Blogger Presence at G20 Reflects Changing Journalistic Landscape

The G20Voice, a coalition of NGOs (non-government organizations), reports that news coverage of this year’s G20 summit has broken with convention, with live and direct reporting from the event by bloggers allowed for the first time.

According to the announcement, 50 bloggers covered the summit, giving them, and their audiences, the chance to engage with and influence world leaders on issues including development, climate change and women’s rights. In a process backed by the British Government, the bloggers were nominated by the public, with more than 700 nominations received in 12 days.

The organizations behind G20Voice are OxfamGB, Comic Relief, Save the Children, ONE and Blue State Digital. G20Voice is a collaborative effort demonstrating the breadth of commitment to ending world poverty and inequality.

The 50 include a broad range of bloggers from the G20 countries and the developing world, including:

• Sokari Ekine, from Nigeria
• Jotman – a blogger focused on human rights issues in Thailand and Burma
• Daudi Were – an organizer of African bloggers
• Dr. Kumi Naidoo – head of GCAP and contributor to the Huffington Post
• Cheryl Conte from Jack and Jill Politics
• Enda Surya Nasution – a noted leader in the Indonesian blogging community
• Rui Chenggang – an economics broadcaster from China with an audience, according to G20Voice, of 13 million viewers every evening on CCTV
• Richard Murphy – a blogger specialized in Tax Havens

Karina Brisby, G20Voice project founder and Digital Campaigns Manager, Oxfam GB said: "The G20Voice project was inspired by the articulate, engaging and often outraged posts, tweets, podcasts and videocasts from bloggers all over the world about the current economic crisis and how that affects the issues they are passionate about such as poverty and climate change.

"We are seeing a huge increase in the number of people around the world using digital tools to inform themselves and then contribute to debates about the issues that affect their lives. G20Voice recognizes the importance of bloggers and gives them a unique opportunity to report back to their audiences direct from the G20 Summit itself."

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