The
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) recently organised a
three-day training course for West African journalists, geared towards
improving quality reporting on science, technology and innovation (STI) in the
sub-region.
The
workshop, held at the Ecowas Commission in Abuja, Nigeria, on 10-12 October
2016, was designed to give the journalists an iinsight into the fundamental
roles and responsibilities of science journalism, for the development of West
Africa and Africa as a whole.
Organised
by the Ecowas Commission Department of Education, Science and Culture, the
capacity building workshop was attended by at least 25 scientific journalists,
researchers and scientists from English-speaking West Africa: Gambia, Ghana,
Liberia and Nigeria. The Sierra Leone participants
could not make it.
The
seminar centred on the theme: ‘Making Science and Innovation Information More
Accessible for ECOWAS Development’.
Speaking
on the occasion, Ecowas Commissioner of Education, Science and Culture, Hamidou
Boly, said the Commission has a science and technology policy, and the document
lays strong emphasis on efforts to improve the quality of journalistic
reporting on STI for the benefit of the citizens.
Prof.
Boly said the policy is informed by the fact that sustainable development in
the ECOWAS sub-region has to be science-led.
“This
must be driven by a massive transfer and acquisition of technology and
knowledge aided by communication through the mainstreamed media.”
Dr
Roland Kouakou, head of Science and Technology Division of the Ecowas
Commission, said there is an appreciable level of professional development of
African journalists in communicating STI issues, as manifested by the formation
of African Association of Science and Technology Journalists.
On
the contrary, in the West African region, he continued, not enough is being
done to improve the professional capacity of journalists on STI.
Dr
Kouakou said it is in view of this that the sub-regional body put up the
three-day training course for West African journalists, with a view to
improving the quality of scientific news reaching the public.
The
workshop was also expected to identify challenges to science communication, and
more effective science reporting for further planning.
Dr
Kyari Mohammed, senior scientific officer at the African Union, Nigeria office,
said Africa’s development could be promoted through the application of STI with
appropriate communication policy.
There
are a lot of scientific innovations lying in laboratories, because the
scientists find it difficult to communicate to the media, and the media in turn
find it difficult to fully explain these innovations to the citizens.
Dr
Mohammed added that there is a high level of communication in the media on STI
issues in the developed countries; that is why they continue to develop.
On
the other hand, there is limited communication on STI in Africa and that
explains why the continent’s development is chameleonic.
There
is a need to continually train journalists on the continent to develop the
capacity to interrogate scientists to get information from them for the benefit
of the citizens, he added.
Prof.
Willie O. Siyanbola of the Center for Energy Research and Development (CERD),
Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), said both the journalists and scientists
should know that unless the efforts in the science laboratories are
communicated to the citizens, in a manner they can understand, such efforts
would go down the drain.
At
the end of the three-day training course for scientific journalists in
Anglophone West Africa, it is expected that the quality of media coverage of
STI issues would improve.
It
is also expected that there will now be improved interaction between science
journalists, researchers and policymakers in order to ensure science journalism
is driven by input from all stakeholders.
