Journalism experts call for collaboration among teachers, practitioners

Journalism experts say there is a need for practitioners and teachers in higher institutions of learning in the West Africa region to collaborate for better training of future journalists.

The media practitioners spoke on Wednesday during a panel discussion at the West African Journalism Conference (WAJIC 2023) in Abuja.

They said fragile collaboration among journalists and teachers has created a disconnect between the skills needed for the job in the 21st century and the curriculum being taught in schools.

Speaking at the event, Idris Akinbajo, Premium Times managing editor, said combining the practice of journalism and knowledge of theory would help in shaping students to become great journalists.

“There is a lot of gap between the skills journalists need outside of classrooms and what they are taught in many classrooms in West African universities,” Akinbajo said.

“We see that gap a lot as employers and as media managers. There is a need for better collaboration between journalism teachers in the school and practitioners in the field.

“There is a need for stronger collaboration so we can marry the two together. The students can gain both theoretical knowledge from academics and real practical knowledge of 21st-century journalism.”

Also speaking at the event, Williettee James, from the Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, said poor training for journalists is part of the reasons why fall foul of libel.

James said the journalism profession is now being dominated by untrained practitioners.

“The problem that we have, not many journalism graduates go into media practice. So we still have the old practice of untrained journalists with not much training causing problems in the media,” he said.