Journalism educators in Ethiopia are establishing the Ethiopian Journalism Educators’ Network (EJEN) to bring together media academics from the country’s 24 institutions that offer journalism education.
This article was published by our partner Wits University in South Africa on their website. Fojo supports the establishment of EJEN as part of our programme in Ethiopia. Written by Enoch Sithole.
Ajenda interviewed Zelalem Tesfaye who is Assistant Professor of Journalism and Director of Broadcast Media at Bahir Dar University, who plays a key role in the establishment of the network.
Ajenda: Can you please give an outline of journalism education in Ethiopia?
ZT: Journalism education in Ethiopia is one of the key stakeholders in the media landscape of the country. They are mainly engaged in teaching, researching, and coaching journalists. It also provides some insights for policymakers to make policy amendments in journalism education, and journalism, in general, in the country.
Ajenda: What sort of issues is journalism education dealing with?
ZT: It has a number of issues to deal with, like, for example, bringing quality journalism in the country through researching and teaching, supervising, that sort of thing.
Ajenda: What is the purpose of establishing the journalism educators’ network?
ZT: The purpose of establishing this network is to bring together like-minded individuals, who are scholars, on the same page. Back in the past, journalism was being taught in a very scattered manner. So, even the resources we used to employ for teaching and researching were quite different. The network will just simply bring all these people together to be on the same page, share resources and ultimately bring about quality journalism.
Ajenda: What sort of plans do you have for the network for the near future?
ZT: We are actually in the process of registering the network with the Ethiopian civil service as a civil society organization. In the future, we are going to have a strong network within and beyond Ethiopia, among the different journalism schools in the country as well as the region. So, our future plan is just to strengthen our network to bring about a meaningful impact on journalism education in the country and in the region.
