Development journalism: Nice in theory but troublesome in practice
The outline of my speech goes as follows:
1. First I will speak about the history of development journalism; how it originated in South East Asia in the late 1960s and was later introduced to the African continent.
2. Secondly I will speak specifically about how the journalism philosophy was introduced in Ethiopia. Here I will pay particular attention to a policy document that was drafted in 2008, five years ago.
3. Then I will ask the question: What do the journalists think about development journalism? This section is based on a number of interviews which I have conducted with journalists in the Ethiopian state media, some 70 in number.
4. Lastly I will discuss some of the challenges with development journalism as it is translated into actual journalism practice. My attitude is that one may not necessarily have to discard development journalism altogether, but there are some issues which must be carefully addressed to avoid that this journalism style will end as purely government promotion with the risk that media criticism is totally neglected.
1. First I will speak about the history of development journalism; how it originated in South East Asia in the late 1960s and was later introduced to the African continent.
2. Secondly I will speak specifically about how the journalism philosophy was introduced in Ethiopia. Here I will pay particular attention to a policy document that was drafted in 2008, five years ago.
3. Then I will ask the question: What do the journalists think about development journalism? This section is based on a number of interviews which I have conducted with journalists in the Ethiopian state media, some 70 in number.
4. Lastly I will discuss some of the challenges with development journalism as it is translated into actual journalism practice. My attitude is that one may not necessarily have to discard development journalism altogether, but there are some issues which must be carefully addressed to avoid that this journalism style will end as purely government promotion with the risk that media criticism is totally neglected.
Publisert i Public lecture at Mekelle University in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Mekelle, Ethiopia, 2013
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