Puntland State University (PSU) to launch community broadcasting

 Garowe, Jan 10 - Students in the diploma in journalism class at Puntland State University, Garowe, will start community broadcasting in February.
The students, mostly women, will be assigned to local broadcast stations where they will report on community events and broadcast them.Part of the students' assignments will be to interview citizens,
 NGOs, local community leaders and government officials about a wide range of issues and problems in their community.In the past two months students have written blogs about issues in their communities.The diploma in journalism program, especially broadcasting, is an important human resource investment. It will give women in Somalia the professional skills to gather information and write and /or broadcast their story and experiences from their perspective to their communities and the international world.The diploma in journalism is taught through distance education by Dr. Stanford Mukasa, associate professor of journalism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA. It is part of the collaboration between PSU, Africa Virtual University and IUP that started eight years ago an dhas trained journalists throughout Somalia and Africa.Students in the diploma program graduated from the certificate in journalism last year.They will learn advanced journalism topics ranging from news reporting, photojournalism, editing, editorial writing, research and public opinion surveys, newspaper layout and design. In addition students completed a course in African politics.The journalism program at PSU is a product of the university in collaboration with its international partners' vision to promote a free press and freedom of expression and to empower Somalis with professional and technological skills to communicate and distribute information effectively and efficiently . In the process, it is hoped that Somalis will begin at grassroots levels a serious and sustained conversation on future directions for the conflict -ridden region.Based in Garowe, PSU is a potential center for, and nearly straddles, three geopolitical regions of Somalia : Somaliland, Puntland and southern Somalia. It has become a strategic port of call for Somalis coming from any points around the region.PSU is working with Nairobi-based Unesco regional office for eastern Africa to secure broadcasting equipment to establish the Puntland State University Community Broadcast station. Similar programs were established at East African University in Northern Puntland as well as at University of Hargeisa in Somaliland. East African University community broadcast is operational while University of Hargeisa is not because the university has yet to receive a license from the government.The journalism program at PSU is supported through generous support spearhead by the university's development NGO, KAALO. To continue the program until it reaches self- sustainable levels, PSU is seeking assistance from organizations and donor agencies.For more details please contactHamid Mahamud, PSU president and HeadKAALO Relief & Development NGOTel: (252-5) - 844247 (Office)Tel: (252-90) 794076Email: kaaloorg@yahoo.com/info@kaalo.orgGarowe, Puntland State of SomaliaNorman Shitote, Director of online and distance education at PSUEmail: "norman shitote"news4norman@yahoo.comSource: http://blog.iup.edu/blogs/group/psujn/

Posted in: Tacliinta