Mapping Journalism Training Centres in Sub-Saharan Africa

Alan Finlay

The News Media (and) Development Network

«Journalism training and education in sub-Saharan Africa is flourishing. It is offered by universities, colleges, institutes and schools, non-profit organisations, media councils, regulators, trade unions, state broadcasters, and the commercial media, amongst others.»

This report offers an overview of journalism training and education centres in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on 10 countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda. In total, more than 55 journalism training centres and initiatives in the region were mapped.

As explained by the publishers, «The media landscape in sub-Saharan Africa has shifted considerably over the last ten years, as have the training needs of journalists who now have to report on more complex issues, often using advanced digital skills for research and data gathering. But how has journalism training and education in the region kept up with these changes? How are universities, centres, and non-profit organisations responding to the practical, evolving skills needs of journalists? What are the challenges these learning environments face, and what new networks and innovative training ecologies have emerged in the region?»

Although the primary emphasis of this research was on institutions such as universities, schools, colleges, and institutes, the researchers took a loose definition of «centres» to include some initiatives in the non-profit sector, as well as those closely aligned to the commercial media. «The purpose was to try to identify trends in journalism education and training in sub-Saharan Africa, challenges and areas of creativity and teaching, and what we called ‘centres responding to a changing environment’.»

The report notes that this is not meant to be an evaluative study, as it does not offer an evaluation of the quality or strength of training of centres surveyed. Instead «it attempts to offer a sense of key ‘training ecologies’ in each focus country, and what centres are doing in terms of journalism training and education.»

The English version of the report contains the following sections:

Introduction – discusses some of the contextual issues, such as the continent’s colonial history, the fact that many newsrooms are in crisis, corruption in both business and government, and COVID-19.
Objective and methodology – outlines the choice of institutions and the methodology used to gather information, which included interviews and an online survey.
Country summaries – offers a bird’s eye view of key journalism training centres in the 10 focus countries, including information on identified training centres in each country, key focus areas of study being offered, and level of degrees being offered.
Training needs – explores journalism training needs that were identified by interviewees and respondents in a number of the countries surveyed, including basic writing and editing skills, digital and multimedia skills, data journalism skills, specialist knowledge, investigative journalism, ethical journalism, gender, journalism in indigenous languages, and English language courses.
Key role players in journalism training – looks at: the role of the state; state-supported universities, colleges, and schools; private universities, colleges, and schools; commercial media; donors and funding institutions; global organisations; and ecologies of teaching and training and ecologies of learning.
Networks – investigates the networking opportunities and formalised networks that exist for journalists, students, educators, and trainers.
Student and staff numbers – delineates student numbers and staff numbers (core and part-time staff) for a sample of organisations included in the study.
Gender balance – details the percentage of female students in different countries and institutions.
Practical training – explains which institutions offer practical training and the nature of that training for radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and digital publishing. It also discusses the capacity of teaching staff to offer practical training, which institutions offers internships, and the nature of the internships.
Upskilling and professional advancement – describes the kinds of courses for working journalists, managers, and entrepreneurs.
Public relations and other media streams – elucidates how institutions treat journalism in relation to related media tracks such as public relations and advertising.
Investigative journalism – examines the extent to which teaching institutions offer investigative journalism courses.
E-learning – recounts online learning offered by journalism teaching institutions, the impact of COVID-19 on e-learning, and future plans and challenges.