Members of Kotu Senior Secondary School Press Club earlier today visited the Media Academy for Journalism and Communication. The visit is to broaden their knowledge and understanding of journalism and to gather firsthand information about the profession to shape their career.Fatou Joof one of the students said that coming to MAJaC has motivated her more to take up journalism as a career. She said the facilities at MAJaC and some of the courses she has learnt are offered by the institution she believes will enhance her abilities more and prepare her for the future.Almameh Dumbuya, the Press Club Coordinator and Head of English Department at the school, said that it is important to introduce the students to the profession at this level to enable them make the right choices. He said the visit will impact the students’ careers as most of them are blindly joining the field without knowing much about it.
Hate speech is often rife during elections. In the run up to first presidential elections in the post-dictatorial elections, Lenisa Gomez zoomed into the need to avoid such menace. https://soundcloud.com/user-140623569-423216487/lenisa-gomez-hate-speech
The people of Bakau say, they will only vote for a political party that has plans to fix the poor drainage facilities. click this link to listen: https://soundcloud.com/user-140623569-423216487/bakau-people-to-vote-for-proper-drainage-system
The Media Academy for Journalism and Communication –MAJaC, on Friday orients 20 participants for the Film and Photography training. The programme which is funded by the International Trade Centre –ITC through Youth Empowerment Project –YEP is meant to build the capacity of these youth for a productive career and boost their employability.Sang Mendy the Managing Director of MAJaC said the programme couldn’t have come at a better time than this, when The Gambia’s creative industry is doing well and needs people to help push the work to the world. He said that a lot of efforts have been put into the design of the programme curriculum and training content manual. “We are confident that at the end of your programme, you would make MAJaC, ITC and partners proud and that you would also be proud of yourselves for applying to the programme.” He added.“As a school that churns out students ready for the labor market, be rest assured that we will push you hard to be solution to the industry needs.” MD Mendy said.Jason Florio, one of the trainers urged all participants to be professional on the field. He said that as would be photographers and film makers, it is important to be always on time and professional.Fatoumatta Saidykhan, a participant said that attending her first lecture has informed her decision of joining the course. “It has made me look forward to attending more lectures and build my interest more in the course.” Saidykhan said talking about her first lecture experience.
The Media Academy for Journalism and Communication (MAJaC) has on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) at a signing ceremony held at the Academys’ campus in Bakau. The objectives of the MoU are to enhance capacity building through training, collaboration on media, communication, and information research. It will also see the two institutions host a national election intervention programme beginning with 2021 general elections and as well explore areas such as data journalism as a component of media innovation and revenue generation. The partnership will help the two institutions to collaborate and use each other's expertise for the benefit of both institutions.Sang Mendy, the Managing Director of MAJaC said the academy will utilize the MoU to offer training on information disorder, fact-checking and the emerging new trends in the media.“MAJaC has very good journalism programmes, but as I speak, we have no programme on fact-checking and information disorder. Therefore, partnerships like this one will help build the capacity of our students in these areas”, he said. Caroline Anipah of PTCIJ said misinformation has become a problem in Africa which calls for more partnership between media organizations. “We want to build the capacity of Gambian journalists and also conduct research in The Gambia. We have implemented many programmes on good governance in other countries like Ghana and Nigeria. Our fact-checking training attracted MAJaC so we are looking forward to great things”, she said. PTCIJ is a non-governmental organization founded in 2014 to promote a truly independent media landscape that advances fundamental human rights, good governance and accountability in West Africa through investigative journalism, open data and technology.
