Web Training in Africa (1999):
Opening up the world

By Julian Sher

See also 

[This article first appeared in the magazine of the Commonwealth Broadcasters Association.] In May of 1999, the World Bank Institute, in cooperation with the Commonwealth Broadcasters Association, sponsored a series of investigative journalism workshops in Africa. Julian Sher, a freelance TV investigative producer and internet trainer, led the broadcast courses. He is also conducted internet training sessions in three countries – Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda. Here is his report.

Ethiopia – Hearing the other side of the war:

In Ethiopia, we had close to 40 people in attendance for three hours on Internet training. For most people it was the first introduction to the web. Many had never used a mouse or surfed the web before … and for many it was an important eye opener.

From JournalismNet's Africa news page, we showed journalists they could read newspapers from around the world – including reliable sources like the BBC and Washington Post to check out developments in their own country or region. We accessed United Nations and other documents for first-hand reports on subjects like malaria, AIDS and refugees in Ethiopia.

What captivated the journalists the most was the news on the web direct from Eritrea – being able to read unfiltered the views and opinions of the war as seen by the "enemy side".  It was a dramatic illustration of how the net can be used to break down journalistic barriers.

Tanzania – The fight against corruption:

Our facilities at a local internet provider were quite excellent. We trained 35 broadcast journalists and the print journalists from the other workshop. This was one of the most successful and most appreciated sessions and all students asked for much more time for internet training.

Students were shown how the internet can be an invaluable tool for investigations, and for ensuring a democratic press:

  • International news resources for African news – especially BBC Africa. Students read background articles on the war in the Congo, Aids in Zimbabwe, etc.(www.http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/default.htm)
  • African news sources: PANA news agency  and web pages such as Africa Online allowed students to search for news by country or by topic (health, science, environment, business)
  • World Organizations: Transparency International web site gave journalists a shock: Tanzania was 4th from the bottom on a list of 85 countries ranked by how open and anti-corrupt they were! 
  • We also visited Amnesty International to read their critical reports on human rights here.
  • And we used reference books like the CIA Factbook  to find out some startling facts – for example, almost half of Tanzania’s population is under 14 years old (compared to only 20% in North America) and the average life expectancy is below 45 years.
  • Accessing the web: We gave out addresses for local cyber cafes where journalists could access the web for a small fee. Communication with the rest of the world is also vital, so we gave students instructions for free email accounts on Hotmail (www.hotmail.com) and many set up their own emails and were busy sending messages by the end of the evening.

Uganda: The world's news at your doorstep:

Only a handful of the journalists had ever been online before. We began by examining the best international news sources for burning issues such as the Congo war (BBC, CNN). We even visited the official site of the Kabila government (http://drcongo.org/frames/index.html) to show journalists the advantage of accessing directly the propaganda of the "enemy side."

Several Ugandan newspapers have good web sites. Journalists of course can read these newspapers in their hard copy form – but few have access to much-needed archives for their research. We showed them how they could access back issues of the East African (www.nationaudio.com/News/EastAfrican/Current/index.htm) and search the archives of The Monitor (www.africanews.com/monitor/backfreeissue.html)to check on previous speeches by government officials, for example.

We also showed them how they could hunt for news by country, topic or region with such agencies as PANA and Africa Online.

Finally, we used the sites of world organizations. We found health statistics at the website of the World Health Organization (www.who.int/) and on the web pages of Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org /hrw/pubweb/) we read two detailed reports about abuses by rebel forces in the north and by the government.

Recommendations for future Internet training

i) More systematic training: Every journalist on the course asked for more internet training. They could not get enough of it.

 ii) Outside funding: It should not be hard to find outside sponsors for Net training – from other aid agencies, embassies and even private Internet companies. Corporations might want the good publicity from sponsoring such important work.

 iii) Online follow-up: It will be easy and inexpensive to do follow-up training using the web. There are several free programs that allow students in Africa to hook up directly with the trainer back in North America and chat online. Students can not only pose questions and get answers but they can follow the trainer as he browses through the web.

For more information on how to get Internet training for your newsroom, click here.