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Investigative journalism course in Montenegro unhindered by nature
Tue., February 7, 6:15 PM | Comments ( 0 )
Electricity went down just as we started on the most emotionally charged part of the training - a journalism ethics quiz. That’s right; even Thomson Reuters Foundation courses can be affected by nature. It had been snowing heavily in Podgorica for the previous 24 hours, but the power grid had held out. It collapsed in many parts of the city when the snow turned into a thunderstorm.
But the participants, 12 journalists from leading Montenegrin media outlets, showed no sign of using this as an excuse for an early finish of the course. Instead, we found a laptop with a charged battery and continued the quiz in nearly total darkness as the training room was in a basement.
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Ethics & standards of social networking and new media in the Arab world
Tue., January 10, 4:56 PM | Comments ( 1 )
The Thomson Reuters Foundation workshop shed new light on the various aspects of using social media to cover the Arab uprisings, a task that would be difficult without input from various parties on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and other social media outlets.
Updates from social media outlets are becoming one of, if not the, major source of news for stories we as journalists cover events in countries closed to independent media such as Syria. Using these mediums, however, poses ethical questions about the ability to trust the eyewitness reports from parties which may have biased view to the events occurring on the ground. In Syria, this is certainly a dilemma we face every day as we try to ascertain whether the news reported by activists and eyewitnesses matches the reality on the ground.
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Advanced course in Tunis equips journalists in finance and governance
Tue., December 20, 2:41 PM | Comments ( 0 )
We were eight journalists from seven French-speaking African countries, taking part in a five-day advanced course at the Majestic Hotel in Tunis to strengthen our skills in covering finance and governance.
Development finance, international financial flows, the fight against corruption, tax evasion, corporate governance and financial transparency were the themes for investigative story projects that the participants had to work up.
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My World Press Institute Fellowship
Fri., December 2, 12:33 PM | Comments ( 1 )
From imposing high-rises in the world's financial centre in New York to pristine mid-west countryside lakes in Ely, Iowa, the two month World Press Institute Fellowship was any journalists' delight.
Visiting top media houses in ten cities - Ely, Iowa, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Miami, Atlanta and Washington DC-- in two months, marked by long waits in airports, brief brunches and hardly four hours of sleep a day, with ten international journalists has been the most exhilarating experience so far in my five years of life as journalist.
The vibrant media scene in the US, at a time when the country is facing serious economic challenges was of particular interest to me. I was impressed by the aggressive use of technology by American newspapers to beat the slump in the industry. Again, the rise of media houses like MinnPost, a non-profit organization run by seasoned journalists who lost their jobs in the recession seemed an innovation never tested before. Visits to media houses like CNN and New York Times, gave a whole new perspective to the science behind news-gathering and presenting.
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Advanced Financial Reporting in Johannesburg
Fri., November 25, 4:33 PM | Comments ( 1 )
I kept my fingers crossed waiting for that email from the Thomson Reuters Foundation confirming that it had accepted me to participate in the Finance and Governance – Advanced Reporting Workshop in Johannesburg.
It finally came through and for sure that was the best news I had received in a long time. I concluded this was the best opportunity for my career especially at this time when am looking at newsroom management as my next destination. I participated in the Financial and Economic Reporting training course in Uganda’s capital Kampala last September, which was the baseline for me to conclude that Reuters courses are so valuable. I would attend 100 if possible.
Only two ‘Es’ best describe this training: education and excitement. The tools that were used throughout the course were exciting but very educative, and unforgettable. The first lesson of the course was to interview our partners. We were set up in pairs and instructed to get out as much information from our partners as possible. The information would later be relayed out in a short presentation. My partner was Tokunbo Olajide, the participant from Lagos, Nigeria. Tokunbo is passionate about travelling but has a phobia for flying. Yes, I laughed because I wondered: “How does he reconcile the two?”
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Need for an African Common Position in Durban Climate Talks
Thu., November 24, 5:51 PM | Comments ( 0 )
The time has come for the global community to converge for yet another round of negotiations to come up with a new deal that will help stabilise the climate system and assure vulnerable communities of a promising future.
Climatic conditions are changing very fast, and the impact can be seen all over. Yet, Africa, which bears the least responsibility for the phenomenon, is evidently on the losing end. However, this is the right time for African negotiators to spell out their conditions during the negotiation platform to be held in Durban, South Africa beginning at the end of November.
It therefore calls for the Heads of State and Government representing Africa to come up with a common position that will embrace the cause of climate justice and ensure outcomes of the climate negotiations that will keep Africa safe, safeguard our right to development and implement the United Nations Climate Convention and its Kyoto Protocol.
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Seeking For Climate Justice Ahead of Durban Talks
Thu., November 17, 10:18 AM | Comments ( 1 )
Kenyan Environmentalists, scholar, civil society groups, farmers and community representatives have started a two week journey using a bus to South Africa as they seek support for climate justice at the forthcoming negotiation in Durban.
The activists are collecting signatures from various countries to petition African leaders to work together in support of an international climate change treaty that is responsive to the continent’s realities and the reality of science.
The 15 day pan-African road-show, dubbed ‘Trans-African Caravan of Hope’, will traverse 10 African countries lobbying for a common African agenda on climate change and climate justice ahead of the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) – Conference of Parties (COP)17 that will be taking place in Durban, South Africa later this month.
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TRF's Election Reporting Course in Cairo: my experience
Mon., November 14, 11:24 AM | Comments ( 0 )
I had high expectations from the moment I learned that I had been selected to attend a Thomson Reuters course on Elections Reporting in Cairo. But the course exceeded my expectations. The methodology and tools made the course different and newer than all the previous courses I had attended.
The tools used to gain information were most befitting for a media organization that is as large and prestigious as Reuters. I learned to respect deadlines, which is something that I and many Egyptians are not used to!
I benefited from the mix of participants who represented a wide range of backgrounds, media outlets and different views. I also liked the break-out sessions and working in small groups
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Embracing Lessons Learnt from Climate Change Adaptation in Kenya
Wed., November 9, 3:30 PM | Comments ( 0 )
For many communities living in the arid and semi arid parts of Eastern Kenya, climate change is a blessing rather than a curse to their lives.
For tens of years, before the phenomenon became a big issue, residents from this part of the world depended on alms and food aid from well wishers. But because of the worsening climatic conditions, the government and related organisations have intervened, teaching them techniques that have changed many people’s lives for the better.
Geoffrey Ndung’u of Kanyonga village in Mbeere South in Eastern Kenya is one of the beneficiaries. For years even before the climatic conditions worsened to the current status, he could not easily afford food for his children. According to Stephen Karanja, the Water Officer at the Nbeere South district office, the area receives erratic rainfall that is sometimes as little as 650mm per year, which is too little to sustain rain-fed agriculture.
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Writing and Reporting News: Changing and refreshing perspectives
Mon., November 7, 4:33 PM | Comments ( 0 )
The phone call from the programme administrator at the Thomson Reuters Foundation office offering me a place on their Writing and Reporting News course in London was indeed unexpected. I even still think about it now that I am back.
The first lesson of the course that we had was on forming questions. We were set up in pairs and had to interview our partners to get the information necessary for a short presentation. The session on the inverted pyramid provided us with structuring techniques to provide condensed but adequate information to the readers. Story writing exercises were realistic and helped me in areas of weakness such as using quotes in the best way possible.
The discussion on 10 ethics rules fed our journalistic appetite and I was extremely interested to learn about the essential qualities that make an ideal journalist. During the course we had chance to listen to Mr Peter Apps, a risk correspondent for Reuters, about his precious experience in his job.
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Writing and Reporting News: Thomson Reuters Foundation makes the world smaller for journalists
Thu., November 3, 9:59 AM | Comments ( 1 )
On the first day of Thomson Reuters Foundation’s training course Writing and Reporting News in October, I met 13 journalists from Egypt, Paraguay, Italy, Brazil, Uganda, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Slovakia and Columbia.
I had never had this kind of experience of doing a journalism course together with journalists from various countries. Some of them were from print media, some broadcasters and some are working for online media. It’s a great opportunity to do the course together with such colourful classmates.
The first thing we had to do was introduce ourselves. Unlike a usual introduction, our trainers, Lisa Essex and Mathieu Robbins, asked us to split into pairs and then introduce our partners. It was the first opportunity for us to use a journalistic skill: asking questions. It forced us not only to get basic information, but also to get familiar with each other.
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Writing and Reporting News: Thomson Reuters Foundation’s program and a London vendetta
Thu., November 3, 9:45 AM | Comments ( 0 )
My cell phone rang at about 11am and when I answered it I was greeted by an English voice. At first I thought that one of my friends was fooling around with me upon my return from London, where I had completed the "Writing and Reporting News" program at Thomson Reuters Foundation, but I was surprised by the caller’s fluent English.
This was no one kidding me as I found out that my caller was indeed Professor Phillip Robbins who is the social researcher at the University of Oxford. He asked to meet with me upon his arrival in Cairo which would be his second visit here. On his first visit, I had helped him with one of his research projects.
At six pm, I went to meet Robbins and on my way, the most prominent thing on my mind was the upcoming day of the 5th of November in London which would see massive anti-capitalism protests similar to the famous film ’V for Vendetta”.
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Writing and Reporting News in London: Ice-breaking games
Thu., October 27, 12:58 PM | Comments ( 0 )
I attended the course named “Writing and Reporting News” organized by Thomson Reuters Foundation which was held between 10th and 14th of October this year. My instructors were Lisa Essex and Mathieu Robbins. Lisa and Mathieu are both excellent reporters who worked for Reuters before. I learned a lot from them like how to write company news and the ethics of being a journalist.
My work at the Apple Daily is to cover the news on medical issues. So, I am very unfamiliar in writing company news. During the course, Lisa and Mathieu taught us the structure of a news article first. Then, they taught us what questions we should ask in a press conference of a company which is suffering from a scandal.
For the ethics, the instructors reminded us the importance of accuracy in journalism and how to avoid any bias. Lisa carried out a little quiz with us by giving us some scenarios and we had a group discussion on how to tackle the problems in these scenarios. They were scenarios that had really happened to Reuters’ journalists in the past.
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TRF's 'Writing and Reporting News' course: "Keeping the essence of journalism"
Tue., October 25, 4:01 PM | Comments ( 0 )
By Juan Calcena
Last week myself and 13 other journalists from all over the world had the chance to take part in Thomson Reuters Foundation’s “Writing and Reporting News” course in London. I’ve learned, above all, that journalism speaks only one language.
People tend to say that maths and music are universal languages. After the experience I had travelling to London and getting to know such wonderful colleagues from Egypt, Uganda, Hong Kong, Colombia, Brazil, Slovakia, Italy, China, Vietnam and Myanmar, for me, the press and journalism is now a global language too.
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TRF ‘Elections Reporting’ training in Cairo: “As exciting as it is important”
Tue., October 25, 3:19 PM | Comments ( 0 )
Violence breaks out in a polling station, statements and press conferences keep on coming in and news is updated by the minute. This is not the scene in a live newsroom; this is another real-life inspired drill in the Thomson Reuters Foundation election coverage training.
The three day-long condensed course demonstrated how important elections are at this time in Egypt, where millions of voters will choose a parliament and president freely for the first time in their life. Thanks to the course material and the trainers, Saif Hamdan and Heba Kandil, reporting the elections proved to be as exciting as it is important!
The course focused on how to cover the elections efficiently, quickly and objectively, values inspired by the reputable Thomson Reuters standards of accuracy.
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West African journalists at economic and financial reporting school
Wed., October 19, 2:47 PM | Comments ( 1 )
French-speaking journalists from the West African sub-region took part in a training course in economic and financial reporting in Dakar, Senegal, from 10 to 14 October. The aim for the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation was to reinforce their knowledge about economic news and their approach to covering it.
This 2011 edition of the Thomson Reuters economic and financial reporting course brought together 15 broadcast, print and online media journalists from Benin, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Togo and Senegal. They received tools for dealing with various key topics, notably stock markets, exploitation of natural resources, economic governance and capital flight from developing countries. The training was facilitated by two expert instructors – David White, a former Financial Times correspondent, and Diadié Ba from the Thomson Reuters regional bureau in Dakar.
For them, it was important for reporting in Africa to move beyond political clichés and focus equally on economic issues, and for journalists to do this by taking a more human and wide-ranging perspective in their reports.
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Women's Health and Opportunity: Sin and redemption
Wed., October 19, 9:38 AM | Comments ( 0 )
Day Two at the Thomson Reuters Foundation/GBC training course on Women’s Health and Opportunity kicked off with a panel with Coca Cola’s Susan Mboya and Peter Nemaenzhe who spoke about their 5 BY 20 initiative.
All the facts and numbers about how the company is trying to change the status of women in developing countries, in someway sidetracked us so that we didn’t question some of the facts given- who knew coke could be better than juice because it has two-and-a-half-times less sugar? How could we let that go by! I shudder just recalling it now.
When it was later pointed out how the opportunity passed us by - 14 journalists! -without properly representing the public, boy that was one guilt trip.
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Women's Health and Progress Reporting: Sensitive or taboo words
Tue., October 18, 12:11 PM | Comments ( 1 )
The fifteen African journalists attending the Thomson Reuters Foundation/GBC training course on Women's Health and Opportunity were forthright in their expectations from the beginning. They didn't want to fall asleep listening to boring talks, without any interaction. The course trainers Lisa Anderson and Lisa Essex duly complied with their energy and enthusiasm.
An icebreaker session allowed the group to learn about each other on a more personal level. Introductions elicited much laughter, creating a friendly atmosphere. A run-through discussion of interview do's and don'ts led the journalists to their next task-writing a news story from a badly written press release.
Not all the journalists work in intense, short deadline-driven newsrooms, so some felt pressure at being given just an hour to file a 500 word story. We all managed to complete the task in time though, and the trainers mentioned they were impressed with the output.
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'Inspirational in an inexplicable way': TRF/NORAD Financial and Economic Reporting course, Kampala
Mon., October 3, 2:07 PM | Comments ( 0 )
I have learnt more about economic and financial reporting in this one week than I have in the two months I have been at the Business Desk in our newsroom. Stocks, bonds and inflation have never been so easily explained.
That must have been the idea behind the Financial and Economic Reporting course for East African journalists run in the last week of September by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in co-operation with the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD).
And I am not the only participant who left the course with a renewed sense of confidence and zeal for business reporting.
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TRF 'Elections Reporting' Course: a run down
Thu., September 29, 10:00 AM | Comments ( 0 )
The Reuters Elections Reporting Course was a great experience. In a time when Egypt is embarking on a new transitional political period, taking a course that teaches a reporter how to act as a mediator between the government and the public is especially useful. This course basically offers a comprehensive illustration of how a reporter can provide the public with all the necessary information needed for the elections, using accurate and impartial accounts of the process.
The reporter taking the course learns how to write accurate accounts quickly, clearly and with style. It teaches one how to select the relevant information and the credible and relevant sources while staying away from any possible legal accountability that may come as a result. In a time of great political sensitivity in Egypt, it was very useful to know all the legal hazards a reporter may face, as well as the political conflicts that s/he might be dragged into without prior intention while working on the elections.
Furthermore, the course offers methods on how to select the right wording and sources to remain impartial. It also alerts the reporter to keep an eye on news sources that may lie outside mainstream media circles and connections. The trainers responded really well to the needs of the attendees and accordingly offered information that sometimes fell beyond the scope of the course, but was useful in context. This course was incredibly useful for developing accurate reporting skills and preparing for all the possible risks and scenarios that covering the elections may entail.
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Just like film directors
Mon., September 26, 10:06 AM | Comments ( 1 )
Source: Ioana-Gabriela Matei
Every good reporter should have a little bit of Christopher Nolan inside. He should not be just a good writer, but also a good director. Why? Because in television news, images come before words. Simply filming a piece is not enough. Behind every catchy story are a reporter and a cameraperson who have deconstructed reality in frames: wide, medium and close shots. Afterwards, with the aid of a video editor, those pieces of reality were linked together in news material.
Television is very much like cinema. Yet, Christopher Nolan would have no room in television news. His world of fantasy is probably too big to fit in. Here, creativity is welcomed only in the techniques used to shoot and structure a story. The subject is always the truth. A news piece is a piece of reality, because the job of a journalist has never been other than to inform his viewers.
”The public expects us to hold a mirror in which they can see a reflection of reality", said one of the trainers we had at the Making Television News training. This Thomson Reuters Foundation course has confirmed to me that if I hold this mirror with my words, I probably bore the hell out of the viewers. So, I have to write less and let images tell the story, because they do it in a way that is a lot more entertaining.
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Language Barrier?
Fri., September 23, 10:42 AM | Comments ( 0 )
Source: TrustMedia
Before starting the first training session at Thomson Reuters Foundation, I was a bit worried because I imagined it would be difficult to understand the language. But my expectations changed when I met the instructors. During the days so far they have been aware of the limitations that I have about my English. The disposition that they have to attend the doubts of the group, has allowed me to think over, in addition, the way that I write for television.
The examples and practices stir the training into action. The pedagogy of the instructors prevents the session becomes heavy. The professional experience of each one of them has given me the confidence of asking them aspects related to the exercise of journalism.
The course is divided into two parts: writing - journalistic techniques and editing audiovisual pieces. Something interesting with the training is the de-construction of the daily process that we perform during the preparation, processing and editing of stories and reports
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Training: a journalist’s best friend!
Wed., September 21, 12:14 PM | Comments ( 0 )
Source: Rana Al-Hajj Tabbara
The problem with some of today’s journalists lies in their conviction that they have reached the ultimate state of perfection. Try to criticize their work and expect storms of scorn coming your way!
Developing journalistic skills is a never-ending journey, even for those categorized as fully-fledged. The thought of “I’m flawless” crossing a journalist’s mind is tantamount to the thought of “I’ll witness my career plummet soon”. For a journalist to survive, he/she should enjoy the will to embrace evolving media, change thinking, improve content and innovate. But most important of all, bear in mind that learning is a journalist’s infinite friend.
Being a wife, mother of twins, and an online news editor at the National News Agency-Lebanon, I thought I had it all. My excuse of not having time to squeeze anything into my daily routine did come out with some extra “me-time”, but that sure left me standing in the same place I last reached in my career hike.
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Once upon a time…Day 1
Wed., September 21, 11:56 AM | Comments ( 0 )
Once upon a time in a kingdom far far away lived a beautiful princess...
A story.
We used to listen to them all the time when we were kids, and now we bring them to you, on big screen, radio, paper, internet you name it... Only, today’s (all grown-up) audience is a bit more demanding, and it takes a lot more to hook 'em up than a wicked witch, prince and a princess.
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Digging out mining stories in Zambia
Fri., September 16, 2:44 PM | Comments ( 1 )
By Pamela Mutale Kapekele
Sometimes, stories just fall into place (David White writes). It may be by luck or judgment, but usually a mix of both. This was definitely the case with the story about corporate governance in Zambia's mining industry that Pamela Mutale Kapekele writes about here.
Pamela took part earlier this year in a Thomson Reuters Foundation course on financial and economic reporting, one of a series being run for African journalists in co-operation with the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (Norad). Norad has especially wanted to focus on the money that goes missing from developing countries – not just through graft and crime but also through the accounting tactics of big companies in their effort to pay as little tax as possible in the places where they operate.
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Writing Financial and Business News: an invaluable experience
Wed., September 14, 1:08 PM | Comments ( 0 )
The networking opportunities brought about the Thomson Reuters Foundation are just as invaluable as the knowledge and skills it imparts to the participants. I have learnt so much from my course mates, who come from all over the world including Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.
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Top tips and new friends: Writing Financial and Business News
Tue., September 13, 5:41 PM | Comments ( 0 )
I have had one of my greatest experiences here in London, attending a Thomson Reuters Foundation course on Writing Business and Financial News.
Despite the fact that I have been a professional writer for The Egyptian Gazette, the Middle East's oldest English-language daily newspaper for over five years, just a week on the course has drawn my attention to the most fatal mistakes that can weaken a news story. Which is why I applied for the course in the first place.
The course has been incredibly informative, and I hope it will improve my news covering as a whole. Two former Thomson Reuters journalists – Roger Jeal and Richard Waddington – have given attendees invaluable tips to enrich their writing techniques.
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Writing Financial and Business News: Out of the darkness and into the (financial) light
Thu., September 8, 2:41 PM | Comments ( 0 )
“Let’s take a look at the U.S. stock market. Dow Jones up 15 points, S&P up 5 points, and in Europe, FSTE 100 down 36 points…” As a newscaster of a 24-hour TV Channel in Hong Kong, I do stock reports every day. Ups and downs of numbers, but why? Apart from those who are really into the global market, many of us do not have a very clear idea of the influence behind.
Hong Kong is a city well aware of money. In the past decade, people have become sensitive to the value of their income. Take me as an example. I make regular savings every month, but with the disappointing interest rate, I would rather put 70% of my money into shares. Sounds risky? I am just taking a chance (while I’m still young!).
But I am just one of the crowd getting tips for shares and stocks from the TV and papers. Ups and downs in numbers? Stock prices I understand, but indexes not to much. There are quite a number of channels in Hong Kong doing phone-in programmes offering tips for shares and stocks. It seems that most of the share buyers are actually poorly equipped speculators. Here is a typical scenario.
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‘Writing Business and Financial News’: the best kind of medicine
Wed., September 7, 5:08 PM | Comments ( 0 )
Now and again we all suffer moments of terrible luck that come at the worst possible times. And mine was the attack of some unnamed disease- of which I’ll spare you the details- that appeared just a few days before my departure for the long awaited Thomson Reuters Writing Financial and Business News course. It affected me so badly that I was on the brink of cancelling my flight and throwing my tickets in the bin.
But my expectations of the training course were so high that in the end my family literally bundled me onto the plane for a long and exhausting 6-hour trip that I thought I would never survive. But I made it. And it turned out to be worth the sacrifice, irrespective of the horrible London weather that greeted me.
I don’t know if there are courses elsewhere in the world that provide more professional training and a friendlier environment than Thomson Reuters Foundation does, but this one is the best I’ve ever experienced. Journalists in developing countries like me can scarcely imagine anything better to improve their skills and get a real grip of the developed world’s free media climate. This may only be the second day of my training course but it would be no exaggeration to say that I have probably improved my professional skills and understanding of good reporting ten times more than in my seven years of financial reporting in Georgia. Figures that had previously seemed mysterious have become friendly and helpful.
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TRF’s ‘Writing Financial and Business News’: realising a dream
Tue., September 6, 5:08 PM | Comments ( 0 )
By Vu Ngan Binh, Vietnam News Agency Bureau in London
I was so excited when I received an offer to attend the training course for Thomson Reuters Foundation’s ‘Writing Financial and Business News’ that I contacted friends all over the world to tell them. One friend’s daughter, who is studying mathematics and finance at City University, London, was very enthused and has instructed me to report back what I learnt from the course to her.
However, for me attendance on the course is not only an opportunity to learn skills and valuable knowledge from the prestigious Thomson Reuters Foundation, but it is also a chance for me to realise a personal dream.
About this blog
Participants from our training courses share their views on journalism from around the world.
