Regional Programs: Training
Child Rights .
Public Health (in particular HIV/AIDS) . Environment
. Gender and Social Justice . Archive
Regional Training Courses
3. Jamaica, July 1990 (Summer School)
Responsible reporting on the marine environment (coral reefs,
fishing, wetlands, mangroves, conservation projects, etc).
Length 2 weeks.
Target Group
Experienced Caribbean media practitioners from traditional mass
media.
Objectives
To inform Caribbean media practitioners on environment and development
issues, and to train them in specialized reporting on these issues.
To sensitize to the necessity for giving Caribbean people the widest
possible exposure to results of scientific research.
Context
This workshop took also place within the CARIMAC project "Environmental
issues and responsible reporting", initiated in early 1989.
Participants
13 journalists (5 print, 5 radio, and 3 TV) from 6 countries. Female/
Male Ratio: 6/7
Working Methodology and Activities
Production course, where all activities should lead to final productions
in TV, radio and print.
Activities: 3 days with lectures on marine issues, 2 days field
trips, 3 days research and interviews (in small production groups),
2 days editing, 2 days critiquing products and one day evaluation
and discussion.
Documentation Used
List of environmental organizations and individuals was compiled
by CCA to identify sources for stories, experts for interviews,
etc.
Wide variety of articles, reports, etc.
Results
Products included four radio programmes, one TV programme and nine
articles. These were taken home by participants for publishing and
broadcasting. The radio and TV presentations were uniformly excellent.
Some articles were weak on content.
List of environmental organizations in Jamaica. This will be expanded
for the Caribbean by CCA.
Networking was initiated between journalists and researchers in
the English-speaking Caribbean.
Evaluation by Participants
Evaluations were unanimously favourable and the criticisms and recommendations
were all well targeted. Many complained of an overfull programme
and the overwhelming amount of information to be absorbed in a short
time. All agreed that what was learned could be applied to daily
work. The programme was rated very useful, with special mention
of comprehensive information on environmental topics and discussion
on outputs. Evening production was found good, as well as the trip
to the wetlands.
Lessons Learned and Recommendations
The need for more phone lines (there were only two), more time for
research and somewhat less for theory, more focus on people's comments,
briefer lectures, better eating places, more studio time, not too
much info at once.
There were many technical glitches during the field trips and in
the studios, but the atmosphere remained great.
More time should be devoted to philosophical and social aspects
of environmental reporting (commitment, attitude and role of journalist),
as well as methods for effectively targetting various audiences.
3. Kingston, Jamaica, 2-14 July 1990. CARIMAC/Panos
Summer School for Journalists "Responsible Reporting
on Environmental Issues".
These production workshops were organized in follow-up
to the CCA/CARIMAC/Panos seminar in January 1990, which
focused on media managers. The summer school brought
together experienced journalists from print, radio and
TV from around the Caribbean. They were exposed to a
series of marine environment and development issues
in order to produce printable and broadcastable outputs.
The summer school was conducted in Discovery Bay and
Montego Bay (first week) and the Mona campus (second
week).
During the summer school, introduction to marine environmental
issues was done through field trips and lectures by
experts. After an initial theoretical orientation in
Kingston, the entire group moved for six days to the
Discovery Bay Marine Lab. This Lab served as a home
base for various field trips and investigative work.
Participants were able to talk with fishermen, watersport
users, marine park personnel, researchers, hoteliers,
etc. Many potential sources had been contacted before,
but no specific appointments had been set up in advance.
Production meetings were held daily.
During the second week all tasks were implemented related
to putting the final products together. There were a
number of resource persons from CARIMAC and Panos as
well as from CCA. Additionally, several personnel of
the University of the West Indies, two experienced Jamaican
journalists and media experts and a science teacher
were made available.
A concurrent course specifically for environmental
scientists was held during this week, with as main goal
to train them on "how to make their own news".
After an overview of Caribbean media and meeting the
journalist' participants, the scientists were introduced
to news writing: how to compose a press release. The
second day, original research that the scientists brought
in, was popularized for a wider audience. Subsequently,
exercises were conducted, such as being interviewed
by the media as sources of information.
During the final three days, the two groups were brought
together for review, discussion and evaluation. During
these sessions, the feature articles by the environmentalists
were critiqued, along with all the media outputs. Along
with many production-oriented questions, a number of
other issues emerged:
- The environmentalists appeared to write better articles
than the experienced journalists. This may be attributed
to their generally higher level of education, plus
the intense previous three days of learning how to
write a lengthy feature properly. Most journalists
do not often write such long features and may simply
have been "out of practice".
- Most of the participants had little or no previous
knowledge of marine ecosystems, their functions or
economic value. Many had never seen a coral reef before
or been in a mangrove swamp. After the courses, virtually
all of them confessed to being "converted"
to the environmental cause because they were now "informed"
about the issues.
- All participants intended to continue writing and
producing programmes on marine issues. Various elements
related to "commitment" were raised, as
well as the role of the journalist in informing the
public. Is it the journalist's role to inform the
public in such a way as to elicit action? How crucial
are media in creating a dynamic culture that includes
environmental concerns? Should the journalist promote
behaviour change?
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