Three day training on investigative internet journalism.

The training was so great and useful. My expectation was to learn more from my fellows and sharing with them what I have,at large met the goal I had was met.


The third day of the training was much busy day in comparison to the first and second day which resulted to the shortage of time. If the training happens again, it is good to have even a week in order to we can highly meet the philosophy of the training which states, "learning by doing" on the topic.

Press Freedom.

Media as plural form of medium means of communication ways that can be used to spread news, entertainment, data, as well as promotional messages. In the other hand media are the collective outlets in communication field, through media the audience can be connected.

Mainly there two types of media one being print media and another one called electronic media which both intend to connect people through communications. By the term print media refers to paper publications disseminated physically. Print media includes magazines, journals, books and the like.

Electronic media are media which use either electronics or electromechanical power to the final stakeholders to get in touch with the content.

By the phrase freedom of the press we mean the right to collect information, editing and disseminated without censorship of the government. It must be noted that press freedom does not mean to break the country legal law but the right to get information, spreading and transparently giving out opinions. One of the countries which are said to extremely enjoy press freedom is the U.S.A under the US First Amendment to the Constitution, published by Houghton Mafflin Company.

In Tanzania we have freedom of the press but not at large because there are still plenty of challenges including some Acts which are not friendly such that one of the year 1976 which gives power to minister of information to stop activities of any newspaper if he/she thinks the content appeared in the paper is not of his/her interest no matter how true the story is.

 For instance the concerned can simply say the paper wrote things which can bring hatred between the government and its people or within the community members.

Lack of employment to the journalists is also another challenge due to the fact that most of the journalists are working as day workers and some companies the reporters are paid per story that means no story no money no matter what problem caused the situation. This type of working does not prepare bright future to the journalists after they leave their jobs because of any reason including being aged.

The challenge above is caused by most of the private media owners who do not employ journalists to avoid giving them employment rights such as connecting the employees to pensions and social funds which can bring bright future to the employees.

There are also some media owners that in one way or another either purposely or without knowing interfere the media industry by ordering their workers to work according to their interests including political interests no matter how the work can be unethical. This is a big challenge and only the ethical journalists can overcome the challenge by either leaving the job where professional ethics are not practiced.

NB: Including my experiences, among the links I used are www.businessdictionary.com/definition/media.html,  en-wikipedia.org/wiki/media_(communication), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_media, www.ask.com and dictionary.reference.com/browse/freedom/+Of+the press.

What we learnt today!

After getting in touch with investigative internet journalism theory yesterday, today we spent most of the time practising what we went through yesterday.

Smart Kigali in Rwanda.

Smart Kigali is a programme at large intended tomodernizing the lifestyle of Kigali city's residents and comers by using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for better and advanced service delivery whereby people can freely get internet access in the gatherings including hotels,bus stations,commercial buildings as well as in public transport buses.

The programme was initiated by the Rwandan Ministry of Youth and ICT with cooperation with Rwanda Development Board.

Investigative Internet Journalism

What did we do on the first day of the training?


.Write a short summary of the training day: The first day of the training we had an individual introduction and we learnt on the meaning of investigative internet journalism as well as creating blog accounts.

.What did you like? I liked the way the facilitator presented the topics, he used participatory method.

.What did you dislike? NOTHING

.What did you learn? I learnt more on how I can deeply and widely use internet for investigative journalistic works.

TRAINING

I am Jackson Numbi, working for The Citizen Newspaper in Mbeya region. This week I am in Mbeya city attending the three day training on investigative internet journalism prepared by MISA Tanzania and The Finnish Foundation for Media and Development. On the training I expect to learn what I don’t know and become an expert. The rest of the days within this week I will be practicing the knowledge I am gaining.