Friday, December 14, 2012

I am back

Back to the limelight
My readers,
 I am sorry I took a long break. I got too busy pursuing by doctoral studies. I am happy to announce that I completed the PhD studies in Communication Studies. I graduated on December 7.






























Monday, August 4, 2008

When best was saved for last

Last month's Unity Convention in Chicago turned out to be the best function I attended during my tour of duty in the United States of America.

There was fun, training and exploration. I had them all.

The world's largest journalism convention, held between July 23-27, only happens once every four years. I thought I was lucky to attend this year’s fete that assembled more than 6,000 journalists.

It brought together members and supporters of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA).

There were many experienced journalists at the conference in the city whose weather was not as hot as what I am used to at my host region, Kansas.

On April 16, 2008, The Star’s director for Strategic Development, Randy Smith, and I enjoyed a nice dinner where we mingled with many journalists at an AAJA gala night. Martin Bashir, co-anchor of ABC’s “Nightline” and correspondent on “20/20”, delivered an exciting keynote address, where he underscored the need for diversity in newsrooms in the U.S.
He spoke on why the media needed to cover race and other diversity issues.

The convention itself was packed with many seminars and workshops, many of them taking place at the same time. It meant I needed to choose wisely on which events I needed to attend. Below is summary of a few that I attended and what I gained from them.

Leadership summitI learned what a top editor really does – managing reporters, copy and coordination of other editing staff under him. I also learned what publishers look for when seeking to recruit a new editor. The seminar offered tips on how white and black people, Asians and Latinos can better understand each other. In a nut shell, editors need to work hard to ensure improved communications in a newsroom.


Introduction to essential media
Two seasoned print journalists, Belinda Long (Graphics Reporter, South Florida Sun-Sentinel) and Karsten Ivey (Assistant Graphics Director, South Florida Sun-Sentinel) offered an intensive workshop on Flash technology. After attending a multimedia workshop earlier last month, this workshop helped to bolster my theoretical skills regarding the technology for new media publication. I learned how (better) to use of slide-shows on web sites and with digital video. Flash technology, I was told, can make a media presentation stand out. The session was interactive, and offered some basics of use (and production) of simple projects using flash.

And in a related session on Multimedia storytelling: Mastering the machines, presented by the Knight Digital Media Center, I learned scenarios that would help improve multimedia platforms, to take care of the migration of audiences to online media. That means that reporters have to be trained so they successfully transition to a web-centric publishing and broadcasting environment. The session covered techniques such as storyboarding, digital video and photography, capturing and editing sound, and the basics of creating a Flash slide show.

Watchdog reporting in a diverse world: Digging in to serve your community
How to engage in in-depth reporting projects during the times of diminishing economic resources and tight government controls was at the top of the objectives of this workshop. It helped me understand the basics of investigative reporting, with a value-added twist: How to use investigative reporting techniques to dig into issues of special relevance to communities of color and other under-represented populations.

Advice and insight on story development and access to data and documents by using the latest technological tools was provided. Panelists also gave instruction in effective interviewing skills, managing documents, tracking statistical trends, and learning how to locate hard-to-find sources and historical documentation.

The Diabetes Explosion: A Call to Action for Journalists of Color
I learnt that, other than my country Kenya, diabetes is now an epidemic among African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asians in the United States. Obesity, heredity, socio-economic status and lack of access to health care were cited as some of the key causes of the disease. Experts at the function explored why multicultural populations are disproportionately affected by type 2 diabetes.

Managing Your Career How to Get a Media Grant
I learnt some of philanthropic foundations that award millions of dollars in media grants each year for innovative journalistic projects from investigative reporting to foreign correspondence to documentaries.

On Sunday, June 27, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama came to town. I attended his live show with CNN before a capacity crowd that was the last event at the UNITY convention. He made the convention his first public appearance after his trip to Europe. He discussed his candidacy, current issues and concerns pertinent to communities of color.

After the Obama function, Randy and I visited the nearby Field Museum, where I enjoyed all that was on display. And I found remains of two lions that killed 140 workers during the construction of the Kenya Uganda Railway, in the 1800, on display. I remembered home.

Away from the convention, I was disappointed that a close friend of mine, Lynn Franey, was leaving The Star. Unlike 120 staff members who left the newspaper company in June as it seeks to remain afloat in the face of the ongoing economic melt-down (and massive migration of advertisers to the internet), Franey was leaving to start a new career – a fifth grade school teacher.

For my short time at The Star, Franey, an minority and immigrations reporter, remained close to me – helping to shape me on the newspaper’s style of writing besides doing fun things outside of the office, often with her five year-old son, Declan.

Her own Metro boss, Anne Spenner, broke the bad news: “Franey, a highly versatile, high-energy reporter, is leaving the paper for the rewards and runny noses of elementary education.”

“We will remember Lynn's talents as a reporter and writer, her superb beat work, her organizational skills and her drive.”

“We also will remember the stories she wrote. For one series, she spent six weeks with a family of illegal immigrants so she could take readers into their lives. While in higher ed, she wrote about the town-and-gown battle when UMKC wanted to raze 50 homes. She also chronicled the weird and doomed reign of UMKC Chancellor Martha Gilliland, including a revealing last-days story built on Gilliland's e-mails,” said Spenner.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Meeting obstacles but reading opportunities

I spent the Independence Day weekend with my cousin Charles at his house in Dallas, Texas. Besides adding another city to my growing list of places that I have been to during my fellowship, the weekend helped me reunite with a man I last saw in 1996 when he left Kenya. I was then doing my first year of my undergraduate degree course. We shared a lot with his family, including his son, Nyang’au, who is nearly the age of my own, Neville.

Upon my return to Kansas City, another trip was waiting. The Keystone Multimedia Workshop, organized by the Pennsylvania Newspapers Association, was running between July 10 and 13 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

But I had to, first, fly to Pittsburgh City where colleague Deepak Adhikari (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) would be my overnight host. My flight landed at the local airport at 10.15 p.m. and I gladly found Deepak waiting at the passenger pick-up area, with a Nepalese friend Kissor. They drove me to Deepak’s nice apartment in downtown. To my pleasant surprise, he had prepared a fantastic dinner – the Nepalese way. I enjoyed the food, which Deepak joked was a nice treat on my birthday.

The following day, July 10, we were driven to Gettyburg (well-known as the grounds for the American Civil War) by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette multimedia journalist Melissa Tkach.

Before the workshop, I had spent a day shuttling The Star’s multimedia reporter Dave Helling to a function at Independence, Missouri, where Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama spoke. I observed how he shot the video and how it is later posted in the paper’s website.

But at the workshop, there were many things to learn. In fact, had I attended the such a workshop two months earlier, I would have done two things differently: One, I would have bought a Macintosh lab top that, I realized, works well with computer software that supports video and slide shows. Secondly, I would have bought a recorder that picks better sound, and one that easily downloads audio into the computer.

Flaws of my gadgets were heavily exposed at the training, where I had to rely on computer and recorder of another participant, Cosmas Akuta, a Nigerian with American citizenship. Trainers were, however, good enough to teach me how to download some of the usable programs that are used to edit audio. But the downloads would only be valid for a month, meaning I must decide whether to pay about $900 to purchase new ones.

At the training, I learned how to shoot and edit pictures - both for video and still. I learned the best software that would be used to edit and post the pictures and slide shows.

As well, I was given tips on good microphones for sound recording, besides how to get good quality sound from interviewees.

But the workshop was not without flaws of its own. Deepak and I were the only ones to have come from the outside of Pennsylvania. Other participants were from the state, meaning they knew well their way around. In fact, most of them came with their own cars. Yet, the organizers did not make arrangements that would ensure we had a means to travel to downtown where we were to shoot our assignments. But Akuta helped us move around.

Although participants had different levels of knowledge on multi-media aspects, trainers failed to factor that into their workshop. Since I was a neophyte in shooting video and preparing slides, I felt I needed more personal attention than I got.

Although I met obstacles in the workshop, I saw even more opportunities on how traditional print journalists can use new media to enhance newspaper web sales.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Lessons on how to write editorials

Was my one-month experience at the Op-Ed section worth the while? Undoubtedly yes. I learnt that editorial ideas are subjected to great scrutiny before they are adopted as usable topics in the section. Sometimes, the discussions get too heated that one would fear they may degenerate into personal confrontation. But eventually, a consensus is reached – on what arguments should go into an editorial before it is decided who the writer would be.

After returning from the midterm seminar at The Poynter Institute, two of my ideas were subjected to such scrutiny and passed the test. They features a Kenya-U.S. "Open Skies" agreement and the trouble in Zimbabwe.

Accepting the idea then opens the way to writing the editorial. Usually, the writer has a word limit of about 300 words to make a point that would have otherwise been narrated in more than 1,500 words. This, my teacher Barbara Shelly told me, means that the writer must choose words carefully and be focused on what is important to push an argument forward in an editorial.

The idea, at The Star, is to put the opinion of an argument right at the top. A few more sentences would help support the opinion before shedding some background on the topic.
I found this a suitable way of writing editorials. It helps one to be more forceful in influencing an opinion about the theme of an editorial.

But there was soccer too in the last week of June. The Euro Cup was coming to a close with a showpiece match between Spain and Germany, which I had to preview. It had become fun to write about soccer since I delved into the section. I have made many friends in and outside of the newsroom, especially at the Overland Park where I play soccer every Monday and Tuesday. Last week, a reader sent me a good idea to write about upon reading one of my stories. I now feel pretty comfortable writing on sports, with an international view, a thing I want to carry home when I return next month.

Other than writing, I held a talk before more than 50 members of the International Relations Council (IRC), Kansas City on June 18. The Star’s Director of Strategic Development Randy Smith, and Ruth Rodriguez, professor of journalism at Pomeu Fabra University in Madrid, Spain, spoke about foreign policy and the 2008 U.S. elections.

The IRC is the region's leading organization for world affairs programming. Since its founding in 1954, IRC has hosted many world leaders, including cabinet level officials, ambassadors and leaders from business, media, politics, government and education.

Its members, both individuals and organizations, participate in numerous events throughout the year. The organization also provides significant resources for teachers and schools.
At the June 18 function, we fielded many questions from participants ranging from America’s image abroad, work for journalists in our home countries and how this year’s U.S. elections were being perceived abroad.

Friday, June 20, 2008

After Poynter, fellowship enters the homestretch

I spent the last week before departing to The Poynter Institute, Florida, at the Op-Ed section. Though I was anxious to meet my colleagues and AFPF staff on June 8, I managed to write two editorials that week. One, on June 6, featured a world summit on food organised by the Food Agriculture Organization in Rome where, I argued, leaders missed a chance to address the shortage of food, which threatens to drive about 1 billion people to hunger. The other (June 4) was about Zimbabwe where President Mugabe was harassing opposition leaders ahead of a run-off election on June 27.

In the same week, a feature about a Kenyan woman, Rosemary Bichage, who had been a victim of a terrorist attack targeting the U.S. embassy in Nairobi in 1998 – losing her leg and some internal body parts – was published at the features section, FYI.

Meanwhile, another soccer showcase, European Cup, was underway in Austria-Switzerland. The sports section picked a team of reporters to do previews and I was lucky to be part. I was asked to write about Group D of the competition, a report that was published on June 6.

Then I flew to The Poynter Institute. Here, I found men and women who offered unrivalled training on news and feature writing, interviewing, coaching of reporters and leadership. Their wide knowledge of skills was presented in a condensed, yet effective format.

At the end, I left The Poynter wishing for more but feeling confident with the knowledge I had acquired. I now feel adequately prepared to employ the skills learnt both in my host newsroom and back at my home newspaper upon returning in September. It was simply a well-thought out program whose timing, the mid-term of the fellowship, was just right.

Thanks to all those who made the training possible.

I am now back to my desk at The Star as my fellowship enters the homestretch.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Two weeks of pomp and fanfare in Mid West

A first visit by AFPF programs coordinator Katie Ravenel to Kansas City and a win for Manchester United in the European Champions League trophy were the major highlights of my second half of May.

I had a task of writing a preview of a soccer game, Chelsea Vs Manchester United, where deputy national desk editor Matt Schofield expected me not to be biased despite supporting one of the teams. In the end, reading the story, he praised me for remaining impartial, a key to media professionalism, even in a story many would have taken sides. Manchester United won the game to win a double, in addition to the English premier league.

Meanwhile, I was relishing my time at the features section learning how they commission, edit and layout their FYI pullout. Editors Keith Robinson, LaJean Keene and Jocelyn Jacobson had been all along wonderful in helping learn the ways of putting out nice features – both long and short. For instance, they asked me to file a small story on a book tour that was coming to Kansas City, which attracted many kids.

Sadly, as we were attempting to forget the turmoil in Kenya and Zimbabwe, more trouble broke in yet another African country - South Africa. More than five million foreigners in the country - many of them Zimbabweans who were running away from the political fires fanned by octogenarian leader Robert Mugabe’s determination to stay in power beyond 28 years - were being forced to leave the country violently. That situation gave me an idea to write an editorial.

Outside of the newsroom, I had a good opportunity to see how Americans celebrate their national holidays. Colleague Lynn Franey, her son Declan and I were at the local Union Station for a patriotic music concert by the Kansas City Symphony to remember war heroes. About 40,000 people attended. I was impressed by the way Americans were freely buying small calendars and T-shirts. Few Kenyans would care to buy goods that promote nationhood with some saying “we pity ourselves being Kenyan”. In America, I realized, citizens take pride in their country even as they complain of a battered economy. That also provided me with a topic for my international blog column.

Katie came to Kansas City for the first time in her life on May 27. In spite of being a visitor, she drove herself to a hotel near my host newspaper The Star and checked herself in. Secondary mentor Randy Smith and I picked her up at noon and took her to Ted’s Montana Grill, where my mentor, Mará Rose Williams, had reserved space to have lunch.

Here, we were joined by my mentor Mará Rose Williams, Lynn, editorial writer Barb Shelly, and investigations writer Mike Mansur. We enjoyed a fantastic lunch. Later, I took Katie to The Star for a tour where she met the people who have made my life worth the while.
I also took her to my “White House” like apartment for a tour, before we drove to the nearby American Jazz Museum. Here we admired archives of former and current Jazz musicians, occasionally dancing to the rhythms.

Later, we were joined by Randy and Mará for a dinner at the Country Club Plaza. At the end of the day, I was too happy that Katie had given us a king-size visit, treated us to fantastic lunch and dinner. But I was disappointed that she only spent less than 24 hours with us. “Two days would have worked better,” I suggested to her, though I realized she needed to visit my St Louis Post-Dispatch colleague, Ivan, the following day. Having spent six weeks as “staffer” at features section, I folded my equipment on May 30. From June 2, I am pitching camp at the Op-Ed section. I am excited to report to the section, where I have already been published three times in editorials since my arrival at The Star.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Stories vital, yes, but there is more to fellowship

Nepalese Alfred Press Friendly Fellow Deepak Adhikari has been putting me under pressure to send him a link of any story of mine published this week. He expected me to make The Kansas City Star pages once more to bring my cumulative number of published stories to 10. Before we left Washington DC, for the fellowship proper, Adhikari set 10 as the benchmark number of stories he expected me (and him) to have pushed into the pages of our host newspapers by the time we meet for midterm in June. Although his benchmark is well within sight, we both agree that the fellowship is not all about stories – we got to learn the American culture, how journalists conduct their craft, access to news sources, media training, etc.

And so, I had set aside this week to work outside of the newsroom. On Thursday, I visited the University of Missouri - Columbia. I accompanied The Star senior editor Randy Smith and my home newspaper Nation’s training editor, Dr Peter Mwesige, who is visiting the U.S., to sample best practices in journalism at the university. At the school of journalism, we were taken through the training processes, including how the institution is handling the emerging issues of multimedia/convergence. Our host was the professor in charge of international programmes Fritz Cropp. Later we attended a party for Chinese scholar Ernest Zhang who was graduating with a doctorate degree from the school on May 16. On Wednesday, Mwesige spent most of the time meeting crucial staff at The Star, including publisher Mark Zeaman. I attended some of the meetings. I particularly enjoyed a brief given by opinion and editorial vice president Miriam Pepper on how to run Op-Ed pages.

On May 12, I delivered a talk to international students who are enrolled in a one-year training course at the University of Missouri - Columbia’s school of journalism. The students comprised practicing journalists and lecturers. They asked me a myriad of questions regarding the media industry in Kenya and how I covered the country’s controversial General Election last year. I was bureau chief of Eldoret where most of the horrific killings took place after the disputed presidential elections. The lecture took place at The Star’s magnificent press facility.

After my presentation, I sat and listened to a wonderful talk by Mike McGraw, 60, a special projects reporter for The Star. In his talk, the Pulitzer Prize for National reporting award winner stressed on crucial issues regarding news sources: Being honest to them; keeping regular contact with them; and always presenting facts accurately.

Some more good news was that at the features section where I am attached to currently, my two stories, one on a local essay competition and another on a sculpture exhibition, were published on the same day, May 8.

I am working on two other feature stories one of which is likely to run soon.