A Book Review I did for Equid Novi Journal: The Aljazeera Effect by Phillip Seib

The “Al Jazeera Effect”: How the New Global Media Are Reshaping World Politics, Philip Seib, Dulles: Potamac Books, Inc. 2008. Pp. 227. ISBN: 978–159–79720–00 (hardback)

Book Review

Like it or not, satellite television and new media are now shaping the world we live in, making the term “the world is a global village” a reality. Though titled The “Al Jazeera Effect,” the book is not only about the Qatar-based satellite TV 

station but the writer also discusses other satellite television platforms and new media. In regions like China and the Middle East where it was previously diffi- cult to access new media, the Internet and other social networking sites have put an end to that “anomaly.” In many countries, we now receive news as we choose depending on which platform is quickest and most attractive. According to the writer, “The media are no longer just the media but they have a larger popular base than ever before and as a result, have unprecedented impact on international politics” (p. xii). But just as satellite television is creating an impact all over the world, the Internet is doing much more than that by reaching a wider audience.

News media are dynamic and growing and offer much more than a collection of high-tech curiosities, and they are also contributing to changes in how the world works, altering the shape of traditional political structures on which the international system is based (p. 63).

Seib emphasizes that news media are changing the relationship between the pub- lic and news providers. Platforms like CNN allow audiences to access news when- ever they want it, a phenomenon that has been taken to a new level by Web-based news content that provides a nearly infinite variety of news products available at all times. He gives examples of the Global Voices Web site, which goes beyond stan- dard blogging, and OhmyNews, a model for other news services such as iTalkNews born in response to “the need for an interactive community where people can read breaking news, discuss it, and post their own articles as well as many others” (p. 55). However, not all countries are benefiting from the ubiquitous reach of the news media. Burma is ranked with Cuba, Libya, Turkmenistan, and North Korea as some of the world’s worst countries in terms of press freedom. Information from cyber- space via satellite and the Internet scarcely penetrates these countries.

The book combines media theory, experience, and information, which the writer seems to have gathered over several years. Seib is able to walk readers through the Arab, Middle East, and Asian television and news media worlds all in a single book. He takes us through the various stages of the media world from the terrestrial television of the 1950s to the current interactive, accessible satel- lite platforms, which give sleepless nights to many governments. Seib empha- sizes the strength of the news media in helping to sustain the virtual state:

The battle for hearts and minds in the Middle East is being fought not on the streets of Baghdad, but on the newscasts and talk shows of Al Jazeera. The future of China is being shaped not by Communist Party bureau- crats, but by bloggers working quietly in cyber cafes. The next attacks by al Qaeda will emerge not from Osama bin Laden’s cave, but from cells around the world connected by the Internet. (p. xi)

For those who watched Al Jazeera from the start, it was initially viewed as a “Muslim” television network, especially at a time when terrorism was associated

with Islam and negative implications. That is no longer the case. The writer emphasizes Al Jazeera’s competition with the likes of CNN and BBC, transmit- ting to and influencing millions of watchers/listeners. Consequently, Al Jazeera is “the most visible player in a huge universe of new communications and infor- mation providers that are changing the relationship between those who govern and those who are governed” (p. 175).

According to Seib, Al Jazeera is a paradigm of news media’s influence, just like the CNN effect did 10 years ago with gripping, visual storytelling that influ- enced foreign policy throughout the world (p. ix). Satellite television—along with blogs, tweets, and other Internet platforms—have become popular sources of information that create challenges for those who govern. While China, for example, tried to monitor Internet traffic within its borders, this intention was overwhelmed by the number of Internet users: “220 million by late 2007, more than 47 blog writers, and in December 2007, 66 million search engine queries” (p. xi). It has been difficult for Chinese government intelligence agents to keep up with this pace.

The writer criticizes what he sees as the “Western” world’s way of viewing Islam and calls it simplistic policy making that could lead to tragic results:

From simmering tensions to full-blown war, Islam and the West seem to have irreconcilable differences that can be ascribed to incompatible cul- tures with an attitude of, “best to fight it out, get it over with, and move on to the next test.” (p. 1)

Seib also criticizes the United States’ and other Western nations’ foreign pol- icy. He argues that they ignore the sophisticated political culture and staying power of virtual states such as al Qaeda. He feels that in developing strategies of dealing with Islamic states and its peoples, it is important to recognize the cru- cial concept of ummah—which emanates from the Quran (49:10) and is roughly equivalent to “the believers are a band of brothers.”

The writer affirms what many have come to see as the folly of dismissing emerging media, especially Al Jazeera, which has a following of over 35 million worldwide, on the grounds that they are not “objective” providers of informa- tion and therefore presumably have little clout with their audiences. They miss the point that they are credible, which is what matters to their audiences (p. xi). Seib calls upon the news media to go beyond proving information to which the developed world is accustomed. He stops just short of saying it should be used for the good of the people, for example, the amount of air time devoted to the Martha Stewart scandal compared to genocide issues in Darfur.

Governments hostile to al Qaeda also need to wake up to the fact that “limited real estate” in Pakistan and Afghanistan does not deter the network from doing its work, since they have realized the power of the virtual state and therefore

rely heavily upon media technologies to constitute their “global homeland.” It is important to note that the media are no longer just the media as technological players, and that at many levels they are intervening in world affairs. Therefore, “understanding the Al Jazeera effect will help anyone who is concerned about the future to better comprehend the change that swirls about us” (p. 191).

Though the book has an attractive title and is very informative, in his next edition, Seib might want to make it more reader friendly. Some of the sections were hard to follow. The author might also want to cut down information that is not very relevant to the topic. The book concentrates too much on television in the Middle East and has little on other parts of the world, considering the fact, for example, that Al Jazeera is now watched in many countries across continents, including Africa, and not by Muslims alone but by Christians and people from all walks of life. Chapter 4 on the “Virtual State” and Chapter 5 on “Global Connec- tions, Global Terrorism” could do with information that is more current.

More on the impact of new media could endear the book to a wider audience, while a review of the online impact of religious and evangelical broadcasting sta- tions such as Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), other than Islam only, might contribute to a broader perspective on the “Al Jazeera Effect.”

Wanja Njuguna

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02560054.2010.9666611

Praise for Dad in Stockholm

These kind of memories about dad just feel me with joy....see the part in bold below...

“Arise And Shine” Conference Could Be a Good Break

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a rare activity among Kenyans and friends will be taking place in Stockholm. The Bagarmossen Church will organize the “Arise and Shine” Conference which will be the first of its kind within the Kenyan Church going community in Stockholm.

The population of Kenyans in Stockholm is very tiny and if one has to talk about the “Christian community”, it would be opportune to assert that many Kenyans are “Christians by word of mouth” and not by deeds. In fact, the population of Kenyan Christians is very small here and it is in this context that the “Arise and shine” Conference has some significance.

Will this Conference draw the attention of Kenyans in Stockholm about the need to move closer to Jesus Christ? Of course, in the United States and Britain where the Kenyan constituency is substantially large, a Conference of the “Arise and Shine” type might not attract a lot of attention. But, in Stockholm, the situation is slightly different. The Conference puts the Bagarmossen Church into sharp focus while it also helps in promoting the Church because pulling such a Conference is a statement that Kenyans behind the Bagarmossen church are serious in what they are doing.

Pastor Samson, Pastor Samuel, brother Muritu, Pastor Muraya, brother Caxtone, Sister Catherine, Sister Sheila, Sister Lissa and others around the Bagarmossen Church should be proud of having pulled Bishop Karanja of “The Wings of Love Ministry” to Stockholm and to spread love and forgiveness among Kenyans and friends in this city.

This Conference should offer a moment for Kenyans and friends in Stockholm to “Rise and Shine” after being low and gloomy following the post election violence. Let us hope that long after the Conference, it will be possible for those who will get the message to spread the good news among Kenyans, some of whom are deeply engaged in sin and other dirty activities abhorred by the Almighty.

The Conference should not just be limited to issues connected to people’s ability to “Arise and shine”. The Conference should also seize on the opportunity to pray for Kenyans in Stockholm to see the light and join the crusade to heaven. Kenyans in Stockholm need to stop hot gossip, betrayal of one another, spreading lies and rumours about people, moving with wives of other Kenyans, conmanship, prostitution, hatred, alcoholism among other unacceptable vices that are becoming routine within the community.

It is during Conferences of the “Arise and shine” type that the Kenyan community here is in a better position to move closer to the almighty and have a reality check. There is need for Kenyans in Stockholm to ask for forgiveness of sins and what better opportunity could have presented itself than the “Arise and shine” Conference?”.

This is not to launch a campaign for the Conference. The truth is that since the days of Bishop George Njuguna who passed away after returning to Kenya, many Kenyans have never been close to a Kenyan Bishop here in Stockholm and part of the reason why some Kenyans do not go to church is because they are tired of white Swedish Bishops they cannot relate to. Here we are, with a Kenyan Bishop travelling all the way to help us “Arise and Shine” so we cannot turn around and say that we were never told.

I hope that this Conference will be an eye opener and that it will go a long way to awaken Wakenya here about the need to revert to Jesus Christ as our personal savior. Nobody hates rising up happy in the morning and shining in the streets.

The difference with the Conference is that you are supposed to “arise and shine” internally and you will not be able to do so if you cannot attend the Conference, open your ears, focus your mind and listen to Bishop Karanja who will be delivering the message in typical Kenyan style.

The Bagarmossen Church has done its job and now, Kenyans need to reciprocate by taking a break and finding how they can arise and shine. At least, there is one good reason to skip Vasa for an evening after work because you never know. Another advantage is that you are likely to leave Vasa staggering but at the Conference, you might just begin to shine after a long time of darkness in your life.

Okoth Osewe

http://kenyastockholm.com/2008/08/14/arise-and-shine-conference-could-be-a-good-break/

Public Accounts Committee Relevance to Countries

FULL STORY

07.06.2012

Public accounts committee conference an eye opener

By: WANJA NJUGUNA


WINDHOEK – When the Effective Public Financial Accountability Conference of the Southern African Development Community Organisation of Public Accounts Committees (SADCOPAC) and Eastern African Association of Public Accounts Committees (EAAPAC) ended in Windhoek recently, the increasing importance of these committees in the participating nations’ good governance, transparency and financial accountability could not have been more pronounced.

As citizens of the various countries not only in Africa but across the world continue to demand these values, none other than Namibia's Speaker of National Assembly, Dr Theo-Ben Gurirab concurred. During his opening remarks, Gurirab said that PACs play a very critical role in promoting democracy, good governance and accountability in State finances and public interest in their respective regions.

Discussing the financial squeeze in the west that is impacting on the developing nations, Gurirab said, “Governments in the West that we have viewed as financial powerhouses have become beggars, looking to China as their coffers run empty,” adding that the dwindling of financial resources worldwide negatively affected developing nations as demand for their exports reduced. “Like many other developing nations, Namibia is already experiencing a budget deficit while developmental programs are standing with open mouths like chicks waiting on the mother to feed them,” he said. “We therefore have to carefully balance the scarce financial resources against the pressure for spending wisely on basic needs of the people and thus the importance of PACs,” he added.

Gurirab decried corruption as an international menace, saying that Parliaments need to oversee the Executive on financial spending to cut on financial crimes. “The Office of the Auditor General, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the Anti-Corruption Commissions must all work together to tighten the noose around the necks of the culprits and bring them to book without delay,” he emphasized.

Namibia’s finance minister, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila concurred, adding that transparency and accountability are indispensable for the efficient functioning of any country and for promoting economic growth and fostering social well being. “To achieve this, information about the government’s fiscal policy, sources of revenue, spending priorities, funding of the deficit and the public debt situation should be accessible,” she said.

SADCOPAC chairperson who is also South Africa’s PAC chair, Fish Mahlalela highlighted the importance of the two groups. “SADCOPAC and EAAPAC were created in 2003 and 2004 respectively as permanent institutions, in order to promote mutual support, foster the exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience among PACs on the oversight function with the overall objective to contribute to good governance and transparency,” Mahlalela explained.

Speaking to The Namibian, Hon Usutuaije Maamberua, head of the Namibian PAC said that a major concern was the improvement of Accounts Committees and their responsibilities. “We need to improve cooperation of he various accounts committees so that all the countries can work together to bring financial accountability and good governance in our different governments,” Maamberua said.

SADCOPAC was represented by Zambia, South Africa (Chair of Conference), Namibia (Deputy Chair of Conference), Malawi, Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique and Botswana while representatives from EAAPAC were Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Burundi. South Sudan, the newest kid on the block, attended the meeting for the first time. It was represented by Hon. Gocmakuac Moyor and Hon Mrs Awut Deng Achil of the Parliament of South Sudan. Speaking to The Namibian, Achil who was head of the delegation said, “As we build a new nation, we have many challenges such as establishing laws, capacity building as well as coping with other problems in South Sudan and we will try and implement what we learn here when we go back home.'

When the meeting started, the members looked at the progress of the Arusha 2011 Resolutions todate. It was highlighted that most member states had managed to implement most of the resolution with some of the successes being performance audit done for the first time in Botswana, PAC meetings now open to the public and media, Tanzania's recommendation for redeployment of six ministers implicated in financial misconduct, while in Uganda, some Ministers were asked to resign due to financial misconduct. From Swaziland, Hon Thuli Dladla indicated that performance audit was conducted in Swaziland for the first time.

Some of the challenges noted were funding to most PACs, though PAC in Zambia indicated that they have adequate funds to effectively run their programmes, the Auditor-Generals in countries such as Ethiopia not being independent, a communication strategy for the two groups not yet developed, lack of follow-up on the implementation of PAC recommendations and lack of support staff hindering effectiveness and efficiency of PACs in countries such as Mozambique and Swaziland.

Recommendations given included, capacity building for PAC's, speedy scrutiny of reports, involvement of civil society and engaging the media, while Government response to issues PAC raised should be tabled within six months.

In an interview with The Namibian, the longest serving PAC member who is also chairman of Tanzania’s PAC, Hon John M. Cheyo, lauded the work of the two committees saying that PACs have made a major difference in the way governments deal with the thorny financial issues in their countries. “When we started these meetings, a number of governments were reluctant to implement what the committees recommended but now, it has become prudent that for governments to run smoothly, the recommendations of these committees must be respected,” Cheyo, who has been Tanzania’s PAC chairman for the past 12 years, said.

The Tanzanian Mp said that every country now respects the two major laws that deal with money - Finance which raises funds and Appropriation which deals with who is allowed to do what with the money. “Today, Permanent Secretaries can no longer spend more than is allocated to them,” he said adding that the value of networking in the meetings where members of parliament are able to compare notes, establish benchmarks and best practices has been very helpful to the various countries representatives. “Today, we no longer have countries changing their PACs every few months – now, atleast results are seen as PACs are established to atleast work for a full 5 year term of the parliament in many countries,” Cheyo said.

It was clear that there had been major successes in the past year as at the end of the meeting, unlike 17 resolutions made in Arusha, the two groups came up with only seven resolutions, dabbed, Namibia Resolutions while every country represented agreed on action plans that they would implement on return to their respective countries. The two groups agreed that each jurisdiction was to implement the resolutions within a time frame that suits it. They will give updates on the implementation that they have done and challenges they faced while implementing the resolution.

To facilitate a better system of dealing with problems that PACs face in their home country, the meeting attendants were trained by Beverly Wenger-Trayner through an increasingly popular program called Community of Practice where teams are brought together to learn from their peers on how to deal with similar problems. “The new program that has become very popular now in training these kinds of groups helps the learners to not only learn from their peers but to know how to implement the same in their respective countries.

Across the world, there are many countries that have PACs and the roles may differ but accountability and financial transparency in the country's governments is at the top of their agenda. In UK for example, The Committee of Public Accounts is appointed by the House of Commons to examine "the accounts showing the appropriation of the sums granted to Parliament to meet the public expenditure, and of such other accounts laid before Parliament as the Committee may think fit. In the current committee, there are members from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats. The Chair, Rt Hon Margaret Hodge is an MP from the Labour Party.

The meeting was sponsored by among others, World Bank Institute and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
 
http://www.namibian.com.na/news/full-story/archive/2012/june/article/public-accounts-committee-conference-an-eye-opener/

Kenyan Nurses Arrive to Work in Namibia

NATIONAL NEWS

15.05.2012

Nurses arrive to work in Namibia

By: WANJA NJUGUNA

TWENTY-THREE nurses from different hospitals in Kenya and Lesotho have arrived in Windhoek to start a two year contract in various hospitals in Namibia.

The visibly tired but excited nurses were received by senior representatives of the Ministry of Health and Social Services of Namibia led by Namibia Chief Nursing Officer, Gloria Mubale, Kenya’s High Commissioner to Namibia Peter Gitau and Kenya’s third secretary Safari Mwambire.
Welcoming the nurses, Gitau informed them that the Namibian Government was grateful to have them join other Kenyan nurses in the country many of whom have worked in Namibia for many years, to beef up the nursing services across the country.
“Your coming to Namibia is the culmination of a visit in September, 2010 by the Minister for Medical Services of Kenya, Peter A. Ny’ong’o whereby Namibian Government asked for 100 nurses and 26 doctors to further facilitate and assist in this great nation’s advances in the medical industry,” Gitau said, adding that the current group was the first among the larger group expected in Namibia over the coming months.
Gitau said that out of the meeting with the minister in 2010, a Joint Working Group (JWG) is being set up in order to incorporate the World Health Organisation’s global code of practice on international recruitment of health personnel and many other pertinent issues. The JWG will also improve the existing memorandum of understanding between the two governments to oversee the implementation of it. Currently a subcommittee has already been set up to work on draft terms of reference of the two governments as there is also need for lecturers in their medical institute.
Despite the fact that Namibia has started training its medical personnel internally and externally, there is still a huge shortage of nurses and doctors and Kenya is helping to bridge the gap by exporting its resources to the country.
On her part, an excited Mubale, told the team that their services were instrumental to assisting the country run its medical care effectively.
“As you join other Kenyan nurses who have been here for a while, it is important that you remember first and foremost, your call as a nurse which is to serve those afflicted by various ailments, to do your work to the best of your ability and in return, our government will ensure that your working conditions are up to the standard that is expected of expatriate workers,” Mubale said.
She added that Kenya has in the past few years played a key role in helping Namibia with human resources in various fields and the Namibia government is grateful for this gesture.
Speaking on behalf of the nurses, Nandako Kalundu, a nurse from Bungoma hospital said the recruitment process had taken slightly over a year.
“Many of us were informed by our colleagues and relatives already working here about the positions on the Namibia Public Service site and we applied. Though the recruitment takes a long time, it is very professionally handled,” Kalundu emphasized.  She was grateful to Mubale who has continued to communicate with them as well as facilitate their smooth entry into the country.
Kalundu, who has been a nurse for the past 20 years, emphasized the importance of the nurses living up to their calling wherever they will be posted.
“We know we will work in some difficult areas but it is important that we remember our master is the patients that we care for and we should give them our e best,” she said.
The 23 nurses join a team of over 100 nurses who have been working in different hospitals in Namibia for a number of years now. Kenya has the highest number of foreign nurses working in Namibia.

http://www.namibian.com.na/news-articles/national/full-story/archive/2012/may/article/nurses-arrive-to-work-in-namibia/

Towards a code of ethics for members of Kenya Union of Journalists

Towards a code of ethics for members of Kenya Union of Journalists Author: Njuguna, Perpetua Wanja | 1998 | MA | Daystar University, Kenya Journalism has become a popular profession for young people leaving school or collegefor it is easy to secure as a journalist because there are numerous newspapers, magazines and broadcasting stations that have emerged in the recent past. From a handful of only one broadcasting station at independence in 1963, there are over 50 publications to-date and five broadcasting stations. Journalists in these publications and broadcasting media have an obligation to themselves and to society to do their work properly and in an ethical manner. Often, they are faced with a dilemma on what to do when confronted with a moral issue. The purpose of this project was to provide members of the Kenya Union of Journalists, (KUJ) a body that brings together over 200 Kenyan journalists who work for both local and international media (the largest number of journalists under one body), with a Code of Ethics which would guide their day to day duties and help standardize their work ethics. This is hoped to result in professionalising journalism in Kenya. This project found that though members of the KUJ have been working without a Code of Ethics, they have been guided by those that are created by the media organizations for which they work. Many of those codes are a replica of those from the Sweden forum a large part of which does not address journalists within a Kenyan cultural context. The research method applied here was a Focus group discussion facilitated by a questionnaire and Codes of Ethics from other countries. These were provided to each participant before hand for discussion in a forthcoming forum on the project. Later, seven people associated with journalism and who had been given a copy of the recommendations of the forum separately met with the researcher to deliberated on those recommendations. From what emerged in the discussions, the researcher made the final analysis of their recommendations to formulate a Code of Ethics for KUJ members. It is hoped that the information and suggestions presented in this project will help journalists, journalism teachers and students and other people interested in the conduct of their own staff members to formulate their own Codes of Ethics as well as further this project beyond just a Code of Ethics. keywords: Ethics / Journalism / Kenya Union of Journalism / Codes held at: Daystar University Library PN 4756 .N58 contact details > http://www.researchkenya.org/?ID=8317&search=Co-operative+College+of+Kenya

Media practitioners to get Petlo tips

ARTS & CULTURE

Media practitioners to get Petlo tips

STAFF WRITER

 

Petlo Literary Arts Trust is organising a two-day workshop for media practitioners, which will take place February 10 and 11, at Falcon Crest Suites.

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Themed 'Reporting on culture, tourism and the performing and literary arts', the workshop aims to train journalists on the art of reporting on artistic and cultural events, reviewing books, and musical concerts, writing features on tourism and travel.

"One of our aims as Petlo Literary Arts Trust is to support, encourage, and develop literature and the arts in Botswana.  We have identified the media as a key partner in this endeavour and to this end we are organising a workshop," a statement from Petlo stated.

The workshop is open to journalists, cultural practitioners, tourism marketers, freelance writers, editors of newspapers, and media students.

Speakers at the workshop will include, Head of School of Visual and Performing Arts, Professor David Kerr, UB Media Studies lecturer Wanja Njuguna, veteran journalist Rampholo Molefhe, architect and development consultant Neo Modisi, and UB senior lecturer Barolong Seboni. The workshop starts at 8:30 and ends at 17:00 on each day.

http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=7&aid=806&dir=2011/February/Wednesday9

New journalism educators’ body tackling the challenges of teaching journalism in Africa

Broadening horizons: putting theory into practice for a student newspaper

Wanja Njuguna, University of Botswana

the University of Botswana’s Media Studies Department (MSD) was started in 2002. The programs in the department are both practical and theoretical and therefore highly intensive. Students are expected to write, read, observe and discuss constantly the media as they see and use it. High standards of commitment to the programme and absolute professionalism with deadlines and well presented assignments are some of the goals expected of the students.

The aim of UB Horizon, an intentional learning tool, is to provide practical print journalism and thereby fill a training vacuum in the journalism industry in the country.

The newspaper was envisioned as the department’s most powerful journalism teaching tool, providing students with real, hands-on journalism experience on deadline that will qualify them for media jobs after graduation. It would also serve to strengthen the university as a whole by providing fair, balanced and accurate news to the UB community of students and staff.

The newspaper would help the print media students practice what they had learnt in theory in courses such as beat reporting, health, science and technical reporting, business, finance and tourism reporting, editing, feature and magazine writing, and investigative reporting. Other courses that benefitted from the paper were media management, desktop publishing and advertising. The media management course would provide market research and monitoring for the paper, the desktop publishing course would aid the newspaper with design work, while the advertising course would help get adverts for the newspaper. Whereas the students would not be paid for their work, those who got adverts for the paper would be paid a 10% commission.

MSD partnered with the McGee Foundation, a US private foundation dedicated to promoting sound journalistic practices in Southern Africa, in its efforts to build an excellent journalism education center. Until last year, when the recession affected the foundation, it sent at least one fellow – a media professional – every other semester to teach journalism skills and provide general assistance to the department. The paper was to be published three times a semester except the last month when students are busy with assignments and exams. It was to be run entirely by students of the Media Studies Department, but with supervision by departmental staff.

Before the newspaper began, a college-wide survey was conducted by students in the Media Management course, to find out whether it was a

viable project and if so, what the students wanted to see in the paper. Based on the results of this survey, the paper decided to give the following prominence to student politics; academic issues; social problems on campus; economic issues; administration and management issues; school gossip; sports news; local advertising; academic staff issues; editorial/opinion pieces; off campus effects affecting UB; cultural effects; UB support staff issues; off campus events not affecting UB; and others (religion).

UB Horizon would be a 16-page, full-color tabloid published monthly during the academic calendar and although it would publish under the supervision of the MSD, it would strive to be an independent voice for the students and staff. Students would generate the stories and photographs in the department’s journalism classes, participate in story editing, design and lay out the newspaper and web site,

sell advertising, distribute the paper and manage the business. It would carry news stories relevant to students and staff including sports, politics, feature stories related to student life and arts and entertainment. It would have a full editorial page including student-written editorials, cartoons, letters to the editor and guest opinions.

The newspaper was to serve a community of 15 000 students and 1000 staff. The first issue, hit the streets on 21 March, 2007. While the initial issue was free, the second was sold for P2 (ZAR 2) in the college and a number of newsstands. Out of 3 000 copies, however, only 900 were sold and many of the initial advertisers threatened to withdraw their ads; as a result, the editorial board decided to distribute it free but seek strong adverts to help run it.

The fact that those who wrote or designed for the newspaper did so on a voluntary basis without any incentive, except seeing their bylines on the newspaper, soon became problematic, especially since the advertising team was getting commissions whether the advertising money was paid or not.

Students would promise to deliver articles, work in the design team or get ads but if they had a lot of class work too, their class work took priority and delivery for UB Horizon took a back seat. We reached a point where I was literally begging to get the newspaper moving from writers, to designers to advertising. The advertising team was the worst. They had realized that the paper actually depended on them for survival and they started calling the shots. As I tried to bring professionalism into the newspaper, I started putting in a few rules here and there. For example, to ensure the advertisers were delivering their payments, I made it clear that the commissions would only be paid after a cheque was delivered. The

response of the advertising team was to refuse to solicit ads. That month the newspaper was printed with only one single ad – an ad that a computer company customer had signed a contract for a year to appear on page three. The only way we were able to publish that month was the fact that we had a relationship with the publisher, Mmegi Publishers, which printed without being paid upfront.

However, the rule on advertising was to prove a plus as I stuck to it and the money started coming in. But the advertising team, still didn’t cooperate fully. As a result, a partnership agreement was concluded with a company, Simply Marketing, in terms of which we were to produce the stories while the company was to get adverts, market, publish and distribute the newspaper. An advantage of this partnership was an increase in circulation from 3 500 to 10 000.

The partnership soon ran into censorship problems when Simply Marketing unilaterally removed some stories it believed would anger the government and college leadership. However, we insisted on sticking to the initial agreement where there would be no censorship and if the company was unhappy with a story or picture, they informed us in advance. without taking matters into their own hands.

While the partnership was a financial relief, allowing us to concentrate on reporting and design, the voluntary work in getting stories and design work started becoming a nightmare. Other academic work took precedence and UB Horizon work would take a backseat, as there was no great incentive to write or design for the newspaper. We therefore decided to fully incorporate the writing of stories into the Print Courses’ assessment from the academic year 2009/2010. The stories are marked by the lecturer as an assignment but the electronic copy of the same is given to the student editors to edit and then return to the lecturer for final editing before it is ready to be placed on a page by the design team.

A deadline for the stories/assignment is given and this has at least ensured the stories come on time and those that do not meet the deadline are not used. Students have to share up to four bylines and it is up to them to learn partnership skills so as to present the best stories. For every group, it is required that the students say who did which work towards the story.

My experience in a commercial newspaper in Nairobi never prepared me for what I encountered at UB running a newspaper. A number of important lessons were learnt. Firstly, When you start a student newspaper, you need to know where the money will come from. Secondly, if it is to be a student learning tool, there are two options: either you incorporate it into the curriculum, or you ensure the college finances the newspaper fully so that you minimize your problems of printing, distribution and news desk communications.

The many challenges that the UB Horizon faced have helped our students realize that the world of work is difficult and also that, apart from the obvious factors of skills and resources, there are many economic, political and social factors which impact upon the production of a newspaper. n

http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_20767-1522-1-30.pdf?101008142131