Great things are happening in citizen journalism education in a small town in the Eastern Cape thanks to Khaya Thonjeni. Khaya runs the Rhodes University JMS Schools Outreach Project funded by the Knight Foundation. We spoke to Khaya about this project and what it seeks to achieve.

Khaya, briefly explain what the project is about?

By Gillian, Rod and Peter

Successful journalism is about one thing. Which means that successful journalism education is about one thing: a good story that matters.
If the story reaches the hearts and minds of its receivers, its medium becomes a secondary consideration.

Mary Waters school learner, Pamela Matinisi sending her sms.

What constitutes the journalism in Citizen Journalism? Once again, this perennial question has cropped up – although this time it made me think a little more clearly than previously. The occasion was the 2nd Global Forum for Media Development. The question was in response to my presentation of the Knight-funded project – “Iindaba Ziyafika” (meaning: “The News is Coming”).

A lot of hounding the newshounds (or their editors to be more precise), and distilling readings and doings over the years, resulted in the publication last month of "The Extraordinary Editor. A handbook for South African media leaders" published by Sanef.

It covers managing yourself, people, money, content, publics ... and change. My co-editor Liz Barratt did a wonderful job with designer Shahn Irwin on the layout, and fun caricatures were done by Baba Tjeko. Our next stop: offering workshops on making the most of this resource.

Shortly ahead of the US poll, the Financial Times carried a front page of Obama working a crowd.

If you look carefully, you see another sign of the times: the number of people capturing the moment on their cellphone cameras.