 25 May 2023 at the Court Suite Hotel, Arcadia Pretoria. The Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia South African chapter were part of the discussion evening.
The Wikimedia South African chapter was represented by the current president Bobby Shabangu, he shared knowledge on the topic of “ the lack of media coverage around under-represented groups resulting in lack of source material for contributions to Wikimedia projects to create or improve articles on these communities”, and highlighted the importance of increasing African content on Wikipedia to close the knowledge gap and creating credible sources to referencing and took attendees through the process of understanding the five pillars of Wikipedia as is the principle of editing, translation, and also adding credible sources on the platform.
The Wikimedia South African chapter topic opens the floor for the Wikimedia Foundation presentation on how journalists can play a role to close the knowledge gap, especially in Africa. The foundation announced the Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards that will celebrate African journalist diversity and inclusion in their reporting, the awards recognise the role of well-researched articles that can be used by the Wikipedia platform by volunteer editors. The awards entries are open from 03 May 2023 to 30 June 2023 and the awardees will be awarded in November during the Wiki Indaba conference.
The discussion evening was a success filled with great information sharing and ideas and a raffle prize competition to entertain the attendees with a grand prize of winning a gas stove.
Discussion Evening In Pictures
