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Journalists Share Their Challenges of Practicing Journalism In Africa

December 8, 2014 by Guest Post

African journalists struggle with issues such as government corruption on a daily basis

By SAMANTHA WATKINS

Journalist training in Ethiopia. Photo courtesy of USAID Africa Bureau.

Journalist training in Ethiopia. Photo courtesy of USAID Africa Bureau.

Point Loma Nazarene University was the only American stop for a group of African journalists who came to share their experiences and learn about journalism in the United States.

It wasn’t because the Christian college has the only journalism program worth visiting: Ebola panic led the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg, the other stop, to cancel its events with the visiting journalists.

The African journalists, who are participating in the U.S. State Department’s Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists, hail from Ethiopia, Kenya, Botswana, Lesotho, Republic of South Sudan, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Swaziland. Two of the initial 14, from Ebola-stricken Sierra Leone and Liberia, canceled their trips.

“This is the only university they’re visiting in the entire nation,” Point Loma journalism professor Dean Nelson said to kick off the Nov. 7 event, which was styled as a Q-and-A with other journalism faculty.

African journalists struggle with issues such as government corruption on a daily basis, they said.

Dealing with government officials is challenging because they tend to ignore questions and refuse interviews, said Lerato Matheka, entertainment reporter with Public Eye in Lesotho. “We at times have to publish a story without their comment and sometimes that forces them to respond.”

African journalists face restrictions from the government and bribery to change story angles, and “some journalists take bribes from officials to kill stories and that affects credibility and professionalism,” said Matheka. Editors are also faced with bribery and may cut a story without telling the reporter, he said.

The government funds private media organizations that many of the journalists work for, so they are careful when they publish stories – that sometimes means information may not be accurate, the journalists said.

If a story does not highlight a government official, advertisements that fund the news organization will be cut, and the government will refuse future interviews, Matheka said. “We always have to tone down the exposure of our stories,” which Matheka called “one of the most critical issues.”

Vera Samuel Anyagafu, foreign desk correspondent with The Vanguard in Nigeria, said that “Africans know more about Americans than Americans know about Africans.”

Much of America’s media focuses on events happening inside the United States unless there is a major outbreak abroad, Anyagafu said. “America is the leader for freedom but your media is inward looking.”

In America, “there is ignorance in how Ebola is transmitted,” said Olive Burrows, a reporter from Capital FM in Kenya.

“A lady who treated patients with Ebola took a bike ride and then it’s suddenly huge news with media following her, and even police,” Burrows said, referring to the quarantine of nurse Kaci Hickox in Maine. “It’s a bit ridiculous.” Other African journalists agreed.

Quote Graphic (12)The journalists from Sierra Leone and Liberia would have offered an interesting view, as they face different limitations in journalism and have witnessed Ebola firsthand, Burrows said, calling their cancellation “regrettable.”

“They would have given us a wealth of information about how the whole thing was handled and what their thoughts are and what lessons they’ve learned and all that. It would have been amazing to have them on the trip,” Burrows said.

African journalists had many questions about journalism in America. Matheka asked the Point Loma faculty for their “views on social media in relation to time and accuracy.”

“Transparency is the new form – the viewer has to make their own decisions and think things through,” answered journalism professor Stephen Goforth.

“But anyone with a smartphone can now publish something and become a journalist – we call it citizen journalism; it is a common way people find out news,” said Nelson. Citizen journalism often includes information that is less than accurate, but the main point of the story is shared, he said.

Hearing from PLNU’s journalism professors, Burrows shared hope that “if we work at it, we can get up to the same pace as you.

“We imagine America to be this land of milk and honey,” Burrows added. “It’s been good to see some of the imperfections of your system, and it’s just like any other country in the world,” said Burrows.

Point Loma plans to host the African journalists again in a year.

The University of South Florida-St. Petersburg canceled its event with the African journalists “out of upmost caution,” Han Reichgelt, regional vice chancellor of academic affairs, wrote in a letter to journalism school faculty, students and staff, according to the journalism think tank Poynter.

The school knew that none of the 12 who traveled to the U.S. came from Ebola hotspots Sierra Leone or Liberia.

Journalism schools at Syracuse University and The University of Georgia were also supposed to host journalists who had recently been in Liberia, but cancelled their events out of fear of the virus spreading.

 

Samantha Watkins is a student at Point Loma Nazarene University. She reports for thecollegefix.com where this story first appeared. It is republished here with permission.

Filed Under: Featured, INTERNATIONAL, JOURNALISM, Magazines, Newspapers, Online, POLICY, Press Freedom Tagged With: Africa, Botswana, Ebola, Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Republic of South Sudan, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe

Journalism, Ethics & Ebola: Reporting accurately and responsibly

October 10, 2014 by Tracie Powell

Countering misinformation in Ebola Outbreak news coverage

Countering misinformation in Ebola Outbreak news coverage.

Dr. Caleph Wilson, Research scientist & co-founder of the National Science & Technology News Service; Laura Helmuth, Science and Health Editor at Slate as well as the incoming vice-president of the National Association of Science Writers; and public health advocate and physician Dr. Pierrette Mimi Poinsett joined All Digitocracy on Twitter this past Thursday to discuss how news organizations are covering the Ebola epidemic. We covered everything from revealing private information of patients versus the public’s need to know; why reporters continuously asked about the ethnicity of Thomas Duncan, who died last week after battling the disease; and how much coverage is too much coverage. Panelists also tweeted about the best people and places to follow for reliable information and they provided advice on best practices, story ideas and resources for other journalists who are covering the Ebola outbreak.

Read the whole transcript of the tweet chat for yourself:

Filed Under: Featured, JOURNALISM, NEWS, POLICY Tagged With: #ebolaethics, #EbolaOutbreak, Caleph Wilson, Ebola, Laura Helmuth, media bias, National Association of Science Writers, National Science & Technology News Service, Pierrette Mimi Poinsett, privacy, Slate

Journalism, Ethics & Ebola

October 8, 2014 by Tracie Powell

Join Laura Helmuth, Science and Health Editor at Slate; Caleph Wilson, research scientist & co-founder of the National Science & Technology News Service; and public health advocate and physician Dr. Pierrette Mimi Poinsett in discussing privacy versus public interest challenges confronting journalists in reporting about the Ebola Virus.

The panelists will participate in a live tweet chat tonight from 7 to 8 pm. They will also discuss ways in which the U.S. media is covering this international crisis, how the media can do better and how science journalists are countering inflammatory and misleading information that fuels public fear rather than inform.

The Twitter chat will be moderated by Tracie Powell, founder of All Digitocracy.

Who:

Laura HelmuthLaura Helmuth is the incoming vice-president of the National Association of Science Writers and the Science and Health Editor for Slate magazine. She was previously the science editor for Smithsonian magazine and a writer and editor for Science magazine’s news department. She has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience.

 

 

Caleph Wilson

 

Caleph Wilson’s research centers around investigating the biochemical mechanism(s) that promote the enhancement of adoptive T cell therapy to treat cancer and viral infections at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is co-founder of the National Science & Technology News Service.

 

 

Pierrette Mimi PoinsettPierrette Mimi Poinsett is a licensed pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay area. She received her medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering. Her current focus is on advocacy work, helping families navigate and access public health services.

 

 

 

What: Live Tweet Chat About Journalism, Ethics and Ebola

When: Wednesday, Oct. 8, from 7 to 8pm

Why: Journalists are having to balance privacy concerns of victims against the public’s interest in needed to know how health officials are working to prevent the spread of the virus, both here and abroad.

Where: Twitter. Use hashtag #ebolaethics

 

Filed Under: INTERNATIONAL, JOURNALISM, NEWS, POLICY Tagged With: #EbolaOutbreak, Caleph Wilson, Ebola, ethics, Laura Helmuth, news coverage, Pierrette Mimi Poinsett, science, science journalism, Tracie Powell, Twitter Chat

7 Ways US Journalists Can Cover the Ebola Epidemic Better

September 24, 2014 by Guest Post

 US news coverage of the contagious disease called “deficient”

By CYRIL IBE and EYOBONG ITA

A technician sets up an assay for Ebola within a containment laboratory. Samples are handled in negative-pressure biological safety cabinets to provide an additional layer of protection. Photo by Dr. Randal J. Schoepp, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

A technician sets up an assay for Ebola within a containment laboratory. Samples are handled in negative-pressure biological safety cabinets to provide an additional layer of protection. Photo by Dr. Randal J. Schoepp, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

She knew something was not right. First, the news was about a Liberian who died at a Nigerian airport; later a Guinean student survived in Senegal. But those occurrences did not get much media attention until an American doctor infected in Liberia was flown back to the U.S. for treatment. Thereafter, media focus shifted to statistical updates on the people infected and the countries affected.

Such has been Dr. Pierrette Mimi Poinsett’s skepticism – in some cases, outright disappointment – in the U.S. media’s coverage of  the Ebola epidemic.

“It’s very much number oriented and not human oriented,” said Poinsett, a pediatrician in Santa Rosa, Calif. who uses social media to discuss the media’s portrayal of health issues. “They are doing all the mathematical modules with no emphasis on the people affected, how the outbreak started and what the needs of the people are.”

Ebola is a highly contagious disease named after the river in the northern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the virus was first discovered in 1976. It has affected several villages around the Ebola River and claimed hundreds of lives, but the global community and the media did not treat it as a health emergency. When Ebola returned this summer, it hit three African countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – worse than in previous outbreaks.

Now that the disease has grabbed the U.S. media’s attention, news reports are not only filled with body counts, but often lack context, which is fueling misinformation and, in some cases, fear and unwarranted worry. Far too often there are media narratives (about Ebola and Africa) that are misleading or inaccurate, scientists and activists say.

One example cited is a news report from Examiner.com that states that the virus has “spread to Nigeria and Senegal. “The World Health Organization has declared the virus contained in Nigeria (after it was introduced by just one person) and there was just one case in Senegal that resulted in no deaths,” noted Minabere Ibelema, associate professor of communication studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “To write of ‘a spread’ is loose reporting.” The reality is that just three countries are seriously affected: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, with Liberia being by far the worst case. Other countries are either not affected at all or have contained the few incidents, added Ibelema.

Damien Chalaud, executive director of the World Federation of Science Journalists, calls US news coverage of the Ebola virus "deficient."

Damien Chalaud, executive director of the World Federation of Science Journalists, calls U.S. news coverage of the Ebola virus “deficient.”

Damien Chalaud, director of the Canadian-based World Federation of Science Journalists, agreed with Poinsett that reporters need to humanize their Ebola stories. “I think what’s been lacking is the personal human tragedy and how local communities are dealing with this,” Chalaud said by telephone. U.S. news reports on the virus prompted Chalaud’s organization to release a call to action to close the gap between scientists, journalists and communities. The Ebola outbreak highlights the urgent need for science journalists, particularly in Africa, but the same could be said for the U.S., Chalaud said.

Chalaud describes as “awkward and shocking” some of the news reports and images across media platforms that have crossed the line of respecting the human dignity of Ebola victims.  “I don’t think the Ebola coverage in Canada, UK or France has been deficient. Possibly patchy but not flawed,” he said. “In any case, all foreign news coverage tends to be slightly deficient on U.S. media, not just the Ebola crisis.”

In hopes of addressing some of the deficiencies in U.S. news coverage of the Ebola epidemic, here are a few tips:

  1. Respect human dignity in all reports. “There has been an emphasis on pictures of dead, dying bodies being disinfected and body-bagged with many of the photos about the Ebola outbreak,” said Poinsett.  She added that journalists should work harder to give the outbreak a ‘human face’ and try to be more respectful of the dead and dying. Poinsett added that news reports should also take into consideration the difficult work that African health workers are doing.
  2. Avoid the all-too-common “single narrative” about Africa. “In explaining why Ebola Virus Disease became so widespread Western reporters often cite poor hygiene, as is consistent with the narrative on Africa,” Ibelema said. “The reality is that while basic hygiene is implicated in the spread of diseases such as cholera and dysentery, it is not sufficient to prevent the spread of Ebola. Extraordinary precautions are necessary in this regard.”
  3. Report more on the human toll of Ebola and less on the “what ifs.” Often narratives have focused upon “what ifs,” including: What if the Ebola virus becomes airborne and what if the Ebola virus comes to the U.S.? “More emphasis should be placed on substance and what is needed,” Poinsett said, “not on baseless speculation.”
  4. Avoid stories that simply rehash numbers of victims, their “risky” habits, or stereotypes about them. “I think part of the problem has been over-emphasis on eating fruit bats and burial practices (as preventions) than taking into account structural issues such as fragile health infrastructure, limited supplies, very low ratio of health workers to population,” Poinsett said.
  5. Report on the most vulnerable Ebola victims: Women and children. “There has been limited emphasis on children and mothers.  I have seen articles about women having a greater burden of Ebola infection, but not as a focus in the mainstream media,” Poinsett said  “Also there is very little information about resources for mothers who are breastfeeding. What happens to children of infected parents during treatment.  Are there ‘Ebola orphans?’ What is happening to the children, what are the needs?”
  6. Journalists should be careful in reporting that Ebola is afflicting West Africa or listing several countries as among the afflicted. “This creates the wrong impression that the Ebola Virus Disease is prevalent in all of the listed countries or the entire sub-continent,” said Ibelema of the University of Alabama. Misleading and false news reports are also negatively impacting African countries and perpetuating stereotypes, said Djibril Diallo, a senior advisor to the Executive Director of UNAIDS. For example a visit to Senegal by the U.S. Olympic Basketball team was cancelled last month, although Senegal has not been largely affected by the outbreak. Senegal has been reported as one of the countries impacted by the Ebola outbreak although only one case has been identified: A Guinean student was successfully treated in the country. The U.S. is not listed, despite bringing in four patients who were also treated successfully, said Diallo, who is Senegalese. “The psychosis triggered by Ebola – Ebolaphobia—is quickly turning into Afrophobia and even outright racism in certain quarters outside Africa, with economic consequences of untold proportions,” he added. “Tourism is not spared. A Thai insurance company recently cancelled a trip to Cape Town, South Africa because, in their mind Ebola is in Africa. In Seoul, South Korea there are reports of signs outside a restaurant that read ‘Due to the Ebola Virus, we are no longer accepting Africans in this restaurant for the moment.’ The sign was photographed by a client and it went viral on social media.”
  7. Use the Ebola outbreak as an opportunity to tell wider global health stories. “We need to take an interest in health care needs globally,” Poinsett said. “It is a human issue not just a security issue.  It is important to go beyond self interest (how do we stay healthy) to how we can promote and advocate for health and wellbeing for all.”

 

Cyril Ibe teaches journalism and digital media at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. A member of the National Association of African Journalists (NAAJ) in the United States, Ibe is the organization’s digital content producer. Eyobong Ita is the founder of NAAJ as well as editor & publisher of The Drum & Christian Drum newspapers based in Nigeria. This report and tip sheet was produced in partnership between All Digitocracy and the National Association of African Journalists Health Journalism Task Force.

 

Filed Under: Education, Featured, INTERNATIONAL, JOURNALISM Tagged With: Cyril Ibe, Ebola, eyobong ita, Guinea, journalism, Liberia, media bias, news coverage, science, science journalism, science journalists, Senegal

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