Journalism education and training in Malawi: A case for a national policy

Based principally on verbal data collected through interviews with journalists, journalism  educationists, journalist trainers, and  curriculum analysis, this study notes some progress made in the field of Malawian journalism since independence. However, it argues that despite the welcome increase in the number of  journalism and communication qualifications offered by public and private journalism training colleges in Malawi, the quality of the output is still lackluster. This is overwhelmingly because practical skills courses are taught inadequately, haphazardly and theoretically due, partly, to inadequate human and material resources and lack of a national policy to guide the formation of journalists. It recommends that to improve the quality and relevance of journalistic output, Malawi should draft and publish a journalism education and training policy to guide all journalism training colleges. It also recommends that training colleges should partner with the industry, multilateral organizations with interest in communication and media  development, government  departments and NGOs not only for industrial attachment but also for these to sponsor communication and journalism training programmes. Partner institutions should consider procuring  training materials and assets for the training institutions. The study further recommends that partner institutions need to  consider sponsoring academic staff for higher education in journalism and media studies.Keywords: journalism training, journalism education and training policy, media content, media, media development, Malaw

Gender discourse and Malawian rural communities: a study of the meaning the people of traditional authority Likoswe of Chiradzulo make from human rights and gender messages

Contrary to earlier beliefs and media theories such as the hypodermic needle or magic bullet, the audience of public communication is not a passive homogenous mass that easily succumbs to media influence. The audience is active, that is, it makes an effort to interpret media content. Depending on predisposing cultural, political, religious, or economic factors the audience makes different meanings from media texts. Media messages are not wholly controlled by producers, although the producers have their preferred and expected readings. Using qualitative research techniques associated with ethnographic and cultural studies (notably focus group discussions), this study sought to explore the meanings rural people in Malawi make out of human rights and gender messages broadcast on radio and through music. Interpreted against Stuart Hall's (1974b) Encoding and Decoding model, the study concludes that while rural communities understand and appreciate the new sociopolitical discourse, they take a negotiated stance because they have their own doubts and fears. They fear losing their cultural identity. Additionally, men, in particular, negotiate the messages because they fear losing their social power over land, property and family

Public Awareness and Perception of TEVET Activities in Malawi

This study assessed the impact of Information, Education, Communication and Marketing (IECM) strategy by Malawi’s Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TEVETA) on potential clients’ awareness of the organisation’s existence understanding of policies on and HIV/AIDS and Gender, and their perception of the importance of  TEVET activities in Malawi. A structured questionnaire was deployed to gather data from a sample of 585 interviewees recruited using a two step sampling design. The findings suggest that the IECM activities were not successful in creating awareness of TEVETA Malawi’s presence and TEVET amongst urban, peri-urban and rural Malawians. Further, the study found that potential client knowledge of what TEVETA does and its policies relating to gender and HIV/AIDS inclusiveness was limited.  For TEVET to become popular and help in driving national economic growth, the study recommends that TEVETA Malawi should espouse  a targeted integrated public communication strategy comprising use of multiple communication channels, strategic placement IECM materials and use of multiple languages

Sammelbesprechung: Nachhaltigen sozialen Wandel katalysieren durch öffentliche Kommunikation, Rundfunk und partizipative Monitoring- und Evaluationsprozesse

This article reviews three recent books by four authors (two single, one joint) from Australia and Africa. The three books are related in that they all discuss the need to acknowledge the role of dialogic communication and popular participation as catalysts for sustainable social development in the developing world. Specifically, "Public Relations, Activism and Social Change" proposes that public relations (PR) needs to transform itself into public communication (PC), where people are made to make decisions based on dialogue and the correctness of the information rather than out of manipulative propaganda. "People's Radio" argues that radio can lead to tangible and long-lasting social change if it engages the primary beneficiaries in the planning, production presentation of the programs and management of (community) radio stations. "Evaluating Communication for Development" argues that through indicators defined by the local people themselves, evaluators can find evidence of social change brought about by communication for development activities. The book suggests that to be effective, monitoring and evaluation of communication for development ought to be participatory and use qualitative data collection tools such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and most significant change (MSC) evaluations.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs140383Este artículo revisa tres libros recientes de cuatro autores (dos individuales, uno colectivo) de Australia y África. Los tres libros se relacionan en que todos discuten la necesidad de reconocer el papel de la comunicación dialógica y la participación popular como catalizadores para el desarrollo social sostenible en el mundo en desarrollo. Específicamente, "Public Relations, Activism and Social Change" propone que las relaciones públicas (RP) tienen que transformarse en comunicación pública (CP), en donde las personas están hechas para tomar decisiones basadas en el diálogo y exactitud de la información en vez de la propaganda manipuladora. "People's Radio" sostiene que la radio puede conducir a un cambio social tangible y duradero si involucra a los principales beneficiarios en la planificación, la presentación de producción de los programas y la gestión de las estaciones de radio (de la comunidad). "Evaluating Communication for Development" argumenta que a través de indicadores definidos por los propios habitantes locales, los evaluadores pueden encontrar evidencia de cambio social producida por la comunicación para las actividades de desarrollo. El libro sugiere que para ser eficaz, el seguimiento y la evaluación de la comunicación para el desarrollo deben ser participativos y utilizar herramientas de recogida de datos cualitativos como los grupos focales, entrevistas en profundidad, y evaluaciones más significativas de cambio (MSC).URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs140383In diesem Beitrag werden drei gerade erschienene Bücher besprochen, deren Autor/innen aus Australien bzw. Afrika stammen. Gemeinsam ist den Büchern, dass sie die Notwendigkeit von öffentlicher Kommunikation und Teilhabe als Katalysatoren einer nachhaltigen sozialen Entwicklung in den sogenannten "Entwicklungsländern" unterstreichen. In "Public Relations, Activism and Social Change" wird vorgeschlagen, Konzepte der Public Relations in Richtung von "Public Communication" zu transformieren, sodass für Entscheidungsprozesse dialogische Aushandlungsprozesse und die Verlässlichkeit von Informationen wesentlich sind statt manipulativer Propaganda. "People's Radio" verdeutlicht, wie greifbare und andauernde Wandlungsprozesse initiiert werden können, wenn potenzielle Nutzer/innen bereits in die Planung, aber auch in die Programmgestaltung und den Betrieb gemeinschaftlicher Rundfunkanstalten involviert sind. "Evaluating Communication for Development" zeigt, dass Menschen lokal bereits in die Definition von Indikatoren einbezogen werden sollten und dass Monitoring und Evaluation partizipativ konzipiert werden sollten unter Nutzung von Fokusgruppen, Interviews und Most-Significant-Change-Techniken.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs14038

Herbicide toxicity awareness among smallholder farmers and agriculture extension officers in Malawi

Using evidence from field key informant and written questionnaire interviews with agriculture extension officers, focus group discussions with some smallholder farmers, analysis of packaging labels, and a detailed literature review, this paper argues that Malawian smallholder farmers handle herbicides without adequate information about the advantages and negative impacts of such herbicides because, it appears, the agriculture extension workers themselves lack requisite knowledge on herbicide toxicity. Further, the study finds that herbicides are marketed in Malawi in breach of Malawian law and in contravention of the Rotterdam Convention as the information on the herbicide labels is sometimes inadequate, misleading, and unavailable in local languages. This exposes farmers to potentially carcinogenic chemicals without their knowledge. The paper recommends, inter alia, that an awareness campaign about the long term harmful effects of herbicides be mounted countrywide and internationally to protect illiterate smallholder farmers from herbicide toxicity

Catalyzing sustainable social change through public communication, radio for development, and participatory monitoring and evaluation: collective review

This article reviews three recent books by four authors (two single, one joint) from Australia and Africa. The three books are related in that they all discuss the need to acknowledge the role of dialogic communication and popular participation as catalysts for sustainable social development in the developing world. Specifically, "Public Relations, Activism and Social Change" proposes that public relations (PR) needs to transform itself into public communication (PC), where people are made to make decisions based on dialogue and the correctness of the information rather than out of manipulative propaganda. "People's Radio" argues that radio can lead to tangible and long-lasting social change if it engages the primary beneficiaries in the planning, production presentation of the programs and management of (community) radio stations. "Evaluating Communication for Development" argues that through indicators defined by the local people themselves, evaluators can find evidence of social change brought about by communication for development activities. The book suggests that to be effective, monitoring and evaluation of communication for development ought to be participatory and use qualitative data collection tools such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and most significant change (MSC) evaluations. Collective Review: 1) Kristin Demetrious: Public Relations, Activism and Social Change. London: Routledge 2013. ISBN 987-0-415-89706-8. 2) Linje Manyozo: People's Radio: Communicating Change Across Africa. Penang: Southbound 2012. ISBN 978-0-41552259-5. 3) June Lennie & Jo Taachi: Evaluating Communication for Development: A Framework for Social Change. London: Earthscan (Routledge) 2013. ISBN 978-983-9054-54-5.In diesem Beitrag werden drei gerade erschienene Bücher besprochen, deren Autor/innen aus Australien bzw. Afrika stammen. Gemeinsam ist den Büchern, dass sie die Notwendigkeit von öffentlicher Kommunikation und Teilhabe als Katalysatoren einer nachhaltigen sozialen Entwicklung in den sogenannten "Entwicklungsländern" unterstreichen. In "Public Relations, Activism and Social Change" wird vorgeschlagen, Konzepte der Public Relations in Richtung von "Public Communication" zu transformieren, sodass für Entscheidungsprozesse dialogische Aushandlungsprozesse und die Verlässlichkeit von Informationen wesentlich sind statt manipulativer Propaganda. "People's Radio" verdeutlicht, wie greifbare und andauernde Wandlungsprozesse initiiert werden können, wenn potenzielle Nutzer/innen bereits in die Planung, aber auch in die Programmgestaltung und den Betrieb gemeinschaftlicher Rundfunkanstalten involviert sind. "Evaluating Communication for Development" zeigt, dass Menschen lokal bereits in die Definition von Indikatoren einbezogen werden sollten und dass Monitoring und Evaluation partizipativ konzipiert werden sollten unter Nutzung von Fokusgruppen, Interviews und Most-Significant-Change-Techniken

Journalists' development journalism role perceptions

Development journalism remains an important concept in the journalism studies literature, but it has, at the same time, suffered from a lack of empirical research. Drawing on a survey of 2598 journalists from eight South Asian, Southeast Asian, and sub-Saharan African countries, which was conducted as part of the Worlds of Journalism Study, this study assesses the importance journalists ascribe to three key development journalism roles—social intervention, national development, and educating people. It also compares these perceptions across the countries, between government- and privately owned news media in these countries, and between these countries and 19 Worlds of Journalism Study countries in Western Europe and North America, which profess to adhere to an objective and democratic press function. Findings suggest that journalists from the eight countries, across government- and privately owned media, considered development journalism important, and detached, adversarial journalism as less important. Their rating of the latter roles differed considerably from those of journalists from the 19 comparison countries. Results suggest that journalists were more likely socialized into their roles rather than being forced into the same by the heavy hand of government