News

When time is scarce to receive training, what can we do?

I have developed an online Moodle educational platform in Panama to help hyper-busy journalists to receive training in their free time.

A Dirty Word Called 'Development'

Chapananga is a remote chiefdom on Malawi’s southern border with Mozambique. It is four and a half hours of meandering mountainous road and hard driving from Blantyre, the commercial capital of the country, where Nation Publications Limited, my host organization, is headquartered.

In a month and a half’s time when the rains start, the area will be inaccessible by road transport, including their sturdiest and most reliable of 4x4’s.

Structure and Journalism

As part of developing sustainable business models for online media, I have tried to catch-up with what Reg Chua is thinking about the structure of journalism at his blog “(Re)Structuring Journalism”.

MDLF and the MalaysiaKini Story

The last few weeks have been a bit slow in Malaysia as the country celebrates the end of Ramadan and the festive season of Hari Raya. During the slow time, I have written a few things for other blogs on the work and situation at MalaysiaKini, as they get posted I will cross post them.

One happy student

Another group was trained under the Mural workshops. A course that focuses on recruiting and training community correspondents reporting from the outskirts of São Paulo.

Measuring Impact

I’m thinking a lot about the definition of the word “impact” these days. When I reflect on my past two years in Kenya, the meaning might seem clear at first.

“Just what the heck is different about Kenyan media since my plane touched down in late June 2008?" Wow, that question almost felt egomaniacal as I typed it! How can one person expect to exert enough influence to quantify a tangible impact on an entire country’s media? In one year, or two….or 10, for that matter?

Where are the issues?

The Brazilian media has devoted all of its manpower to cover a series of scandals recently emerged.

Catch 22

On Saturday, the 11th, the Mural project reconvened in Folha de São Paulo's training room.

CONVERGING IMPACT: NTV and Daily Nation join forces on health policy coverage

If this looks like a tightly cropped shot, it really isn't. The actual room where this scene took place was only about a 10 by 8 foot space tucked away in a back office at Webuye Hospital, Bungoma District, about two hours from Kisumu, Kenya.

This setting mirrors hundreds of hospitals and clinics in Western Kenya, where every day, thousands of children develop severe symptoms of diarrheal disease. It happens because they live in villages and towns where there’s scarce access to clean water.

I Say Potato. You Say Papa Nativa.

Thousands of potatoes, the world's best coffee, and the secret to getting married take center stage at Peru's largest food festival.

Finding a boyfriend and getting married in Peru must be pretty difficult. That is if you follow the tradition behind the Yana Piña potato, also known as the "Mother-in-Law Potato." According to tradition, before a girl can get married she needs to prove her love- and worth- to her future mother-in-law by peeling this grenade-looking thing...