As misinformation and disinformation continue to pose serious questions on the relevance of journalism today, a virtual Conference on the Future of Journalism Education in Southern Africa will initiate a conversation on how media practice can earn the society’s trust.
The 2021 virtual conference, which starts on Tuesday, November 9, 2021, will focus on the importance of timely, accurate and reliable information in restoring trust in the media.
The conference provides a platform for media managers, journalists, media experts and journalism trainers from Southern Africa and Europe to exchange experiences and develop ideas on the future of journalism education in Southern Africa.
As new trends on how information is shared emerge, calls for the media to reignite its relevance have become louder and the conference – themed ‘Telling the Truth – Restoring Trust’ – will provide the platform for this important discussion with the challenges posed by Covid-19 being one of the issues to be discussed.
“One of the key challenges that Covid-19 has presented is a diminished trust in the media due to the infodemic that we are experiencing. And yet this is also the time we need the media to be trustworthy in disseminating information about the pandemic. We therefore expect that the conference will help us share experiences on how we can rebuild that trust.” MISA Malawi Chairperson Teresa Ndanga said.
She said MISA Malawi, DW Akademie and Namibia Media Trust (NMT) have ensured that this year’s conference should be unique and relevant to modern journalism.
“This is an opportunity for Malawi and other participating countries to share and learn from each other about continuous improvement of journalism standards. The conference brings out expertise in various fields of journalism,” Ndanga said.
Veteran Namibian Broadcast Journalist Patrick Sam and Television Presenter Nina Katangana will co-facilitate the 2021 conference while keynote speaker is Khadija Patel, Head of Programming at International Fund for Public Interest Media.
Speakers include Teresa Ndanga – MISA Malawi Chairperson, Christie Keulder – Researcher at Afrobarometer, Flourish Chukwura – West Africa Correspondent for DW News, Marcus Bösch – an Independent Consultant and Tutaleni Asino – Associate Professor at Oklahoma State University.
Others are Paula Fray – CEO of Fray College, Mattia Peretti – Manager of JournalismAl at Polis (London School of Economics), Styli Charalambous – Publisher and CEO of Daily Maverick, Zenzele Ndebele – Founder and Director of the Centre for Innovation and Technology (CITE) in Zimbabwe and Attila Mong – DW Akademie Investigative Journalism Trainer.
Frederico Links – the Institute for Public Policy Research (Namibia), Peter Deselaers – DW Akademie Programme Director for Namibia and Southern Africa, Nqobizitha Mlilo – Founder and CEO for Nafuna TV in Zimbabwe and Wisdom Chimgwede – Media Council of Malawi Chairperson will also speak at the conference.
The conference will also provide an opportunity for the launch of ‘Teaching Media Policy in Africa: A handbook for media educators’.
The inaugural conference of the Future of Journalism Education in Southern Africa was hosted by MISA Malawi in Lilongwe, Malawi in 2019. Due to Covid-19 preventive measures, the conference in 2020 was virtual just as it is the case with the conference this year.
This year’s conference, to be held on November 9, 11 and 16, will be hosted by The Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA Malawi), Namibia Media Trust (NMT) and DW Akademie, Germany’s leading organisation for media development.
