IN ALL my about 31-years of active journalism, I
have always been passionate about population issues and reportage. But I have
never had my personal newsroom until now, with this blog.
An average journalist, a core professional that is,
understands that media play a central role in informing the
public about what happens in the world we live in. It is salient because we
also, are affected in one way or the other.
Being the watchdog of the society, the media has a
duty to report unregistered births, to start with, especially the
births that take place in rural areas with no documentation of records to rely
on, just as much as the numbers of daily deaths.
The media's role is more crucial because we are the
conduit, the pipeline, the funnel regulating the flow of communication between
the policymakers, the policy itself, others in the political system and the
governed so we can all understand clearly what the policies are regarding
issues of population and what factors determine what happens.
One of the very important ways we could help stem
population rising trend is to, from time-to-time, carry
out research on population agencies whether they are living up to expectation
in registering births in the country.
We should shoot beyond our professional mantra of informing, educating
and entertaining to letting the world know that our planet earth and its
resources are finite. As such, these resources cannot support an infinite
population of humans, let alone animals.
Reports say daily, over 225,000 or more people hungry for dinner each
night.
As media professionals, especially as journalists, we need to hammer
hard on key populations issues in order to help decrease population by providing adequate education in areas of
human health, rights, environment and economic issues.
An average human being needs to know how he or she
contributes directly or indirectly to the problems at hand. This explains why
population reporting demands technical delivery not an adhoc approach. It
requires specialization.
Journalism plays a pivotal role in keeping us
informed and critically aware of important happenings around our daily
lives. And given the
importance of journalism and the current fluidity of the industry’s commercial
circumstances, it is needful to have an up-to-date insight into what
journalists themselves have to say about some of these matters on human
existence.
The United Nations Population Division (UNPD) estimates world population
grows by nearly 80 million people a year or 1 million people roughly every 4.5
days.
- But what does that mean for people’s lives?
In the view of Ala Weisman, Journalist, Author, Produce and Professor,
"Finding the people behind the numbers is critical".
Weisman, who focused his investigation on places that exemplified
numerous dimensions of population dynamics, profiled:
- Niger, the fastest growing
country in the world where women have an average of seven children
- Japan, where low fertility has
led to population decline
- Pakistan, whose persistently
high population growth rate means it is poised to become one of the
world’s largest countries in coming decades
- Uganda and the Philippines,
where innovative programmes linking conservation and family planning are
part of strategies to preserve biodiversity while meeting a community’s
health needs...
Looking at the picture painted by Weisman, "telling these human
stories can help convey the complexity behind population-environment
connections without losing our audience," said, Steve Sapienza, Senior
Producer, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
So as a Journalist, I got stories to investigate and report.
-------------------------------------
By the way, my name is
Joke Kujenya (Ms.)
Editor, Population Journalism
Investigative Journalist, Social Media Enthusiast,
Mentor, Trainer & Blogger
Media Mentors News AgencyPower Reporter of The Year, 2013
Staff of The Month, August 2013,
The Nation
<journalistjoke@gmail.com>
