In a significant move to bolster democratic processes through rigorous and reliable election coverage, AfriMass Network, in partnership with the Newsroom Business Initiative, is excited to announce the launch of the National Election Conference 2024.
Themed “Newsroom vs Strongroom: The Vital Role of Newsrooms in National Election Coverage,” this thought leadership conference is set to take place in July 2024.
The essence of a robust democracy lies in the informed decisions of its citizens, a responsibility heavily shouldered by newsrooms through their accurate, timely, and comprehensive election coverage.
The conference aims to underscore and explore the critical contributions of newsrooms, address challenges, and propose strategies to enhance electoral journalism’s quality and impact.
Key Objectives and Goals
The primary goal of the conference is to convene journalists, media practitioners, policymakers, academics, and stakeholders to strategize on enhancing the role of newsrooms in national election coverage. Specific objectives include:
Analyzing the current state of election coverage, identifying challenges faced by newsrooms, ensuring journalists’ safety and well-being during and after election coverage, sharing best practices and innovative approaches and strengthening collaboration between media and electoral bodies.
Conference Agenda
The event will kick off with an opening session featuring a keynote address on the importance of reliable election coverage, followed by discussions on the media’s role in democratic elections. Sessions will cover:
Trends in election reporting and modern coverage challenges, ensuring accuracy and objectivity through workshops on fact-checking and verification techniques, case studies of successful election reporting and ethical reporting practices, leveraging technology and social media, focusing on the impact of social media on election coverage and combating misinformation, collaboration and networking, with discussions on building strong relationships between media and electoral bodies and creating a supportive network for election coverage.
Expected Outcomes
Participants, including journalists, newsroom managers, media organization representatives, electoral commission officials, political analysts, academics, civil society representatives, technology experts, and international observers, are expected to achieve:
A comprehensive understanding of newsrooms’ roles in election coverage, identification of best practices and innovative approaches to enhance election coverage, strengthened collaboration between media organizations and electoral bodies, and concrete recommendations for improving the quality and impact of election reporting, enhanced capacity of journalists through training and networking opportunities.
The conference also aims to promote violence-free elections and the safety of journalists during and after election coverage in Ghana.
Join us in this groundbreaking initiative to empower local journalists, foster mentorship, and elevate the quality of news content across Ghana’s media landscape. Together, we can ensure our elections are covered with the highest standards of accuracy, objectivity, and ethical integrity.
