Facilitator, Catherine Gicheru and Participants

Participants visit Spice FM Studio - Standard Group, Nairobi

The News Hub - Standard Group

Participant, Onyekachi Nwosu from Nigeria

Participants at the Standard Group in Nairobi, Kenya

Interim Dean of the Graduate School of Media and Communications, Dr Nancy Booker, Welcomes Participants

KAS Media Africa Director - Christoph Plate

Experts from newsrooms across the continent facilitated the week-long course in conflict areas such as ethics, mental health for journalists, gender dynamics, inter-generational relations and newsroom politics. Facilitators included interim Dean of the GSMC, Dr Nancy Booker, KAS Media Africa Director, Christoph Plate, and senior journalists Joseph Warungu, Wangethi Mwangi, Dapo Olorunyomi and Joeph Odindo.

The course addressed a critical need for managers who are consistently faced with a myriad of challenges outside of delivering a quality product. As part of his main takeaways, Richard Bishumba of Rwanda noted that “managing conflict in the newsroom starts with managing myself”, while Wezie Nyirongo of Malawi noted that poor communication between management and the staff can demoralise and cripple a newsroom.

The dynamic group indeed reflected today’s newsroom in gender, age and expertise, and came from both traditional newsrooms and digital. Practical case studies were implemented by facilitators and participants had opportunity to interact with one another, facilitators and important conflict situations.