“Use data visualisation to make the content accessible and break down complicated topics.”
Innovation comes from reading lots of literature on health.
Many science and health reporters use data visualisation to make the content accessible and break down complicated topics.
It is important for jouxrnalists not to rely solely on government sources while covering health stories, they need to spend time in communities and with people.
Verah Okeyo is an award-winning global health reporter based in Kenya, with extensive experience in journalism, visual storytelling, innovation, fundraising and research around health. She worked for Nation Media Group for over 8 years and has a Masters in Media & Communication from the LSE.
“By building partnerships with health organisations and research institutions to ensure that journalists have access to experts who can help them develop their knowledge.”
We need to train and employ reporters to ensure that newsrooms have the expertise to cover health and science subjects. We also need mentors who can ensure that journalists have regular and continuous support.
Newsrooms must fund original journalism so that reporters are not confined to diary coverage.
Media schools should also be able to offer training for health reporting.
It is also vital to build partnerships with health organisations and research institutions to ensure that journalists have access to experts who can help them develop their knowledge.
Esther Nakkazi is a Ugandan freelance science & technology journalist and media trainer blogging at Uganda ScieGirl. She is an MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellow ’08t and the founder of the Health Journalist Network Uganda HEJNU.
“People need to invest in themselves to grow their skills by attending various training or acquiring academic qualifications.”
The first step to becoming innovative is that people need to invest in themselves first to grow their skills, knowledge and understanding of health reporting.
In Tanzania, if somebody gets interested in health reporting, he or she starts reporting about what is happening in hospitals, what the officials in hospitals are saying, what the government is saying, there is an outbreak or there is no outbreak – those general reports. But the actual in-depth reporting of uncovering issues relating to health care needs dedication, and this dedication in media requires investment. The most important thing is that people invest in themselves, whether they apply for support and grants to hone their skills, attend various training, or even acquire some academic qualifications.
I am doing a Masters in Science Communication at the University of Sheffield to enable me cover health and science stories with greater understanding and depth. I plan to create a generation of health reporters across Tanzania who have the requisite skills not just the mere reporting of events but can bring up the science of why things happen and how we can solve them.
Dr. Syriacus Buguzi is a Tanzanian Science Journalist who is passionate about raising the profile of Tanzania’s scientific research output and innovation through mass media. He is a medical doctor (MD) but currently pursuing a Masters in Science Communication at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.
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