A collaborative impactful local news research project under the auspices of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program has begun at the School of Communication Arts, Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu.
The collaborative research on New Pathways for the Reconstruction of Nigerian Journalism will focus on the potential of local journalism to power Africa’s largest democracy and rebuild journalism in Nigeria.
According to the lead investigator and Carnegie Africa Diaspora Fellow, Professor Uchenna Ekwo, “an investment in rebuilding community journalism has the potential benefit of citizen mobilization and offers a new model that disrupts political polarization by moving away from party politics and prioritizing the issues in readers’ neighborhoods.” He maintained that local news had the potential to reach audiences frequently overlooked in national outlets by taking a community listening approach and prioritizing diverse representation in the newsroom
Working together with the project’s co-investigator, Dr. Robert Madu, the Head of the Department of Mass Communication at the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, Ekwo emphasized that the impactful research would contribute to societal development by generating knowledge that addresses global challenges, informs policy-making, and drives economic growth. “It fosters innovation and solutions that can lead to sustainable development and improved community well-being.
Ekwo, who served as Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Enugu State in the early 90’s expressed the hope that the collaborative research would strengthen the capacity of IMT faculty and expose the students to best practices from other countries such as the United States, thereby learn comparative systems to help hone their research skills.
The IMT project is one of 60 newly approved projects that pair African Diaspora scholars with higher education institutions and collaborators in Africa to work together on curriculum co-development, collaborative research, graduate training and mentoring activities in 2024.
The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program, now in its tenth year, is designed to strengthen capacity at the host institutions and develop long-term, mutually beneficial collaborations between universities in Africa and the United States and Canada. It is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with the Association of African Universities (AAU). About650 African Diaspora Fellowships have now been awarded for scholars to travel to Africa since the program’s inception in 2013.
Fellowships match host universities with African born scholars and cover the expenses for project visits of between 14 and 90 days, including transportation, a daily stipend, and the cost of obtaining visas and health insurance.
