Student driven education in Uganda

In order to gain ideas on how to train journalism students, teachers of the Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda) were trained in internet journalism.

The co-operation between RNTC and the Makerere University started off with a trip to Hilversum, the Netherlands, by three Makerere University teachers in December 2010. A on the job course in internet journalism for a larger group op teachers followed in July 2011, in Uganda.



Part 1: Study Trip to The Netherlands

The three representatives visited the Netherlands to get new ideas on educating to-be journalists. Student driven is the key word at universities today, they found out. And a newsroom learning environment is the way to go.

Newsroom
In a newsroom, students are in charge themselves. One is reporter, another one camera man, the next person is responsible for online content, and one is the editor-in-chief. Students are responsible from the beginning to the end and make productions in a real life environment. Their professors are only active at the side line.  

An often heard argument is that schools do not have the equipment to set up such a newsroom. But also with limited means, you can organize real life situations.

Internships
Internships came up as another topic during the study week. Internships are not only important for students, they can also help universities to increase co-operation with the media industry. Such relations can be extremely valuable: the industry introduces new developments to you, experts can give guest lectures, a.s.o. “We will not leave it up to the students to search for an internship. We’ll play an active role as a mediator and intensify our contacts with the media sector”, tells George Lugulambi.

Multimedia Mindset
A last development the lecturers from Kampala want to introduce is a multimedia mindset. Currently, students choose print, audio or video. But we’re living in a multimedia world. Students should be able to use all means to tell their story and to combine them.  



Part 2:  Training in internet Journalim

During the course, RNTC used a newsroom setting to create the optimal real-life environment. In this environment, the importance of the role of the producer or central editor was discussed.  It is him or her who decides on how to put the content together. In a multimedia world, this job becomes more complex.

In the first week, the group focused on finding news and background information on the internet. Using accurate and credible information is the key to good journalism. But how to assure yourself, your sources are reliable?

The second week started with producing text stories on a blog, via slide shows towards complete multimedia stories. One of the participants: “This training put together a package of tools and methods necessary for online journalism. Before we each had fragmented knowledge.”

The training was funded by UNESCO, RNTC and the Makerere University.