How much more can we do for journalism?

The recently-held meeting of African Journalism Educators’ Network held at the Aga Khan University was to grapple with the ever-challenging issues in media and communications, and how educators are responding to this. According to Emilly C. Maractho, she started her career at the Nation Media Group as they were debating having to merge editions or go completely online because of low advertising in the weekend editions. Instead, they made the decision to change how stories are told. “Some of those stories which many of us thought could not make the Daily Monitor cover, like HIV/Aids, diabetes or even sickle cell disease, are finding their way up the ranks to the top stories of the day, not hidden away in supplements or pullouts,” she writes, “Opinion pieces tackling public health or mental health are now commonplace and gratifying. Without losing sight of the political stories of the day, the journalists are telling us, all stories matter and can be told intelligently and interestingly. And we cannot thank the journalists enough, for their creativity. It surely gladdens the heart.”