Research Assistants

We are pleased to welcome eleven research assistants onboard this project.

Our research assistants are all graduate students at the London School of Economics’ Development Studies Institute (DESTIN) who have expressed interest in development issues in East Africa and/or the area of media and development. They will work in tandem with the East African journalists over the duration of the Fellowship programme and build upon the mutual lessons and exchanges to create a fuller and more informed perspective of the media scene in each country.

There are two separate but closely related assignments - the first will generate overviews of the media environment in the eight East African countries, which will provide some useful background information for the visiting journalists to build upon. The second will involve the compilation of a film series, consisting of pieces which are related to the content of the fellowship programme and highlight variousapects of the media and conflict. Based on the observations and feedback which will be shared during the Fellowship, the three research assistants working on this assignment will document and post their findings online.

Research Assistants Kelly Swanston, Rebecca Wynn and Guy Collender joined the Fellows in Addis Ababa in July. The RAs carried out a research project with the newly-established Horn of Africa Press Institute (HAPI), which surveyed the media climate in Ethiopia as well as training opportunities that are available for local journalists. <they'll send us the report when they're done with editing it, so another link here in the future>

Additionally, the RAs conducted interviews with a sample group of individuals for an anecdotal assessment of the impact of Live8 (MSWord).

The East Africa Media Network is very much a work in progress, so please feel free to contact the research assistants directly should you have any comments or queries about the material that has been posted--we would like to hear from you!

Research Assistants