Africa Dispatches

Scan the QR code above to view this event on your mobile device

Some 24 students from Carleton University’s Journalism and Communication program fanned out across Africa earlier this year for internships organized by the Centre for Media and Transitional Societies (CMTS). The Africa internships were with media organizations and provided Carleton students with an invaluable opportunity to learn about journalism on another continent and to benefit from the life experience of a season in Africa.

At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 22, at an event called AFRICA DISPATCHES, some of these interns will talk about their media gigs in Africa and share some of the sights and sounds of their summer internships. The event is free and will be held in the second-floor Atrium space in Carleton’s new River Building.

Interns took up placements across Africa – in Rwanda, South Sudan, northern Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Malawi and Tanzania – working with radio stations, newspapers, online media outlets, television production operations and media development projects. Placements were organized with private media outlets and also through several partner organizations on the ground, including Farm Radio International and Search for Common Ground. The internship program was funded by Carleton University, the Reader’s Digest Foundation and the Government of Ontario’s Global Edge program.

“At a time when Canadian media coverage of the rest of the world is contracting, these internships provide Carleton students with a unique opportunity to experience Africa firsthand, to gain valuable life experience and to grow as reporters,’’ said Prof. Allan Thompson, who is the director of the CMTS and who established the internship program in 2006. “In the past six years, Carleton has sent more journalists to Africa than the entire Canadian news media industry combined. There is just no disputing how valuable this experience is for a young reporter.”

Blogs posted by the interns during their placements can be found through: http://africa-interns.com/

Come and learn more about the CMTS Africa internship program and hear from the interns themselves. Admission to the event is free and light snacks and refreshments will be provided.

For further information, contact Prof. Thompson at allan_thompson@carleton.ca