Declaration by African science journalists should be supported

By Aghan Daniel

 The African Declaration on Effective Science Communication and Journalism which was signed by science journalists from all over Africa recently in Nakuru marks the beginning of a new era in science journalism. The declaration seeks a binding commitment from African journalists, communicators, universities, civil society, donors and researchers to improve science writing in the continent.

To a large extent, it is a pointer to the fact that Africa is increasingly recognising the importance of science and communication in developing their economies, and the challenges that entail.

Studies have over time shown that limited coverage of important scientific issues and events in Africa has been linked to poor interaction between scientists, researchers and journalists.  This sorry state has been seen from the lens of a missing information gap between the media and the science community in the continent. The gap has been attributed to many factors, including poor media communication skills on the part of scientists and scanty understanding of the research process by journalists and poor interaction between journalists and scientists. Journalists are largely unfamiliar with most of the scientific concepts and are easily put off from reporting scientific issues usually contained in specialised journals which they find hard to decode.

Consequently, the visibility of scientific research output in Africa is still very low. Besides, most of the research is being done in urban centres, far removed from the beneficiaries who majorly live in the rural areas. The matters of science reporting are further complicated by the fact that training for journalists’ exclude those who operate from rural areas.

To remedy the situation, the declaration proposes that communication and capacity building of the media must be included in the strategic plans of all research institutions in Africa. Further government ministries in Africa must budget for science communication allocation targeting both the media and their communication staff. In addition, focussed training on media skills for researchers and principles of science for the media fraternity.

The work is hence cut out for the vision bearer of the declaration, the Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture who must ensure the declaration does not just add up to the many limping declarations African experts are known for.

Recognising there is big grassroots interest in science communication and the role of science education in development in Africa, the declaration calls for establishment of platforms to provide additional information on topical science issues. It also demands journalists must, like never before, become the watchdogs that they should be in tracking major developments involving African scientists.

In order to have effective platforms across the continent, many challenges facing these objectives such as institutional barriers, limited resources, and lack of training must be addressed. For this to be achieved, the declaration tasks scientific research agencies and academic institutions, journalists, media houses, civil society, governments, funding and development agencies specific duties they have to carry out. These platforms could be very useful to help build effective working relationships between scientists and journalists.

In a nutshell, the declaration seeks to lobby and advocate for an African country to host the World Science Journalists’ Conference, come 2015.  Finally the declaration calls for the sectors to support the quest of opening the African research information to the world through positioning well this information in the media.

The writer is the Communication and Advocacy Officer at Africa Seed Traders Association and Secretary of the Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture