DAR ES SALAAM: COMMUNICATION practitioners and stakeholders have emphasized the need for constructive journalism (CJ) to improve mass media effectiveness in Africa.
Speaking during the East Africa Communication Association’s (EACA) 14th conference which was held in Dar es Salaam recently, they underlined the significance of the media outlets in enforcing accountability to governments and citizens in effort of accelerating positive changes in the continent.
Tanzania’s veteran journalist, Mr Generali Ulimwengu urged senior and upcoming journalists to always report issues at in-depth in order to discover root causes of problems and lasting solutions.
“Always harbour a little doubt about what you are told by sources because some of them not mean well,” Mr Ulimwengu said.
Furthermore, he called upon journalists to practice interpretative and investigative journalism which entail giving meaning to issues of public interest and revealing critical developments surrounded by silence.
He noted that solutions and facts extracted from investigative journalism can boost socio-economic and political developments in Africa, Tanzania in particular.
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Also, Mr Ulimwengu insisted journalists to be inquisitive in order to be well informed on matter of public significance before publishing their information through news outlets such as newspapers, television and radio.
For her part, Communication stakeholder, Ms Lydia Mirembe called upon media outlets to report news which will lead to permanent change of behaviour of people to better.
Ms Mirembe who doubles as a postgraduate student at Uganda Christian University (UCU) said currently is undertaking a research on “Assessing the Effectiveness of the National Hand Washing Campaign in Uganda” intending to discover communication strategies which can be used by the media outlets to enhance long lasting positive behaviour changes in their community.
EACA’s President, Professor Margaret Jjuuko said communication experts during the conference also agreed to enhance use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in undertaking constructive journalism in the continent.
She said the conference also provided opportunities for communication practitioners including academics and journalists to network and exchange knowledge via sharing research and experience in bid of fostering mass media excellence in the continent.
This year’s EACA conference which was themed “Africa and the Global Dialogue on Media and Communication,” brought together scholars, researchers and media practitioners within the Eastern Africa region and beyond to point a path for bolstering media effectiveness.
EACA was established in 2011 by a group of journalism, media and Communication scholars working in East Africa.