Sierra Leonean Scholar contributes to UNESCO Journalism Education Syllabi
UK-based Sierra Leonean scholar Dr Ibrahim Seaga Shaw (in photo) was recently commissioned by UNESCO to contribute a module on Humanitarian Journalism to the revised UNESCO Journalism Education Model curricula: A Compendium of New Syllabi (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002211/221199E.pdf) launched by the organization’s Programme Specialist, Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development, Dr Fackson Banda at the 3rd World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC-3) in Mechelen, Belgium on July 5 2013.
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova referred to the publication in her video welcome message to the WJEC conference on 3rd July 2013.
Work on the revised syllabi followed two pre-conference brain-storming workshops organised by UNESCO at the AEJMC Chicago August and ECREA Istanbul October, 2012 conferences. Dr Shaw, who is Senior Lecturer in Media and Politics, and Programme Leader for MSc Mass Communication Management, was among seven Journalism Education Experts invited to take part in the UNESCO Chicago workshop where the panelists shared their insights and research on the details and challenges of adapting the UNESCO Model Journalism Curricula launched in 2007 globally, especially in developing countries.
Speaking on the panel, Dr Shaw urged the adaptation of the Model Curriculum in Africa by including a critical history of African journalism informed by the African philosophy of Ubuntu.
In his foreword to the publication, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information Janis Karklins said the new syllabi is in a large way a direct response to the technological realities, as well as the global financial and economic crisis, of the 21s century. He said the ‘piloting of the Model Curricula by some seventy journalism training institutions in over sixty countries has thrown up even fresher—and perhaps more significant— challenges for journalism education to adapt to specialized literacies and skills acquisition.’
The Assistant Director-General acknowledged the fact that each contribution to the Compendium of New Syllabi ‘represents UNESCO’s outreach to build issue-based strategic partnerships with key journalism education experts and media development institutions globally.’
Dr Shaw’s module on Humanitarian Journalism introduces students to critical debates on the media and the political economy of humanitarian interventions involving state and civil society actors. It attempts to compare and contrast human rights reporting and humanitarian or human rights journalism. It thus sets the scene for an exploration of some of the national and international political, legal, economic and cultural structures that impact on the realization of the rights of people placing journalistic practices at the heart of such structures.
Dr Shaw is author of Human Rights Journalism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and co-editor of ‘Expanding Peace Journalism’ (Sydney University Press, 2012). He has just been contracted by Routledge to write a book on ‘Business Journalism: A political Economy Approach’ due out in 2014. In addition to writing this book, Dr Shaw will be using his research sabbatical leave between January and June 2014 to deliver guest lectures and workshops on media and human rights in some countries in Asia and Africa. He was editor of award-winning Expo Times (still available online www.expotimesonline.net ) in Sierra Leone in the mid 1990’s.
Dr Shaw is also co-secretary general of the International Peace Research Association (www.iprapeace.org) and is involved in the co-ordination of the organisation’s 25th conference in Istanbul Turkey in August 2014. Dr Seaga Shaw was nominated by the Northumbria University Students Union for the Best Lecturer in student-led teaching in May, and in November 2013 nominated for an award for his work in the field of journalism for human rights.
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