Media Training

The Empowering Communication team has implemented numerous media and journalism training programs in multiple countries. Our team has offered media training in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. We have worked with journalists, editors and broadcasters to enhance their audiences’ understanding of issues that are pertinent to their lives so that they can make informed decisions. Our media interventions have focused on a range of topics, including health, elections coverage and enterprise reporting.

Here’s a sampling of some of our media and journalism training activities:

1. Developed university-level courses on health journalism for Polytechnic University in Maputo, Mozambique, as part of a USAID-sponsored program aimed at HIV/AIDS prevention.
2. In conjunction with the Pan-American Health Organization, Dr. Pirio led the development of an award-winning digital course for training Journalists in health reporting. The program earned two Cinema in Industry Awards (Cindys) that were presented by the International Association of Audio-Visual Communicators.
3. In Pakistan, designed and facilitated a workshop with broadcasters and journalists focusing on how better to cover maternal and child health issues with the goal of influencing expectant and new mothers to seek care for them and their newborns. The workshop also examined journalistic effective media formats for motivating husbands and communities to be supportive of the care seeking requirements of women and children.
4. In Guinea Bissau, designed and facilitated a series of workshops to strengthen the capacity of community radio stations to respond to health emergencies, to improve monitoring and evaluation of community health workers and to enhance social mobilization response to health emergencies.
5. In Cote d’Ivoire designed and facilitated a “Training of Trainers” workshop focusing on the media’s coverage of and response to health emergencies in the context of the threat of Ebola. The trainers then went on to hold cascade-training workshops with Cote d’Ivoire’s many broadcast, print and online outlets including community radio stations;
6. In Angola, designed and facilitated a workshop for broadcasters and journalists from five provinces to strengthen their capacity to cover malaria issues, so as to promote the adoption of malaria prevention and treatment-seeking behaviors among the general public.
7. In Mozambique, held a workshop at the Islamic radio station in Nampula, Radio Haq, in an effort to improve its coverage of HIV/AIDS and to promote preventive behaviors among its large audience.

See; Gregory Alonso Pirio: “HIV and Journalism: Lessons from the Frontline of Behavior Change Communication in Mozambique.” In Slivio Waisbord and Rafael Obregon (eds), The Global Handbook of Health Communication. John Wiley and Sons, 2012, pp. 426-443.

Also see: Greg Pirio’s participation in the panel discussion of the The Global Handbook of Health Communication.