Makerere journalism, communication department gets sh378m

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Makerere University's Department of Journalism and Communication (MAK-DJC) has received Euros 94,377 (about shillings 378 million) from the European Union (EU), under the Erasmus programme for research.

Dr William Tayeebwa, the principal investigator for communicating immigration and mobility: E-Learning Programmes and Newsroom Applications for Sub-Saharan Africa (CoMMPASS), who doubles as a lecturer at MAK-DJ, says the project is meant to promote research and innovation.

Tayeebwa’s communication is contained in a statement issued by the department on June 1, 2023.

“Importantly, the CoMPASS project will promote research and communication scholarship to link academic journalism education with journalism practice in an innovative, scientifically grounded and practice-oriented model of researching and reporting migration and mobility,” Tayeebwa said.

According to Tayeebwa, the project will also address and analyse the impact of climate change, corruption, bad governance, lack of (economic) opportunities, gender and inequity as key push factors for migration and mobility.

“It will raise awareness of the urgent need of sub-Saharan Africa societies and governments to act and improve the perspectives of African citizens at home. Furthermore, the project will also analyse recent trends such as pronounced declines in human development, fragility and rising social, economic and environmental inequalities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added. 

In addition, the three-year project was born from the fact that many newsrooms in sub-Saharan Africa fail to address the root causes of migration and to discuss potential solutions in terms of mobility.