•NDOLA-BASED journalists pondering the revival of the Press Club last last Friday at Savoy Hotel. Picture by James Kunda.

By AUSTIN KALUBA –

TO say media standards have gone down in Zambia is no understatement.
Unlike law and medicine, the Journalism profession is difficult to police with any quack who can construct a sentence announcing himself as a journalist.
While the comparison with the legal and medical practice is somehow far-fetched, since journalism is largely hinged on talent, the latter is still the most infiltrated profession in the country.
This has resulted in a number of newspapers and electronic media amateurishly peddling what they call ‘news’ throwing ethics and professionalism to the wind.
The old brigade of practioners have realised that all is not well in the profession and from time to time are calling in media experts to train journalists for them to operate as professionals who can compete favourably with their counterparts in countries like Kenya and South Africa where the profession thrives.
One such media expert is Edem Djokotoe, who is a supreme talent considering that he is gifted as a media trainer, a mentor to journalists and a blunt critic of those who don’t measure up. He is a natural teacher who is bent on minting professional journalists.
As a Knight International Journalism Fellow, Djokotoe is not only an asset to the media in Zambia but is highly regarded regionally.
Recently, he led a project to create consistent coverage of poverty and development issues in Malawi and developed a network of correspondents and citizen journalists to ensure coverage of rural and remote areas by the nation’s leading independent newspaper, The Nation.
Djokotoe is a senior journalist and media trainer who has worked at Zambia’s two leading media training institutions, Evelyn Hone College and the Zambia Institute of Mass Communication apart from being a household name as a columnist, writing twice a week for The Post since November 1995.
Djokotoe’s most recent major journalistic assignment was in Juba in Southern Sudan this year when he was part of a team of mentors assigned to the region’s fledgling media to provide technical support ahead of the country’s first multi-party election in 24 years.
He is a highly-qualified trainer having obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in applied linguistics and literature from the University of Zambia and a degree in Journalism and media studies from the University of Tampere in Finland and has a Master of Arts degree in Journalism and media studies from Rhodes University in South Africa.
He has written two books, including a handbook on issue-based Journalism, which is a must-read for any journalist who wants the tag ‘professional’ to be added to his name.
It is this man that the Times of Zambia engaged for an intensive in-house training programme that saw Midlands and Copperbelt journalists learn what it takes to be a skilled journalist in a profession that is beset by a growing number of quacks who masquerade as journalists.
Djokotoe has a faithful following in the Zambia media because he cares deeply about nurturing reporters-to-be — college and university students who feel the calling and are looking for a media guide to help them navigate the rapidly shifting media landscape.
The newly-appointed Times Printpak managing director Bestone Ng’onga, a highly qualified journalist, academic and editor of many years told the Midland participants on the need to improve if they are to survive in the turbulent career.
Mr Ng’onga who is a former editor of the Financial Mail, a professional publication that had a faithful readership of serious readers called on Times of Zambia journalists to up their game to offer readers their money’s worth.
His presentation offered a window into the future he was trying to shape with focus on the cutting edge of media and was about “making and distributing content in the present future we are living through.
Djokotoe was blunt in his assessment with what was wrong with the content in some media outlets in the country which are not giving the public an accurate and extensive sense of what was happening in Zambia.
The media trainer acknowledges the changing media landscape that has spawned electronic media with a proliferation of online media.
However, while many people in authorities detest some online media, the media guru welcomes their creation and challenges mainstream the media to be professional in order to retain the niche they have carved in the profession over the years.
“Contrary to the fears of online media by authorities who want these fora to close, you in the mainstream media should adopt to the change and challenges that they pose. Exploit your uniqueness to survive,’’ he told Midland journalists.
The media expert told the participants that they should recognise the coming of online media that has offered an alternative voice to the mainstream media as a positive development prescribing massive adjustment on the part of professional practitioners.
He also talked at length on the need to desist from depending on reporting institutions which usually market themselves positively.
He said contrary to popular misconceptions, events do not always make the best stories which usually come from where you least expect them.
‘The truth is, what institutions usually say about themselves is often at variance with what they actually are or what they say they do. For me, the difference between the stated ideal and the reality is the story.’
Summarising his presentation which he dubbed ‘editorial mapping’, Djokotoe emphasised the importance of editorial mapping and intelligence in a media organisation which he said opens up numerous possibilities for depth reporting.
This he said is achieved by considering aspects like consequence, timeliness, prominence, proximity, controversy, unusualness, human interest and conflict.
He said editorial mapping is an advanced form of Journalism in that it outlines the full extent of a geographical landscape as well as the major and minor players within it.
He said editorial mapping also details the main economic, financial, political, cultural and religious institutions in a media organisation’s operational space.
The training will certainly bear fruition in enabling Times of Zambia Midlands and Copperbelt journalists improve in news dissemination to give the reader their money’s worth.
Djokotoe’s contribution to the Zambian Journalism profession is part of the glory of his legend because it reflects his analytical acumen, ethical rigor and gumshoe tenacity.