US Mission Supported Multimedia Training to Boost Digital Journalism

The Multimedia Journalism and Digital Safety training at Cavendish University Uganda (CUU) by Ultimate Multimedia Consult (UMC) has supplemented the journalism curriculum and equiped journalism students with the skills and tools to practice Digital Journalism.

During the two weeks training, students were shown how to incorporate audio, video, text, images and graphics in a story hence Digital Journalism. They were also instructed on how to design online adverts using DesignSnack, which can help them earn while studying.

When asked why the curriculum doesn’t contain some of the topics taught during the training, Herbert Mudoola, Head Of Journalism Department, said the journalism curriculum at CUU is not fixed. It helps not to teach out side the box. It was designed five years ago when some of these technologies hadn’t surfaced so the training aims to update the curriculum with current trends in journalism.

According to Eunice Rukundo the project coordinator, UMC hopes to gradually shift journalism students’ perception from traditional to a more digitally inclined journalism practice.

In an interview Gerald Businge, a cofounder of Ultimate Multimedia Consult, said UMC believes that training and skills development should be informed by practice and all good practice should inform skills development.