Regional Programs: Training

4. Kingston, Jamaica, 9-14 July 1990. CARIMAC/Panos Course for NGOs "How to Approach the Media".

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 the 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?