Event Information
The mass media have a reputation for setting agenda for public discuss and opinion on matters related to the environment and other societal issues. The reputation is enforced by the ability of the media to reach large audience at a fast rate and its ability to reinforce messages for impact. Most of what people know about the environment, its values and challenges are to a very large extent dependent on what they read in the media. In its educational role, the media sensitize the people and improve public knowledge and understanding of the environment, which helps in environmental conservation and sustainability. The media are channels through which research findings in the field of environment are communicated to the people and through repetitive advocacy, get the government to mainstream such findings into policy.
Regrettably, media organizations in Nigeria pay less attention to news reports on environment. News items on environment are hardly promoted in front pages of newspapers except when there is a major disaster like earthquake, flood, erosion or landslide. This development could be blamed on dearth of specialized reporters who are knowledgeable about topical environmental issues and how to communicate them with general language style valued in the press and comprehensible to the people. Majority of the few reporters covering environment beats have no training on environmental reporting. Most of their reports are shallow. They lack the capacity for in-depth analyses of effects of environmental degradation on the livelihood, lifestyles and economies of the people. This could account for why environmental reports in Nigeria newspapers are sometimes considered boring and attracting low readership.
The challenge is exacerbated by the absence of environmental journalism curricula in the training of Nigerian journalists. What exists is a semester course on science and other specialized reporting. Given the importance of the environment to the survival of man and other creatures, a semester course, where environmental reporting is passively mentioned, is not enough to adequately prepare journalists for the important task of environmental advocacy.
It is therefore important to organize periodic short term trainings to build capacity of journalists covering environment beats in major Nigerian mass media. Such trainings should bridge the gap in their formal learning and help acquaint them with global topical events, government policies and actions towards environmental conservation.
Against this backdrop, the Resource and Environmental Policy Research Centre, University of Nigeria, Environment for Development, (REPRC-EfD Nigeria) considers it pertinent to organize a one-day capacity-building workshop for journalists with biased to environmental reporting.
REPRC-EfD Nigeria is a key research and policy advocacy centre domiciled in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The Centre focuses on major environmental and economic challenges that affect Sub-Saharan Africa, with bias to Nigeria. Its priority areas are in agriculture, ecosystem and natural resources, climate change, energy and pollution.
Theme: Role of Journalists in the Quest for Sustainable Environment
Venue: EfD-Nigeria Building, University of Nigeria, Nsukka