The barber shaves the word “Ghana” on the head of the football fan. It is the favourite team of the West African supporter who suddenly appears on the computer monitors of the video journalists in Johannesburg. He walks into the salon in a poor part of town in his home country of Ghana. The camera zooms in to provide a close-up of his head. The barber in Accra picks up his razor and in Johannesburg the trainer Michael Kraus reaches over the shoulder of a course participant and makes a targeted cut with a mouse click. “We want to get in as close as possible to him,” explains the project manager of the Deutsche Welle-Akademie (DW-Akademie). The journalists are learning how to use digital film cutting equipment. It turns out that the film of Oboui, the Ghana fan from the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, offers ideal raw material. In the three-week DW-Akademie course everything revolves around football. The countdown for the kick-off for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa has started.
The journalists are improving their technical skills in preparation for the big event that they will follow for their own broadcasting stations in 2010. “The young colleagues are all editors and will need to cut short takes in the future as well,” says DW trainer Michael Kraus. The DW-Akademie has chosen participants for this production course who had already demonstrated their commitment and reliability in other workshops. The 14 journalists come from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Near and Middle East – regions in which the DW-Akademie is involved in media development.
During the first part of the workshop in Johannesburg the multicultural teams of TV reporters, producers and cinematographers learn how to professionally research background stories and audiovisually process them. “Human interest stories” show a different side of South Africa, and consequently the continent, creating an impression other than that of catastrophes, so the people here, their lives and their dreams in an up-and-coming society form the centre of attention. During the 2010 World Cup the journalists will work together with online specialists to put their contributions online and make them internationally accessible via a portal they have developed themselves. In the neighbouring class the group has gathered round a television camera. The experienced coaches explain the functions. Kimani Githae is a 31-year-old cameraman with the Kenyan Citizen TV station in Nairobi. He wants to know more about filming techniques, so that he can work better and more quickly during the World Cup. “Then I’ll have the advantage of already knowing the environment.” He says that gaining insights into the way colleagues from other countries work is an additional bonus, and Farouk Kayondo, the TV news editor from Uganda, adds: “We’re learning from each other.”
Especially in developing countries, broadcasting stations will not be providing detailed background reports in their TV programmes or web portals. But these kinds of stories are precisely what is needed, says Dr. Andrea Rübenacker, head of the DW-Akademie’s Africa division. “They take a bit of South Africa to Vietnam or Bhutan and convey a more comprehensive picture of the atmosphere in the country through encounters with the people.” She says that this DW course is a special project. In its African media support the DW-Akademie concentrates on “conflict sensitive” journalism, especially in East Africa, and becomes involved in states which are seriously interested in media freedom. Declarations of intent are drawn up with those responsible in the broadcasting companies and the aims of the cooperation programme are determined in order to ensure that the treatment of content and the structure of broadcasting stations adhere to freedom-of-the-press principles. The efficient use of funding in such projects is another aspect that is considered an important element in successful work.
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) in Johannesburg aims its work more at the management level: “Years ago we offered particularly wide-ranging courses for journalists. Now we’re concentrating more on opinion leaders in the media industry,” says Frank Windeck, head of the KAS media programme in Sub-Saharan Africa. The target group is media managers and editors-in-chief. The 8th Leadership Conference organized by the KAS was recently held for the first time in Ghana, West Africa, with 60 participants from 20 countries. It provided new insights into the African media landscape of the future. Windeck says that traditional media can no longer do without “citizen journalism” and the new media. In Africa the classic media are expanding: “Their potential still has to be exhausted while the new media gain a stronger footing at the same time.” Parallel to next year’s conference the KAS is planning to offer an online course, so that participants can blog, twitter and debate. “The people growing up with digital media are the decision-makers of tomorrow. It’s important that they are integrated in our initiative.”
Radio is still the most widely used medium in Africa. In 2009 the KAS organised a seminar for African and German journalists together with the Witwatersrand University Johannesburg and a programme for middle radio management focusing on ethics and business practices. Consideration is also being given to the idea of developing a distance learning course in South Africa for Africans, journalists and media managers. A KAS Centre for Media Management still has a long way to go before becoming reality. “We need it, because there’s a lack of background knowledge in financing, and dependence on sponsors and the state for funding often sets the agenda.”
Freedom of expression and the press are essential in the development of resilient democracies. “Free and responsible media act as drivers in improving leadership in authorities and governments by critically scrutinizing social processes and contributing to the formation of independent opinions,” says Astrid Kohl, head of Inwent’s International Institute for Journalism (IIJ) in Berlin. The institute offers young, up-and-coming journalists from developing and emerging countries the chance to improve their journalistic expertise and develop a self-assured approach in dealing with media. Like the DW-Akademie and the KAS, the IIJ involves itself in reform-oriented countries and runs 40 training and dialogue events each year in Germany and the partner countries of German development cooperation. In addition to this, exchange programmes between African and European journalists promote the development of new networks.
The video journalists in the DW course also developed a more realistic eye for the country and the people. The group made good, entertaining contributions depicting how South Africa is excitedly looking forward to the great football tournament. And the coaches said they’re prepared for the World Cup. Farouk Kayondo from Uganda feels he is ready for his return in 2010: “I can do my own TV filming. It’s not my normal job, but it means I can step in to help whenever necessary.”
