The School of Media & Communication is partnering with the United Nations (UN) Migration and the Global Migration Media Academy to focus media attention on migration, reports ITREALMS.
ITREALMS by the Director of Professional Education, SMC, Isaac Ezechukwu, said a better reportage of the complexity of migration is the focus as the School of Media & Communication, Pan Atlantic University collaborates with the International Organization for Migration (UN Migration Agency) and the Global Migration Media Academy to facilitate a programme over two weeks.
The title, he said, is “Media and Migration from the Global South”.
Participants in the programme which commenced Tuesday, 10 May 2022, Ezechukwu said, include final year and postgraduate students as well as journalists from across the country. Five returnee migrants will share their experiences.
“Twenty-five journalists from Maiduguri, Yola, Abuja, Benin, and Lagos will run the second stream of the programme from 16 May 2022,” he said.
Cyprine Cheptepkeny, Project Officer of the International Organization for Migration was quoted as saying that the IOM is excited about the possibilities of the Global Migration Media Academy in deepening narratives on migration.
“The IOM carefully chose to collaborate with the School of Media & Communication in the pilot programme that it would replicate in four other countries.
“Migration has grown in intensity and impact across the world with many African countries involved in local and international migration. Cheptepkeny said the UN Migration would want better reportage of the trending global issue beyond the headlines that report boat disasters and similar accidents,” she said.
The International Organization for Migration, she further said, works “to ensure humane and orderly migration in the interest of humanity.”
Working with journalists, she said the IOM hopes to educate citizens on the broader contexts of migration across international relations, diplomacy, economics, culture, and the health issues around it.
IOM, she equally said would have students in mass communication and journalists to know what is happening in the migration world to ensure better communication of the issues. Stressing that the data showed that migration affects persons 13 to 35 years in the youth demographic.
Dr Mike Okolo, the Dean, said the SMC was glad to collaborate with the IOM as it aligns with its mission to impact society. “We are glad to partner with an organisation with a similar mission to affect society”.
“We do not see migration as negative. We see it as something that requires control and management as part of the human story,” he said.
Also speaking, the Course Coordinator Dr Chike Mgbeadichie disclosed that the training seeks to “problematize migration, its opportunities and challenges from the perspective of the global South, explore the centrality of the media in shaping the societal discourse of migration and unpack the role of the media to assist nation-states, and civil societies in their campaign for effective migration.”
ITREALMS gathered that facilitators have been drawn from from SMC, the University of Wits, South Africa, and UN Migration in Geneva.
In addition, they will tackle topics such as Migrations, Climate Change and Dot Connections; Development Communication and Migration; Culture and Migration; Social Realities: The ‘here and there’ Discourse; Community Development and Policy Initiatives; Reporting Migration and the Japa Narrative; Reporting Vulnerable Audience and Migration through Storytelling; social media and Migration Reporting; Media Ethics and Migration; Reporting on Data.
Remmy Nweke/DoP
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