Introduction
Universities of Hargeisa, Amoud and East Africa in
Somalia have been selected to develop full Bachelor of
Arts Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication.
The program will be offered as needed to meet an
expressed demand via videotaped (VCDs/ DVDs) lectures
with occasional Interwise interventions for direct
interaction between instructor and participants. WebCT
and email will also be used.
Students will receive their primary instruction through
either videotaped or streamed lectures. Additional
instructional will be offered through the WebCT as well
as Interwise or through the WebCT chat line for live
interaction.
Students’ assignments will be submitted through WebCT.
They will be graded and returned to the student through
WebCT. The students grades will be recorded on WebCT and
students can trace their progress.
Assumptions
African journalism education institutions are
inadequately staffed. There is a lack of specialized
journalists to tackle complex socio economic issues in
Africa and hence the need to train new, and retrain some
of the existing journalists as Africa enters the
Information Society.
Africa’s democratic, socioeconomic institutions will be
enhanced by a vibrant free mass media. There is need for
continuing education in journalism and
Communication in Africa. Such distance education will
complement existing journalism education institutions
which clearly have inadequate instructors.
Course Content
The degree program will be offered at three levels;
Beginners, Intermediary and Advanced.
A. Beginners. Here students will receive
instruction in basic journalism through BBC lecture
series. This will prepare them for the more advanced
Intermediary level.
B. Intermediary. Students will proceed to the
Certificate in Journalism level. This will build upon
the previous level. Journalism short courses are
currently running and available at three universities
offering the degree level and Mogadishu University,
SIMAD, and Puntland State University...
C. Advanced. This will be a degree-level course
that will help build the students’ journalistic capacity
into a profession. The course will also be a social
science in that the student will be introduced to the
multidisciplinary, practical and research approaches to
the study of journalism and mass communication.
Students will also be required to take nonjournalism
courses listed in the catalog schedule. .
In the Bachelor's degree program student will learn
social science methods of
Researching information.
They will be taught to use the statistical software to
analyze raw data.
In-depth news analyses. Students will analyze
social science methods in researching information.
They will be taught to use the statistical software to
analyze raw data.
In-depth news analyses. Students will analyze
issues in society and write columns , editorial and
interpretative stories
Internship. Students will do an internship with
any of the media in their countries...
Students will learn about issues in society and write
columns , editorial and interpretative stories
Skills
At the end of their
journalism and mass communication degree program
graduates will have skills to:
1. Use
social science methods for gathering news and
information
2. Use
statistical software for analyzing data
3. Use
computer-assisted techniques for searching and analyzing
information
4. Use
investigative journalism techniques
5. Write
professionally for the mass media in both print and
electronic media
6. Write
news analyses, opinions, and editorials.
7. Understand
the role of the mass media in society
8. Edit
stories for both print and electronic media
9. Do
newspaper layout and design
10. Produce
online publications
11. Serve
as a correspondent for national and international media
12. Write
public relations releases
13. Teach
journalism and mass communication
Grading: Evaluation will be based on letter
grades as follows: Pass with Distinction, Pass, and
Unsatisfactory.
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