What’s the maximum impact one person can have on media and media freedom in a country, a region, a continent?
The late Jeanette Minnie dedicated her life to advancing media in southern Africa. Jeanette worked as an individual and in coalitions throughout the jobs she held, working with others to create change.
Academic lead instructor Prof Justine Limpitlaw and frayintermedia’s Paula Fray during recent course filming sessions. The Jeannette Minnie Massive Open Online Course will have interactive content and case studies from across Africa.
The impact of her work is difficult to quantify. Fifteen percent of a policy that supports media freedom? Two percent improvement in the functioning of an organisation in which she was a board member?
Whatever the impact, it is set to grow with the Jeannette Minnie Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) entitled Civil Society and African Media Policy in the Digital Age. The videos for the course have been filmed and the team is working on exciting interactive exercises and case studies from different African countries.
Paula Fray, managing director of frayintermedia, said, “We are fast moving towards the launch of this free course and getting more and more excited about the impact this course can have on media policy in Africa.”
The filming of instructors discussing key media policy elements was concluded in the Wits Centre for Learning and Teaching Development (CLTD) studio. The expert facilitators are Prof Justine Limpitlaw (Wits), Zoe Titus (Namibia Media Trust), Dr Sarah Chiumbu (UJ), Koketso Moeti (Amandla.mobi) and Paula Fray.
Instructors from left to right: Dr Sarah Chiumbu, Paula Fray, Koketso Moeti, Zoe Titus and Prof Justine Limpitlaw.
“The instructors really did a good job of simplifying key media concepts, while making it clear how to create change in media policy” said Fray.
The course was initiated by top media policy experts – Guy Berger (UNESCO Director of Freedom of Expression and Media Development), Zoe Titus, Prof Justine Limpitlaw, Dr Chris Armstrong (Visiting Fellow, Wits), Hendrik Bussiek (journalist and international media policy advisor), together with Jeanette’s widower, Pierre Minnie.
The project is a partnership between the Learning Information Networking Centre (Link) and CLTD at Wits with research and project communications support by frayintermedia.
Let us know if you want to be notified about the course launch.
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