WKU And Internews Networks
Review Partnership
August 13, 2003
Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University and Internews® Networks have renewed the partnership for the International Journalism and Media Management Training program. The project supports emerging democracies by training professional journalists, news editors and media managers in democratic journalism techniques.
The third year of the program continues the collaboration among Western's Public Broadcasting and School of Journalism and Broadcasting, and Internews, an international non-profit organization that supports open media worldwide. This partnership is a one-of-a-kind training program in the United States in which WKU faculty, staff and students are involved as trainers and hosts.
In the coming year, the training program will host Egyptian print journalists. The retooled session includes a three-week training in Bowling Green followed by internships at American newspapers, completed with a 10-day session in Bowling Green focused on "training of trainers." A new element is journalism curriculum development for Egyptian universities and equipment grants. During the coming year, 50 print journalists will be trained in three groups. The first session is scheduled to begin mid-October.
The three-week intensive print journalism training session includes hands-on exercises and the creation of original print and web-based material. Simultaneously, working with an Egyptian counterpart, a WKU curriculum developer will create a comprehensive curriculum to be launched as a pilot program at an Egyptian university.
After the three-week internships, the Egyptian participants return to Bowling Green for the final training session. As a key element of the program, experienced U.S. trainers, who specialize in teaching the participants how to be effective trainers, will help create a cadre of trainers from the participant pool who will return to their respective papers and conduct training for their colleagues.
Marilyn Greer joins the program as project coordinator. Greer graduated from Western in May 2003 and started with the training project on July 27.
Since June 2001, the program has trained journalists and station managers from more than 20 radio stations in Indonesia and Cambodia. WKU trainers completed sessions in Bowling Green, Jakarta (Indonesia) and Phnom Penh (Cambodia).
This 15-month phase is funded by a $1.3 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development with support from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). McConnell recognized the collaborative possibilities of Western and Internews and was instrumental in bringing the partners together and in the continuing support for this program. To date, the International Journalism and Media Management Training Program has received $3.3 million from USAID.
For more information, contact Jerry Barnaby, 1-800-599-2424, or email jerry.barnaby@wku.edu. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
