Why is it important for journalists to have a solid grasp of the technical language of XHTML, etc. (Additionally, how will it make your skills more relevant in the African context)

It is important for Journalists to have a solid grasp oh XHTML for several reasons. Although today we can just simply use programs to do the work of markup language for us, it is beneficial to us to learn it anyway. In terms of learning XHTML in a journalistic view it “provides [us] with an opportunity to overcome any fear of technical jargon.” (Niles) What Niles means is that when we enter the working world of journalism we shouldn’t be afraid of dealing with technical jargon that we may feel we might not understand. Niles further states that “a reporter who surrenders when confronted with such technical detail is an easy mark for smooth-talking publicists looking to spin a story”. Although I don’t completely agree with Niles that learning XHTML will give me the opportunity to combat all technical jargon and not succumb to PR, I do agree that it is beneficial to learn technical jargon in order to be more understanding of it.
Learning XHTML as a journalist in an African context is also beneficial. Africa unfortunately has a low bandwidth, so therefore web accessibility is a big issue. “Bandwidth is the life-blood of the world's knowledge economy, but it is scarcest where it is most needed - in the developing nations of Africa which require low-cost communications… and even Africa's most well-endowed centres of excellence have less bandwidth than a home broadband user in North America or Europe, and it must be shared amongst hundreds or even thousands of users.”(Jensen) Therefore journalists need to know XHTML in order to format web pages so that they are more accessible to people in African countries. By not overloading pages with content, basic XHTML and CSS pages can be delivered fast and efficiently without using much bandwidth.
Learning XHTML can only be beneficial to myself. This is because I will have the basic knowledge as to how a web page works. It also enables me to work with multiple media and not only web pages. Secondly it also helps being a journalist in Africa because of the shortage of bandwidth, it brings you back to basics of getting information across.

Reference:
Mike Jensen http://www.africafocus.org/docs06/apc0612.phpRobert Niles http://moodle.ru.ac.za/mod/resource/view.php?id=8756