Heads up development journos! The European Journalism Centre (EJC) and Nairobi-based AfricaonAir have just released a new, updated version of Reporting Development: A Guide for African Journalists.
First authored by veteran Reuters journalist Oliver Wates, this new version maintains the original’s practical focus on time-honored techniques for producing top quality, high-impact development stories, within the particular contexts and constraints faced by African journalists.
Edited by AfricaonAir director Joseph Warungu and EJC’s Josh LaPorte and co-authored by former Agence France Press reporter Hamadou Tidiane Sy of Senegal, the new version includes sections on the role of data in development reporting as well as references to the 17 recently agreed United Nations Strategic Development Goals (SDGs).
“Development issues can seem boring and flat but they can create a huge impact in society if turned into lively and robust stories expertly and skillfully told by creative journalists. This handbook explains how,” says Warungu in the foreword.
Reporting Development is broken down into three narrative chapters. The first, “Development As News” introduces journalists to issues of development and stresses the importance and impact of development reporting on society.
The second chapter, while examining traditional development themes such as education, health, gender, and agriculture, takes a broader outlook. It explores current “hot-button” issues such as climate change, land reform, ICT/telecoms, and infrastructure — all from a journalist’s perspective.
The third and final section of the book delves into the role and function of development organisations and explains how journalists can work with them.
Reporting Development: A Guide for African Journalists and its release are part of EJC’s multi-year commitment to media development in Kenya, an important component of which includes increasing the local media’s capacity for societal impact.
“The role media can play in bringing visibility to development issues is vital”, says EJC Kenya country manager Josh LaPorte. “Decision-makers, civil society’s agents of change and the public at large, can be strongly influenced and pressured by timely, hard-hitting, compelling and factual development reporting.”
An online version of Reporting Development: A Guide for African Journalists is available for free here.
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