CONFERENCE IN AFRICA ADDRESSES GENDER IMBALANCES
A workshop organized by the World Association for Christian
Communication (WACC) led to a declaration criticizing media in Africa
for gross gender imbalances and stereotyped portrayal of women. "We are concerned with the gender imbalances and portrayal within news media reporting in Africa. We call upon the media to exercise their responsibility to the public and apply the standards and practices of good governance and democracy in line with freedom of speech and expression," said the experts in the statement released in Nairobi at the end of a three-day gender and media advocacy workshop from December 3-5.
The workshop brought together more than 35 gender and media advocates from 13 countries in English-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa. The WACC is a communication rights organization based in Toronto, Canada.
–WACC (waccglobal.org); December 2007
CHRISTIAN BOOKS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Lawrence Darmani realizes how compiled magazine articles can impact
an entire country, like Ghana. As managing editor of Step Publishers,
Darmani and his team began creating anthologies of popular magazine
stories for children about six years ago. They eventually transformed
these anthologies into children’s textbooks for the public school
system.“We opened the daily newspapers one fine day to read an advertisement placed by the ministry [Ghana Ministry of Education, Science and Sports] inviting publishers to submit supplementary readers to be considered for large purchases,” Darmani said.
Step Publishers submitted the only five titles they had at the time, and to their surprise four of the five were accepted. A total of 17,800 copies were ordered for a single supplier. From there they have reinvested those proceeds to develop more titles specifically in English, which were also translated into 10 local languages.
Read more about how this opportunity from God took shape at Cook International.
—Cook Partners; September/October 2007
COMIX35 HOSTS ONLINE CHRISTIAN COMICS EXHIBITION
Check out COMIX35's second Christian comics exhibition. The
exhibition includes online galleries from around the world including
Africa, Asia and Europe. Voting for the best entries concluded in
September, so make sure to go to the Updates section for a list of the
winners. For more information about COMIX35 go to comix35.org; to view the online galleries go to christiancomics.org.
—COMIX35 Updates, September 2007
ONLINE COURSE OFFERS TRAINING IN MAGAZINE JOURNALISM
Journalists with basic skills can participate in an online course in magazine journalism through the SA Writers College in Participants must have access to a computer with e-mail. The cost for the program is ZAR2,495 (about US$363). Students learn how to write and sell magazine articles as a successful freelance writer. Participants must complete 10 writing exercises, one quiz on magazine industry protocol, one query letter, and one full-length publishable magazine article.
For more information, contact Nichola Meyer at nichola@sawriterscollege.co.za.
—The International Journalists' Network; Issue # 433; October 22, 2007