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UB's JMC Dept. Is Understaffed - Dr. Lilian Ndangam |
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Article posté par Arise1Always vu 371 fois.
[ Buea - Cameroun ] ( 26/09/2005) Joe Dinga Pefok
In 1996, Lilian Ndangam, then, a Journalism and Mass Communication, JMC, graduate of the University of Buea, UB, won a joint Guinness Cameroun/Foreign and Commonwealth Office in England scholarship, to do a Masters Degree course in Great Britain. She stretched it further to include a PhD and today, is at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, doing post Doctorate work.
Dr. Ndangam was one of the organisers of the prestigious Highway Africa Annual Conference for this year. She talked, exclusively, to The Post, about her alma mater, UB, the Conference and other relevant and topical issues.
We remember you most, as that University of Buea, UB, Department of Journalism and Mass communication, JMC, graduate, who won a scholarship to study in Britain. How did it go and how did you find yourself in South Africa?
Dr. Lilian Ndangam: It has been a long journey. In 1996, I got a joint scholarship from Guinness Cameroun and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in England. I did a Masters Degree course in Communication Studies at the University of Leeds in England.
I left Cameroon on the understanding that I would go back and work for Guinness Cameroon, and thus make some input in my country. But after obtaining my Masters Degree, things did not work out that way. So I opted to stay in Britain and pursue further studies. I thus went on to do a PhD in Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield in England. I graduated from there in 2002.
After spending so many years studying and working so hard, I decided to take off sometime and travel a bit. Then in 2004, I got a Fellowship to do post doctorate work here at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. I have been here since then. I am currently researching online news flow in Africa.
Why did you not return home after completing your Masters degree course, to work with Guinness Cameroun, as was initially agreed?
I could not get a job back home. So it was either going back home and staying without a job, and thus wasting all the knowledge that I had acquired, or taking it further. I opted to pursue further studies, and that has been beneficial to me professionally and personally.
I do not regret that at all. But however things turned out to be, I remain very grateful for the combined sponsorship of Guinness Cameroun and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It opened many doors to me.
What is your opinion on this complaint back at home about brain drain?
I see in your question a reference to me. But talking about brain drain, I do not think it has in reality been the case with me. People at my Department (Department of Journalism and Mass communication, JMC,) at the University of Buea, would testify to this. I have not been completely divorced from home.
Since I left Cameroon for further studies, I have kept in touch with my Department at UB. I have made inputs about course and curriculum development, based on what I have learnt. I have also supplied books and journals whenever I could. There are quite a number of things I have tried to do. When I was lastly in Cameroon on holiday, I visited the Department and spoke with the staff, and we talked about ideas we could work on. I also talked to the students. So I have, to an extent, kept in touch.
I am still willing to work further with people at the Department, in terms of doing research and developing other projects. For one thing, I have had the opportunity to travel, and I have contacts, which can be very beneficial to the JMC Department at UB.
If you were to make comparisons between the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at UB, with what you have here at Rhodes University, in which areas would you find UB wanting if at all…
To begin with, Rhodes University is not only an old institution, but is definitely one of the best in the continent and beyond. So, honestly speaking, comparing what we have here at Rhodes University with the JMC Department at the University of Buea, is like mixing apples and oranges.
What we have here at Rhodes University is a school - School of Journalism and Media Studies, and not a Department like that at UB. Here, we have so many things that we cater for. The School of Journalism and Media Studies, for example, has Highway Africa, which organises the annual and very popular Highway Africa Conference. The school also owns and runs the community newspaper of Grahamstown.
I have suggested to the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at UB, that the Department should consider transforming The Chariot which is a students' newspaper, and build sustainability around it. Such a paper would thus have to report Buea Sub-division, and not just about UB.
This proposal came from my experience of being here at Rhodes University, and seeing a Department of the University own a successful community newspaper. I have done some articles for that newspaper. The paper tells stories within the community, and does not focus much on national issues.
I think in Buea, The Chariot is in a unique position to do that. Obviously if The Chariot becomes a community newspaper, it will face some sort of competition from your newspaper, The Post. But my answer to that fear is that The Post is a national paper, and so The Chariot as a local community paper will have its place. As you must have observed here in Grahamstown, there are national newspapers around, but ours has its place as a community newspaper.
The issue of a community newspaper aside, I think that the JMC Department at UB, is not too strong on certain aspects. I think it is important to look at issues of mass media, society and theories of communication, because these issues in turn, are important in studying how the media and society relates, before we can go on to talk about news as regard what is news, and all that stuff.
From your observations so far, what would you say are the major challenges faced by the JMC Department of UB?
I think one of the challenges the Department faces has to do with inadequate resources. The Department does not have enough staff to cope with the challenges facing it. The Department, for example, does not have enough staff to handle some of the issues they need to do like to design all the courses, to teach all the courses that need to be taught, and so on.
But the staff of this Department are definitely not to blame. I think they are doing their best. If for such a Department there are only six or seven staff to handle some 100 students, it would definitely be very difficult for them. Faced with such a situation, the staff cannot do the impossible. They can only manage to do what they can.
In fact there might be some other important things I might like to suggest to that Department. But then, I am aware of the fact that they do not have the resources to implement these things.
I am aware of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at UB, do things on advertising, public relations, broadcasting and print. Those are the mass communication areas it focuses on. The authorities of that Department could do some assessment of their graduates in the last 10 years. They could try to look at where these graduates have ended up.
Are there, for example, people who have graduated from that Department who have gone into advertising, for example? How many of the graduates have effectively gone into the print, public relations, and broadcasting? How are these graduates performing in the field, or what impact are they having out there? What about getting feedback from graduates, in order to improve the programme?
Obviously, feedback from former students is very important for the improvement of a programme. Feedback should also be gotten as well from students currently doing the programme.
You were one of the resource persons at the Highway Africa Conference 2005, and you were even involved its organisation. If one were to ask you what Highway Africa Conference is all about, what would be your answer?
Highway Africa Conference is, so far, the biggest gathering of Journalists, organised by Highway Africa, which is part of the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University. What the Conference, which was in its ninth edition this year, has done in the last couple of years, is try to put the media and journalism at the heart of the debate about the information society.
In that regard, what it has done is to bring Journalists to its network to brainstorm and develop skills about reporting on information communication technologies, ICTs. So that is what the conference does every year.
But beyond that, Highway Africa has also created networks for Journalists to meet people from the academia, the industry, as well as from the civil society. It brings all these people together, to network around issues that have to do with ICTs.
And so with the skill workshops we organise, Journalists acquire skills on how to report on ICTs, and also on how to use the different ICTs in reporting, to do research, to develop a blog (blogonomics) and so on. So we have, over the years, built these skills,
and as the Director of Highway Africa, Chris Kabwato, said at the just ended 2005 Conference, we have had journalists who have passed through this system, who have gone on to win international awards. One of the things we try and do at each and every annual Conference is to have training workshops that are both knowledge and skill based.
Can we know something about your family status?
(Laughs). I think I can guess what you really want to know. Ah, I am already married, though my name for now officially remains Lillian Ndangam. My husband is an anthropologist, and is currently in Cameroon doing research.
We are through with the traditional aspect of the marriage procedure, and God so willing, the official part of the marriage will take place by the end of the year.
Interviewed In Grahamstown, South Africa, By Joe Dinga Pefok
© 2005 The Post
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