Development Communication
and Public Journalism: A Model for
African Media
Tamara
L. Gillis, Ed.D. Robert
C. Moore, Ed.D.
Assistant
Professor of Communications Professor
of Communications
Department of Communications Department
of Communications
Elizabethtown College Elizabethtown
College
Elizabethtown, PA 17022 Elizabethtown,
PA 17022
717-361-1386 717-361-1252
717-361-1180 (Fax) 717-361-1180
(Fax)
gillistl@etown.edu
Submitted for Consideration as a Competitive Paper to the Mass Communication Division International Communications Association Annual Conference May 27-31, 1999 San Francisco, CA
October 27, 1998
Running Head: Development Communication and Public Journalism
Development Communication and Public Journalism: A Model for African Media
Abstract
This paper is an overview of the course design process, delivery and student outcomes of a public journalism course taught via interactive Internet video to mid-career journalists in Swaziland. The authors constructed a model of public journalism based in part on Arthur Charity's model outlined in Doing Public Journalism, the concepts of developmental communication, and practice materials provided by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism.
The project was made possible in part by a grant from the U.S. Information Agency's Distance Learning Initiative and a grant from the Elizabethtown College President's Fund for Distinction.
The Swaziland Distance Learning Project in Public Journalism was a pilot course for the application of this current media initiative to an international setting. The course emphasized the important connection between communities and their media -- print and broadcast. Using an investigative approach and case study analyses, mid-career journalists from print and broadcast organizations in Swaziland developed an understanding and appreciation for civic/community journalism, its practices, and its development and implications for communication of issues critical to the development of Swazi communities.
This course was delivered through a combination of
interactive Internet video and a two-week field experience conducted by the
authors.