Summer course 04: preparing for Rwanda s multimedia future

As media in Rwanda becomes more multiplatform, Kigali-based journalist Berna Namata is hoping that the 2014 Thomson Foundation summer course will prepare her for this changing environment.

It's not enough to be trained only in print, says Berna, who is working for Nation Media Group as an assistant editor in Rwanda.

As the latest recruit to the Thomson Foundation summer course, she is hoping that the training will offer her the opportunity to gain the skills to work in a multimedia environment

Increasingly, all newsrooms and journalists are moving from the era of single-media to multi-media reporting, she says.

With this training, I feel I will be better equipped to understand how to generate content in a multimedia environment.

Berna, who focuses on business and financial news, has already taken some steps towards multi-platform working.

Radio launch She is about to launch a radio talk show focusing on current economic and business issues on K.FM, a station owned by her employer.

With this training, I will be better equipped to carry out this task, she says.

Berna's employer Nation Media Group, a multimedia organisation operating in east and central Africa, produces content in print, electronic media and the internet.

I see this training opening up new opportunities for career development at my current workplace, she says.

Specifically, my employer is currently in advanced stages of launching a local daily newspaper Rwanda Today, which will need a dynamic website as regularly updated stories drive more traffic.

It will have a combination of hard news, news analysis, commentaries and soft features. It is a newspaper that will keep a pulse on what is happening in Rwanda and it shall speak with an independent voice.

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda left a depleted media sector and Berna says journalists are still dealing with the legacy of that era.

Rwanda is still haunted by the demons of hate media, and media sector reform is still a work in progress, she says.

But she adds that things are changing.

New technologies Rwanda has recently introduced reforms to allow the press more freedoms including an Access to Information Law of March 2013 and the government allows the media to be self-regulated.

Berna says the challenges that remain, relate to the profitability and professionalism of the media sector, which need to be improved, along with adapting to new technologies.

She hopes that after this training, she will return her workplace better equipped for Rwanda's multimedia future. But she is also keen to transfer her newly acquired skills to the team that she supervises.

I'm thrilled and feel very fortunate to be able to attend this course because I know many opportunities await upon completion.

I'm looking forward to meeting and interacting with the trainers and other journalists who will be attending this program.

Berna's place on the summer course is funded with the help of the Geoffrey Rich Scholarship from Canadas Jean Rich Foundation.

LINK:	http://www.thomsonfoundation.org/news-and-features/2014/05/28/summer-c...
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