Topic outline
General
African journalists with at least five years of experience are invited to participate in a five-week online course: “Covering Health in Africa.”
The course is being offered by the International Center for Journalists(ICFJ) in collaboration with the African Health Journalists Association. It will be held from March 24, 2014 to April 25, 2014. The deadline to apply is March 14, 2014.
The course, which will be offered in English, will be led by international media consultant Christopher Conte, who has extensive experience working with journalists and media organizations in the United States, Africa and Asia. Conte is a former Wall Street Journal reporter and editor who later spent three years as a Knight International Journalism Fellow based in Uganda. He currently is based in Washington, D.C.
Guest instructors will include:
Declan Okpalaeke, a Knight Health Journalism Fellow and director of the African Health Journalists Association, based in Lagos, Nigeria.
Erica Nybro, a Senior Research Associate and data specialist at MEASURE DHS/Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs.
Among the topics to be covered during the course:
- Finding Health Stories, a discussion of the big health challenges Africans face today.
- Shaping health stories, an exploration of techniques for reporting health stories
- Health Systems, an examination of how journalists can cover the institutions responsible for health.
- Special topics, such as mental health, traditional medicine and the role of community in determining health in modern-day Africa.
- Finding and using data to enhance health stories
The course is open to computer-literate African journalists with at least five years of professional experience. Participants must be willing to spend time reading materials, researching assignments and interacting online with instructors and fellow participants.