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It emerged yesterday, that a lot of journalists are shying away from covering ICT news and projects because they do not understand the complex terminology and jargon used by ICT project teams.
Yesterday, I attended the round table discussion on the EASSy project. Among the presenters was Dr. Henry Chasia, the Director of the E-Africa Commmision, Ben Akoh of OSIWA, and Andrew Kanyegirire, a post graduate student of journalism at Rhodes University.
Dr. Chasia gave a historical synopsis of the project, from its inception upto the current state of the project. Ben Akoh presented the challenges being experienced by the EASSy project.
It was Andrew’s presentation that had me thinking. He has done some research of what journalist have so far written about the project. Sadly, noted Andrew, all the news reports on the EASSy project cover the same content, and most of these reports are very brief.
Andrew pointed out that as a journalist himself, he found it difficult to understand not only the IT jargon used in describing the project, but also the technical details. It would help, he says, if the technical details of the project are simplified for ordinary people to understand.
The EASSy project is envisaged to dramatically reduce the cost of connectivity in Africa. It is therefore imperative that lay people understand what the project is all about and their views taken into account. This will only happen if journalists themselves understand the project, and hence write effectively about it in order to educate the masses.
