Monday June 24 at 13:30-15:30
Mentoring is magic. It builds productive professional relationships, enhances great reporting and propels careers in science journalism.
The SjCOOP-mentoring-project run since 2006 by the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) has produced a large number of success stories in Africa and the Middle East. Many participants of the program started new science beats in their media, others started to free-lance internationally, and others wrote exceptional stories which helped to change lives of people in developing countries.
At the same time mentoring is very ordinary. It is something that happens in newsrooms on all continents all the time: older or more experienced journalists taking care of younger ones, helping them beyond the daily work and offering them collegial, professional support. This kind of informal mentoring is the inspiration for dedicated formal mentoring programmes. The latter usually are part of larger capacity building programmes with many different activities.
In this workshop some experiences from SjCOOP are presented but other mentoring approaches will also be discussed with the participants. Among the topics will be distance mentoring vs. in-house mentoring, peer-to-peer mentoring vs. intensive training, text-mentoring vs. production mentoring, mentoring by scientists vs. mentoring by journalists, mentoring of associations and mentoring in associations of science journalists.
Producer
Olfa Labassi (Canada)
Organization: World Federation of Science Journalists
Position: Project Manager, Science journalism COOperation Project (SjCOOP)
Email: [email protected]
Phone: + 1 819 770 0776
Biography: Olfa Labassi is the Project Manager of the ongoing SjCOOP project of the World Federation of Science Journalists. She has been involved with the Federation since December 2006 and before that she had worked as a Finance Manager in Tunisia.
She holds a Bachelor degree in Computer science and a Masters degree in Project Management.
Passionate and dedicated to International Development, the WFSJ contributed to fulfilling Ms. Labassi’s dream through its flagship project SjCOOP. Helping spread science journalism Worldwide and colleagues in developing countries is her main daily concern.
Moderator
Jan Lublinski (Germany)
Journalist, Trainer, Consultant
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +49-228-4224397
Biography: Mr Lublinski’ has a PhD on science journalism. He is an active science journalist, trainer and consultant based in Bonn, Germany. He is one of the first two co-editors of the Online Course in Science Journalism, and he was in charge of the internal evaluation of SjCOOP phase one and two. As a journalist he reports for German Public Radio and GEO magazine. He also trains journalists from all over the world at “Deutsche Welle”.
Speakers:
1. Suzanne Baaklini (Lebanon)
Organization: l’Orient Le Jour newspaper
Position: Editor of the environmental magazine “Oxygene”
Email: [email protected]
Biography: Suzanne Baaklini studied French Literature in Saint Joseph University in Beirut. She works as a journalist since 1997 in L’Orient-Le Jour newspaper, a French Lebanese newspaper. She is now the Editor of the environmental magazine “Oxygene”, published by L’Orient-Le Jour since March 2012.
Ms. Baaklini was a Sjcoop II (the WFSJ’s mentoring program) mentee from September 2010 to October 2012. She was also a trainer in environmental journalism training organized by Deutsche Welle Academie in Tangiers, Morocco, in May 2012.
2. Rosalia Omungo (Kenya)
Organization: Kenya Kenya Broadcasting Corporation
Position: News Editor in charge of science and environment
Email: [email protected]
Biography: Rosalia Omungo is an award -winning journalist with Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, Kenya’s State Broadcaster. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and a postgraduate diploma in Mass Communication from University of Nairobi, School of Journalism. She won the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Award for environment reporting (2010), Kenya Media Population (Kemep) 2010 and received a diploma from the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) in October 2012 after successfully participating in the two year Sjcoop mentoring program.
As news editor in charge of science and environment, she oversees product development and features, as well as mentoring upcoming reporters. She produces Earth Watch, an environment feature programme as well as special assignments. Besides reporting widely on climate change issues, she has been a presenter for Eco show, Kenya’s first environmental talk show, which she tactfully developed through credible interviews to be one of the most watched talk shows.
3. Théodore Kouadio (Côte d’Ivoire)
Organization: Fraternité Matin Newspaper/Scidev.net
Position: Editor Online pages Fraternité Matin/Francophone West Africa News Coordinator of SciDeV.Net
Email: [email protected]
Biography: Théodore Kouadio is the 2010 Lorenzo Natali prize winner.
He studied law and marketing in the University of Côte d’Ivoire. Mr. Kouadio works as a journalist in Fraternité Matin since 1998 were he became the Editor of the online pages in 2003. He is also one of WFSJ’s Mentors from 2010 to 21012 and he is currently the Francophone Coordinator of SciDev.net West Africa News.
