Liberian journalists become bloggers

As part of activities marking Blog Action Day 2008, nine Liberian journalists began sharing their lives and stories through blogs at a workshop at the U.S. embassy in Monrovia on Saturday.

Under the tutelage of digital journalist Bill Glucroft, the Liberian reporters expanded their audience from a small, literate public within the country to the whole world within minutes.

Blogging is not very popular in West Africa. Liberia, in particular, is just coming out of a 14-year civil war and is still in the process of rebuilding its infrastructure, national identity and free press.

Liberian journalists have claimed of late that they do not have the resources to do their jobs well, but IT trainers believe that online distribution will enable them to reach the wealthier Liberian diaspora community, as well as other interested readers, living in the U.S. and Europe.