South Africa’s biggestever conference on journalism education is counting till its opening on 5 July. The three-day event is the World Congress of Journalism Education, to be hosted by Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies in Grahamstown.
South Africa’s biggestever conference on journalism education is counting till its opening on 5 July. The three-day event is the World Congress of Journalism Education, to be hosted by Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies in Grahamstown.
“In 2009, we won a tough bid battle to host the second edition of this congress,” said Prof Guy Berger head of Rhodes Journalism.
“The first congress was in Singapore three years ago, and we worked hard to ensure that it comes to Africa next.” The thinking was that July 2010 would be a focused time to bring people to South Africa, and let them hold up journalism education in the light of the media mega-event of the Soccer World Cup.
“There has been great interest in the congress and we now have more than 330 delegates registered, half of them from the African continent,” said Berger.
The conference will have French and Chinese simultaneous translation, and the delegates hail from a full 42 countries worldwide.
Under the theme “Journalism education in an age of radical change”, the participants will be able to take part in 130 research paper presentations, 16 task teams, and six expert panel discussions.
Proceedings will be live-cast at http://wjec.ru.ac.za, and up to 11 parallel research sessions will be streamed simultaneously at various times.
“We will be sharing experiences with each other – and with anyone who follows us on the web,” said Berger. The main focus will be on how training can help prepare journalists to deal with challenges of the recession and the internet, he added.
The topics at the event range from teaching ‘entrepreneurial journalism’ and cellphone journalism, through to building media literacy and training reporters in reporting violence.
Being launched at the conference is a model syllabus compiled by Unesco that sets out ideas for teaching about African media.
Delegates will hear keynote speeches by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Advocate Pansy Tlakula, who heads South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission and also serves as Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression for the African Union.
“A total of 36 sponsors have been enlisted to support the event, indicating how people regard the importance of journalism education,” said Berger.
