The University of Central Lancashire’s Journalism Innovation and Leadership Programme is to expand to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Supported by Google News Initiative, it will provide 15 scholarships in Africa and 15 in the UK.
“We are delighted to support these scholarships, which provide media executives across Africa an opportunity to think deeply about the issues shaping journalism today and how their organisations can play a role in shaping its future, fighting misinformation and bringing innovation to their newsrooms,” said Google News Lab Training Manager Vincent Ryan.
The programme has run in the UK for the last 2 years and the expansion will mean courses will take place in Preston and Cape Town.
“The more news organisations have diverse leaders who understand the world, the better the industry can innovate to answer its challenges,” explained Dr François Nel, Reader in Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UCLan and Director of the programme.
“The continued support from the Google News Initiative will allow even greater participation in our programme from those working in the world’s youngest continent, with 70% of sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30. Though their personal contexts and professional challenges might at first appear very different from those working in Europe, there is much that participants in our programme have in common. Prime amongst those is their shared passion for the role trustworthy, public-interest journalism can play in the health and wealth of communities – and the desire to step up to be the leaders and innovators our industry needs to push through this difficult time and to thrive.
“Over the last two years of this postgraduate programme, we have had participants from across four continents and twelve time zones and they have all emphasised to us how much they have learned from each other, alongside their engagement with their tutors and industry mentors. We can’t wait to get started.”
The JIL programme offers a 30-week part-time, postgraduate certificate, and a two-year masters of arts course.
