CONTRIBUTION OF THE MEDIA HOUSES TO THE INSTITUTIONALISATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION

 

 

BY

 

F.C. OWEYEGHA-AFUNADUULA

Secretary

National Association of professional Environmentalists (NAPE)

Kampala , Uganda .

 

Website: http://www.afuna.org or http://www.afuna.o-f.com

Email:afunaduula2000@yahoo.co.uk or afunaduula@afuna.org

Tel: +256 78 555 222 or +256 71 845461

 

27.1.2005

 

Paper in Keynote Address at Breakfast Meeting with Media Owners and Editors to Take Stock of the Regional Training in Environmental Journalism and Communication Programme for Eastern Africa, Organised by the Department of mass Communications, Makerere University at Imperial Hotel, Kampala, Uganda, 27.1.2005.

 

The Head, Department of Mass Communications, lecturers and students on the Regional Training in Environmental Journalism and Communication Programme, Distinguished Media Owners and Editors from our now diverse and dynamic world of journalism, ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to be one of you at this breakfast meeting.

 

I did not know until yesterday afternoon when I received an invitation letter from the Head, Department of Mass Communication and which was dated 18 th January 2005 , inviting me to be here with you this morning. However, as it is often said, it is better late than never.

 

It is often said that knowledge is power. It is. Both good and bad knowledge can empower those who possess it depending on the purpose it is intended for. However, without information -good or bad -there can be no knowledge -good or bad -and, therefore, no power.

 

We can, therefore, say that information is fundamental power. Information fuels the power of knowledge and those who possess it tend to become empowered. However, both power and knowledge are useless unless they are communicated correctly and effectively.

It is useless to be empowered by both information and knowledge if both are simply going to stay in one's head or on paper hidden from the view of others.

 

We must, therefore, have effective communicators who are convinced that hoarding knowledge and information -bad or good -denies society the opportunity to re-evaluate the quality and usefulness of its knowledge base and allows for improvement in the various spheres of life.

 

At the moment, for example, there is questioning of the value of excessively raising disciplinary information, knowledge and power thereof over and above other knowledge and information cultures such as multidisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, crossdisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity. These cultures of knowledge and information allow for greater flexibility and exploration of knowledge and information.

 

Interdisciplinarity in particular allows for experience of a range of cognitive outcomes such as critical and creative thinking, contextual understanding and coping with complexity, receptivity to new ideas, tolerance of ambiguity, willingness to challenge assumptions and the ability to shift perspectives, to synthesise and to integrate. It allows for experience of outcomes related to ways of thinking and, therefore, rethinking of our beliefs and perceptions. It definitely undermines the urge to hoard information and tendency to fear and be silent, individualism and arrogance, and tends to promote teamwork, democracy and openness and collaboration. Finally it breaks down the artificial boundary between the social sciences and the natural sciences, thereby presenting all sciences as one and demanding that everyone is socially and naturally scientific.

 

Therefore, this new approach to or paradigm shift in our knowledge and information styles would necessarily contribute to effective communication about, in and for the environment. There is growing evidence that this is where we are going in the 21 st Century. It would also produce for us a new category of professionals capable of escaping from the influences of disciplinary orientation.

 

My view is that as we think about and discuss institutionalization of Environmental Journalism and Communication, we should also seriously think about and discuss the urgent need to change our knowledge and information styles to fit the current trends in education development: increasing interdisciplinarity. This demands rethinking the curriculum. Doing so will definitely lead to greater improvement in the quality of environmental reporting in the media and developing positive attitudes I have detailed above because we shall have the human resources we need.

 

Environment is a complex whole. However, for purposes of better communication and understanding of its dynamics, issues, problems and challenges, it is conceptualized as being composed of four dimensions: the time dimension, the socio-economic dimension, the socio-cultural dimension and the ecological-biological dimension.

 

These dimensions are not mutually exclusive but interconnected and interdependent, and do interact dynamically to generate the environmental circumstances at anyone time. It is these circumstances that must be communicated effectively. This means that the effective environmental communicator must be versatile, with the capacity to communicate knowledge and information both along the different dimensions and, more importantly, holistically.

 

From what I have said so far, it is clear that issues of redesigning the curriculum of our programme to reflect the trends in education must be taken seriously. We cannot expect much from the media if we continue to send them people who are somewhat limited in the capacity to perceive and communicate environment adequately. The media chiefs must demand and participate in the redesign of the curriculum.

 

Lastly let me simply list some other issues that must be thought about and discussed and perhaps considered in case it is decided to begin the process of redesigning the curriculum to accommodate the new cultures of knowledge and information.

 

•  Past disciplinary training of practising Journalists and Environmental Communicators

•  Slow interdisciplinary transformation of education

•  Lack of familiarity with the holistic view of the environment

•  Technomechanistic view of development

•  Tendency to capture events rather than gradual processes that culminate into events

•  Narrowness of mind versus breadth of mind

•  Syndrome of fear and silence

•  Inflexibility (as result of being hooked to certain kinds of news/newsmakers/news making themes, particularly political and obscene)

•  Influence of politics and economics

•  Self-interests of media workers

•  Inability to simplify environmental information

•  Academic environmentalism

•  Environmental Activism, Advocacy and Lobbying

•  Attitude that Environment is not an interesting topic

•  Intellectual Poverty (i.e. inability to articulate and clarify environmental issues, problems and challenges in their widest sense)

 

In conclusion, we need to seriously open up to the new cultures of learning and knowing, which open new opportunities for fuller communication about, in and for environment. Such opportunities include developing new flexible attitudes, including critical, questioning and reflective attitudes, and capacity to see the environment as a complete whole and communicate accordingly without fear or favour. Otherwise our environment continues to deteriorate, decay and collapse as we look on as if we have agreed to let nature take its own course.

 

It is true the media need money to survive but in a depreciating environment, particularly in the socio-cultural dimension, this is not assured in the long term. The environment exercises a lot of power on the long-term survival of anything. What is happening in the environment and to the environment must, therefore, be communicated in a timely manner, correctly, efficiently and, therefore, without any prejudices or fear. This is important to enable society as a whole to produce appropriate responses or solutions that are sustainable. Otherwise our solutions continue to be the new problems on a continuous and sustainable basis.

 

Hopefully, all of us will take these matters seriously and act together to save ourselves by saving our environment. This way we shall be partners with Jesus Christ in the great task of saving the whole of God's Creation. Information is power. It is also the tool we need to be effective partners with Jesus Christ in the great task

 

Thank you.