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African Journalist in Exile Seminar
 

Journalists from three African countries currently living in England participated in August 1997 in a week-long training seminar organized and sponsored by the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research in Bowness-on-Windermere in England's lake country.

The African Journalists in Exile seminar featured intensive, tutorial instruction by a team headed by then Cox Center Director Dr. Al Hester. Other instructors were Ms. Valerie White, 1996-97 recipient of the Cox Center Scholarship, Dr. Melinda Robins, 1994-95 Cox Center Scholarship recipient, and Prof. Van Kornegay of the University of South Carolina.

The six journalists participating in the workshop came from Nigeria, Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Each has been working in England rather than Africa because of constraints on press freedom in the home country or because of economic hardships suffered there.

African Journalists

 

Kate Ume-Ezeoko

Workshop participants; Kate Ume-Ezeoko;

Van Kornegay

Instructor Van Kornegay

The participating journalists learned techniques of desktop publishing and publishing on the Internet as well as basic of writing, reporting and editing. The journalists reported and wrote stories as part of the workshop. Instructors provided detailed, personalized critiques of the work completed.

Participants also shared their experiences reporting in Africa. One reported being jailed in Nigeria for stories he had written for Nigerian publications. Another reported threats she received while working as a journalist.

The seminar was organized by the Cox Center upon the request of Kate Ume-Ezeoke, a journalist in Manchester. Ms. Ume-Ezeoke said the seminar helped her improve her skills in preparation for future opportunities to work as a journalist in her native Nigeria.

Dr. Hester, who retired from the University of Georgia in August of 1997, currently is Emeritus Director of the Cox Center. Ms. White is completing her doctoral studies at the University of Georgia. Dr. Robins is on the faculty at Emerson College in Boston, Mass. Both Ms. White and Dr. Robins conducted research on Africa as part of their Cox Center Scholarships.

Click here to see the day-by-day schedule for the African Journalist in Exile Seminar.