Andrew Hida and Liberian journalist Peter Toby while on assignment for The New Democrat. Photo by Bob Miller.
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Together Liberia is a pilot media development project intended to empower local communicators to share their own stories through training, equipment donations and relationship building. Together Liberia is comprised of professors and students from five US universities with the SI Newhouse School of Public Communications serving as the anchor institution. Other institutions included Duke University, University of North Carolina, University of Oregon and the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Together Liberia created teams to train Liberian students and professionals in storytelling, photography, media ethics, multimedia and web design. Over the course of nearly three months the US team leadership tested different approaches to training, making adjustments throughout the summer, building a knowledge base of best practices for future projects while benefiting current participants and trainers. Participants were trained and produced stories that were published in the local and international media.
Over the course of nearly three months US team leadership tested different approaches to training, making adjustments throughout the summer, building a knowledge base of “best practices” for future projects while benefiting current participants and trainers. Participants were trained and produced stories that were published in the local and international media.
Together Liberia is the brain child of Newhouse School Asst. Professor Ken Harper and Center for Peace, Democracy & Development Executive Director Michael Keating, who have been traveling to Liberia for several years. Ken has been involved in several Liberian media training initiatives and believes that an emphasis on personalized, human-to-human training would be more effective.
What really got me interested is that you get to meet a lot of people, feel the experiences of a lot of people, to listen to their stories and to tell them to the rest of the world.
Clarence Nah, Liberian Participant
KEY OBJECTIVES
- To strengthen the reporting and technical skills of the Liberian media
- To enhance the political awareness of Liberian citizens
KEY COMPONENTS
- Cross training for Liberian and American institution project participants
- Website and content management system
- Multimedia content available to an array of outlets in Liberia and abroad
- StoryCorps style audio tent
KEY CONTENT DISTRIBUTION MODELS
- National and rural radio
- Newspapers
- Website
One of the great challenges for the Liberian media is to report on the lives and aspirations of the rural population of Liberia. Together Liberia will do its best to mine stories from the hinterlands and give voice to the previously voiceless.
With a basic support structure in place our reporters will be able to tell the stories that the politicians and the policy makers need to hear. Once posted on the Together Liberia site the material is free to use by any other media organization based in Liberia or abroad through the Creative Commons Attribute Licence 3.0.
During the summer of 2011 we will be training reporters and editors at our partner’s site in Monrovia.
Together Liberia is a joint project of the Liberia Media Initiative, Front Page Africa, the New Democrat, the SI Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, the Center for Peace Democracy and Development at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University.
If you are interested in providing financial or material support to this project please reach out to Prof. Ken Harper at kharpe01@syr.edu.
The project also ran a Gear Drive in 2011, collecting cameras, recorders and computers for Liberian newsrooms.
