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Gail Smith's blog

Reporting Crises and Disasters

Dear all

In view of the current humanitarian and environmental crisis in the Horn of Africa, I'd like to draw your attention to a scholarship recently published on the Soul Beat Africa/UNESCO theme site on Science Journalism.

This five day course by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and NewsXchange will cover the challenges and techniques involved in covering international-scale crises and disasters. It will focus on natural disasters and humanitarian crises of all sorts, and the special problems that can arise in covering them. Through briefings and practical writing exercises against deadlines, the course will help journalists improve their skills and recognise problem areas, within an interactive group environment.

You can see the details on the scholarship to attend the course at: http://www.comminit.com/node/9283787

The deadline for scholarships is 05 Sep 2011 and the event takes place in Cascais, Portugal from 31 Oct - 04 Nov 2011

Thanks,

Gail Smith Editor: Soul Beat Africa

Reuters Scholarships on Good Governance Reporting for Journalists from Developing Countries

Dear all

I'd like to draw your attention to a scholarship recently published on the Soul Beat Africa/UNESCO theme site on Science Journalism.

While the course does not focus specifically on science journalism, it does address governance and aims to assist journalists in defining, recognising and writing about corruption. And also covers the following:

• common forms of corruption and the media commitment to redress this to increase public good; • Improving critical thinking, including an ethical, objective approach to investigations; • explaining in depth a range of financial documents, including government budgets, and published corporate accounts • offering practical advice on how to uncover and report corruption using investigative journalism techniques • deepening awareness of potential legal issues • setting guidelines for high-impact news, features and opinion writing.

You can see the details on the scholarship to attend the course at: http://www.comminit.com/africa/node/9283783

The deadline for the scholars application is 1 September 2011 and the event takes place in London from 12-16 December 2011.

Thanks,

Gail Smith Editor: Soul Beat Africa

Welcome to the UNESCO Science and Media Social Networking space

Greetings from Soul Beat Africa.

Please note that we have launched a new Soul Beat Africa theme site and a social networking space on Science and Media in partnership with UNESCO. This partnership contributes towards the implementation of UNESCO’s special agreement with the African Union Commission (AUC) focused on the tripartite objective of (i) providing support for the development of regional science and technology networks for journalism students and media professionals, (ii) improving the range and scale of journalism training in reporting science and technology, and (iii) developing a centre of excellence in journalism training in science and technology.

Therefore, the aim of the Science and Media social networking space would be to support the work being done by UNESCO to strengthen the role of the media in Africa’s development, with a particular emphasis on media and science. Specifically, the initiative would help develop a network of journalists reporting on science and technology and engage with them at three levels:

• Enhance their science literacy • Provide access to scientific information and knowledge, particularly as generated by UNESCO and other initiatives working to improve science journalism in Africa • Increase the quality and quantity of science and technology reporting on the continent.

Soul Beat Africa believes that an online space where journalists can access and share knowledge, and network and share experiences and issues will achieve the above objectives.

Social Networking Space Soul Beat Africa will create within its overall platform - a specific social networking space focused on science journalism.

Soul Beat Africa: Science and Media Network