Lyle and Corrine Nelson International Fellow
Digital content manager, The Star Publications, Nairobi, Kenya
dolewe@stanford.edu, @DickensOlewe
Dickens Olewe’s interest is in using new technology for storytelling and integrating citizen journalists in the news process. During his fellowship he organized a conference on drone journalism with the Center for Investigative Reporting and News Lab at Google. The event brought together leading experts in the field to discuss the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in news reporting. At Stanford, he took classes on formation of news ventures and platform competition in digital networks. He also took a class on redesigning the news ecosystem, which explored how to best engage news consumers. Olewe was invited to speak at and participate in several conferences during his fellowship year including SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas; the Re:publica conference in Berlin and the World News Media Congress in Washington, DC. He was also among 14 journalism innovators selected by Deutsche Welle Academy to develop a manifesto for using digital technology to promote freedom of information and expression in the global South.
Journalism Challenge
Q: How can we safeguard drone journalism in Africa?
A: I helped bring together a conference of drone manufacturers, lawmakers, journalists and academics to discuss the future of drones. I intend to organize similar conferences in Africa.
Learn more about this Journalism Challenge »
Posts by Dickens
[relpost url=”http://knight.stanford.edu/life-fellow/2015/a-case-for-constructive-news-a-passion-finally-defined/”
About Dickens
Dickens Olewe is a Kenyan journalist. He’s the founder of AfricanSkyCAM, a drone journalism project which was one of the winners of the inaugural African News Innovation Challenge in 2012.
He was the digital content manager at the Star newspaper where he led the establishment of the newspaper’s website, social media platforms and drove the digital strategy. He also led a project on collaborative journalism that involved citizens contributing stories through a mobile app and the creation of a health data portal to kickstart data journalism in the newsroom.
Olewe’s interest is in using new technology for storytelling and integrating the public in the news reporting process. He’s been invited to speak at several media events internationally about drones for journalism, media trends, social media and crowdsourcing news. He contributed to BBC’s Future of News Report. He was part of the team chosen by Deutsche Welle Academy to develop a manifesto on how to use digital technology to promote freedom of expression in the global south. He’s a trainer for WAN-IFRA emerging markets webinar series and advises hivisasa.com, a mobile news startup in Kenya.