UG, Ohio University target better TV production

Aug 05, 2009 News

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A recent research has shown that there are substantial needs in all sectors of the media but the most pressing ones are in television. As such two television production workshops in Georgetown and in New Amsterdam have commenced with the overarching goal to “raise the professional quality of television in Guyana.”
The programme will also promote principles and practices of objective, and ethical journalism, Professor Mary Rogus of Ohio University said.
On Monday, 40 mostly media operatives began a three weeks television Production Workshop at the University of Guyana’s Centre for Communication Studies to enhance skills and techniques to improve competencies in writing, interviewing, story-telling, video journalism, editing, and on-camera presenting.
The first of three workshops to be staged over the next three years under a University of Guyana/Ohio University partnership is funded by USAID with involvement from the Higher Education for Development and the American Council on Education and may result in the revolutionising of the local television offerings.
Dr. Paloma Mohamed, Director, Centre for Communication Studies, at Monday’s opening, said those in attendance were selected from more than 100 applicants who influence large segments of Guyana.
She told those gathered in the Education Lecture Theatre, University of Guyana, Turkeyen that based on plans the CSC workshop will not be myopic and inward looking as it is created for the students and staff of the University and for the benefit of local media operatives.
Dr. Vibert Cambridge, Professor, School of Media Arts and Studies, Ohio University, renewed a pledge to consolidate and grow the 25-year-old history that Ohio University has had with the people of Guyana and the University of Guyana.
Created to strengthen UG’s product to better serve the needs of the media industry, the workshop is geared to sharpen those skills that already exist in the media in the interest of a better Guyana.
The workshop would ultimately see successful participants being given at least three credits to enter the UG Communication Studies programme.
Dr.  Mohamed said that each workshop is aimed at developing professional broadcast standards for news and information programming in Guyana.
Through presentations, lectures and interactive sessions, the workshop aims to raise the professional quality of broadcast media coverage by promoting principled practices of objective, and ethical journalism.
The participants will also examine the role of broadcast media as a watchdog over key social institutions including government and business and the media’s critical role in democratic decision-making.
Further, it will help the participants to identify and discuss causes of social conflict and determine media role in finding strategies for resolution.
It will also be used to analyze how news subjects are selected and defined, in the concepts of “news frame” and “agenda setting”.
The fifteen-day session will seek to improve technical skills of video journalism and editing and the participants will be introduced to television short format programme producing strategies to create efficient, responsible and aesthetically sharper television news programming.
Since the launch of the project in January 2009, Dr. Cambridge said through research that the training needs have been identified and prioritised for practicing journalists and other media practitioners in Guyana.
According to Dr. Cambridge, the workshop is one of a three-component partnership that includes upgrading the curriculum and curriculum support services at the Center for Communication Studies at the University of Guyana, to make it relevant to the needs of the society; upgrading the education and training of the faculty of CCS at UG, to be more effective teachers and researchers; and providing education and training opportunities for practicing journalists in Guyana, to be more effective and responsible.
He also said that since the launch of the project in January, much work has taken place in the area of faculty development and he announced that in about two weeks, Carolyn Walcott, lecturer in radio and television broadcasting in the Centre for Communication Studies will be enrolling at Ohio University to pursue a Master’s degree in Communication for Development, specialising in television for social change.
Under this partnership, Celia Shortt, a graduate student from Ohio University will come to the Centre for Communication to replace the faculty member who will be pursuing Master of Arts studies at Ohio University. Miss Shortt has a Master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism and has done extensive work in radio and television.
The principal facilitator of the workshops is Professor Mary Rogus, a Professor of Broadcast Journalism in the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism.
Professor Rogus has earned the Presidential Award for Teaching at Ohio University.
This prestigious award, which recognises excellence, has been granted to only a few professors.
Prior to joining Ohio University about a decade ago, Mary was a practicing, television journalist in commercial television in major American media markets.
More recently, she conducted training programmes for journalists and other media practitioners at Al Jazeera.
Other presenters were Carol Horning, USAID mission director, Professor Lawrence Carrington, Vice Chancellor and Guyana Press Association President (ag) Gordon Moseley.

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