Helping to Shape Emerging Specializations
COMED organized three sub-regional training workshops for journalists and communication officers in 1999-2000. In many African countries, communication positions are relatively recent. Functional roles are often unclear, vary widely and are still evolving. Professor Alfred Opubor, who developed the COMED training curriculum, reports on the workshops and lessons learned. He provides some insight on how COMED is helping to shape emerging specializations.
The Experts Consultation in Cotonou that launched the Communication for Education and Development (COMED) program in September 1998 foreshadowed it, and three subsequent sub-regional training workshops confirmed it: Communication for education and development in Africa is a field in which professional standards, procedures, and identities are still evolving. At the launching meeting held in Cotonou in 1998, regional experts described communication officers in ministries of education and journalists reporting on education issues as often unsure of each other's motives and mandates. Suspicions seemed to result from feelings among senior ministry managers that journalists could not be trusted to report education issues accurately. Among journalists, the general feeling was that valuable information was being hoarded and access to news sources and materials deliberately impeded.
Professional identities are still evolving
Communication officers, as the go-betweens, felt insecure, unsure about their terms of reference and their professional identity. In subsequent sub-regional workshops, several expressed frustration at the lack of resources and institutional support they received. Many felt that the positions they held were established for education officers and that communications were only a small part of their ministerial assignments; in one case, a communication officer said that he had 16 other tasks in his job description. Therefore, they were often unable to make the impact they felt was necessary and possible. In contrast, a few ministries have created special departments for media and public relations, which have led to corresponding improvements in professionalism and to some success stories. South Africa was cited as an example, and Côte-d'Ivoire was reported to be planning a new structure.
Regardless of the institutional contexts in which they work, participants agreed that their communication tasks included arranging press briefings and conferences, organizing media coverage of ministerial activities, reacting to negative media stories, and providing access for media and the public to key policymakers in education.
In undertaking these assignments, communication officers felt that they were generally successful when their senior colleagues in the ministries created an environment of openness to the media, especially at the ministerial level. They also expressed the need for specialized guidelines on access to information, in the absence of--or in addition to--national policies on information and communication, including freedom of expression.
Participants also felt that training in journalism and communication skills would improve their media relations by enabling them to present more professional press releases and to design effective strategies for ministerial communications efforts. Visits to private-sector communications agencies such as Lintas in Harare, and Particulier in Yaounde, while opening up possibilities for strategic communication partnerships for public education and information on educational issues, also underscored the required investments of time and money in effective, results-oriented communication campaigns.
Editorial support to education journalism still low
For their part, journalists were able to share a wide range of opportunities and formats for communicating about education in their countries. Samples of special education pullouts and columns from national newspapers were presented. For Kenya's Nation and Uganda's New Vision, a team of in-house correspondents and freelancers produce such pullouts and columns on a weekly basis. Zimbabwe's Daily News has a weekly page for education stories; and in Nigeria, the Vanguard reports fairly regularly on education, as does the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN. Yet in the majority of media establishments, there are no facilities or editorial support for journalists wanting to specialize in education. Hence the need for advocacy with publishers and editorial directors.
Radio and television programs devote airtime to education and development issues, including broadcasts in national languages, which reach large groups of listeners. This indicates a need to involve broadcasters more actively in future COMED training workshops, especially at the national level.
Professional networks ease relationships between journalists and communicators
In workshop discussions, journalists seemed to become more aware of and concerned about ethical considerations and professional standards in reporting education. But they insisted that while this awareness might reduce criticism by education officers of sensationalism and inaccuracy, it still might not eliminate their irritation with critical reporting. In Senegal and Nigeria, where education reporters and correspondents are organized in professional networks, they tend to have more structured and less conflictual relationships with communication officers and education news sources, perhaps as a result of enhanced mutual credibility.
Perhaps the most memorable experience for the majority of participants was the sessions on information technology, where they received explanations and hands-on instruction on the use of computers and electronic information processing, including use of the Internet for research. An added bonus was that everyone went home with brand new e-mail addresses, which will facilitate the building of an electronic network and promote contact after the workshops.
Enthusiasm was high at the end of each workshop. Speaking on behalf on his colleagues at the closing in Harare, Aggrey Kibenge of Uganda said, "This workshop has enhanced our competencies... We now understand better the issues in education that hinder development." He also felt the workshop had built partnerships and initiated a network beyond national boundaries. In this way, discussions in the three workshops--Cotonou, Harare, and Yaounde--helped to clarify many gray areas and to build confidence among professionals, who better understand the need to work together, in spite of differences in their institutional mandates and the ways in which they work.
Professor Alfred E. Opubor
New Africa International Network
Harare, Zimbabwe
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