AfricaCast 2011: BBC World News: Social media to play an important part in the future of news in Africa - generating it and consuming it.

Social media as a new interactive consumer construct in Africa is going to play an increasingly important part in the future of news - not just consuming it, but generating it.

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya. Sudan.

Guess what continent those countries are a part of and which have been big news generators, setting the news agenda for literally months this year? Yep. Africa.

''Social media in particular, is going to play an important part in the future of news worldwide as well as in Africa - generating it, and consuming it,'' said Richard Porter, controller of English, BBC Global News, who is responsible for BBC World News (TopTV 400 / DStv 400), today.

Richard Porter was speaking at the AfricaCast 2011 TV summit that kicked off today in Cape Town as part of the 14th AfricaCom conference.

''The stories we Tweet, the stories we put on Facebook, go through the same editorial checks as any other BBC News content,'' he said.

''I believe that audiences respect, understand and trust BBC content even in this new world of feeds and social media. Research shows that the BBC is the most used and most referenced news source used by bloggers anywhere in the world.''