The Centre for Climate Change and Gender Studies (3CGS) has organised a workshop aimed at empowering and equipping researchers, civil society organizations and journalists in reporting on climate and environmental issues.
The workshop was under the theme, Cutting Edge Issues: “Reporting on the environmental and social impacts of mining activities in Ghana”.
Speaking at the one-day workshop, the Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), Professor John K. M. Kuwornu said illegal mining activities were destroying the country natural resources.
“The Mining activities are creating an alarming situation for us [Ghana] and we all know about them and among them is the pollution of water bodies like the Pra river, Tano river are all turning brownies, we have destructing of forest and cocoa farm across the country’’.
Professor Kuwornu however noted that, the workshop was organized in a timely manner and was hopeful that it will help researchers communicate the negative impact of environmental issues.
“We have seen destructing of maize farms, cassava farms and so on due to illegal mining activities, so with this workshop we will learn how these issues and its impact can be communicated to the citizenry. It has come at a very good time, in the mix of the challenges we are having regarding illegal small-scale mining, we have this workshop to help us report them’’ he added.
The workshop was organized in partnership with the Centre for Transnational Environmental Accountability (CTEA). It offered participants the opportunity to have a hands-on experience in using multimedia equipment to enhance their work and a platform to interact with some industry players in the field of journalism and documentary filmmaking.
Addressing participants on the topic; Practical guidance on translating academic work for a wider audience (timely and impactful op-eds, commentaries and short essays), a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana, Dr. Theodora Dame Adjin-Tettey encouraged researchers to engage and use social media platforms to explain their findings to the general public.
According to her, those in academia should adopt various mode of communications to put out their research findings out for the general public.
Messrs Yidana Hameed Kobigbilla and Jeremiah Yao Dogbe both multimedia and filmmaking experts took participants through presentations including; Practical guidance on translating academic work for a wider audience (timely and impactful op-eds, commentaries and short essays), Basic tips of writing for popular media (writing styles, social media and promotional summaries), Photojournalism and documentary photography – Basics of filmmaking and photographic reporting on environmental issues in Ghana and Photojournalism and documentary photography – Hands-on training (workshopping).
