🚀 go-pugleaf

Korula Varghese
Cornell University:

Thanks for your interest. At the outset, I should say I as yet have no
funds for this project, which I am pursuing individually while on External
Training leave from FAO. Consequently I cannot afford to hire researchers
or pay them. Any cooperation will have to be strictly voluntary, between
colleagues. The following was sent on the net today:

For those who could not download WP text attachment sent earlier with message
titled "curriculum research," following is the decoded attachment copy:

Schools of Agriculture,            Press Associations,
Extension educators,               Research Organizations,
Schools of Journalism,             Press Institutes



The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is interested in
improving the relevance and efficiency of rural print and broadcast
communications media in Third World and former East Bloc countries, in order
to make better use of these media as vehicles for fostering social and
agricultural development and food security.
     As Chief Editor of the FAO's flagship publication, CERES magazine, I've
been authorized to spend the academic year 1995-96 researching the curriculae
of various teaching institutions and press associations, and to explore the
possibility of establishing cooperative programs with them for training
professional journalists in the techniques of agricultural reporting and
development communication.
     Any organizations or individuals engaged in such training programs are
invited to reply, explaining whether:
     --your institution or group offers training courses for Third World or
former East Bloc journalists;
     --how these might be relevant to rural concerns;
     --what educational philosophy animates these programs;
     --what kind of follow-up they employ to evaluate the effects of courses;
     --who should be contacted for discussions as to possible future
cooperative efforts.
     The goal of my research is to develop a variety of training programs for
journalists which will a) sensitize them to the importance of rural issues;
b) train them in the kinds of participatory information gathering techniques
that permit rural people to find a voice through their local media; c)
inculcate a respect for the value of free inquiry and balanced news coverage;
d) raise the technical level of their information gathering and writing
skills, especially science writing; e) help them develop methods for
overcoming the obstacles to communication in their home countries; f) learn
from them about conditions in their respective countries and the strategies
they have employed to cope with them, in order to impart this experience to
others.
     A number of international agencies are interested in training
communicators in developing countries, and have instituted some specialized
training programs for science writers. I'd like to work with others to build
on such efforts and expand them to include a wider spectrum of the print and
broadcast media.
     Any details respondents can provide about existing programs will be
appreciated.

                                           Thomas Pawlick


Replies to:

e-mail: Thomas.Pawlick@FAO.org
Fax: (396)5225.6167