Reporting Sports in Africa

Michael Hedges June 27, 2005

Journalism training is a serious part of the régime for regions marked for development. Dozens of organizations sponsor and conduct workshops and seminars on everything from newspaper design to documentary production. Considerable attention is given to journalism in conflict zones, post-conflict zones, and transitional and developing regions. And there are specialists in every area.

African media and its journalists are offered every kind of seminar and course by public and private organizations seeking to lift professionalism in the region. The lion's share of this effort is directed at needs most often in world headlines. Conflicts, poverty and HIV/AIDS fill journalists notebooks while sustainability contains their employers.

The grim, the contentious and the dangerous interlace with the political and economic realities of press, new media and broadcasting in Africa. It is a fabric that can hide stories of pride, hope and happiness. Sport is a meaningful and memorable part of culture and its traditions paint brightly on the media canvas.

Sweden’s Institute for Further Education of Journalists (FOJO) is bringing a seminar on sports journalism to southern Africa.  One of the many journalist training programs funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and organized by FOJO, this two-week course aims to promote an exchange among sports journalists in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, to discuss the role of sports journalism in developing countries and to show that sports journalism is more than winners, losers and scores. The general theme, according to the organizers, is “the role of and possibilities for sports journalism in media and society.” The NSJ Southern Africa Media Training Trust, formerly known as the Nordic-SADC Journalism Center, is the seminar’s local partner. SADC countries include Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Athletics and sport in Africa received a huge boost when the International Football Association (FIFA) awarded the 2010 football World Cup to South Africa. French-speaking Africa is eager for a successful Olympic bid by Paris for 2012 in hopes of one day securing the Games for their continent.

The Reporting Sports for African journalists seminar will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa between October 31st and November 15th. It is open to active journalists with at least two years experience and a good knowledge of English, the seminar’s working language. Twenty journalists will be selected, with most expenses and seminar fees paid by SIDA. Applications and further information can be obtained from the NSJ Trust (nsj AT nsjtraining DOT org). Deadline for applications is September 1st.

There’s an old saying that in the great department store of life, sports is the toy department. Often filled with statistics and trivia, media sports coverage can rest lifelessly among the daily toss-away details. Sports journalism – crafted by Americans from Grantland Rice to Frank Deford and British CLR James – reaches inside and unleashes the great narratives. To show the depth of this craft is easily as important to national and regional cultures as training eyes on despair and tragedy.

SADC announced its 2006 Media Awards for regional journalists, with focus on HIV/AIDS. Details from www.sadc.int.