A collaboration between the University of Liverpool’s NIHR funded CLEAN Air Africa programme and KEMRI Graduate School has successfully trained fourteen public health journalists, public health communication specialists, and researchers, from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Cameroon to transform public health narratives across the continent. These participants formed the first cohort of this newly launched course.
The programme, hosted at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) Graduate School, runs as an eight-week training course to bridge the gap between scientific research and everyday storytelling, turning data and complex health information into accessible, people-centred narratives that move the needle on public health awareness. Following four weeks of taught sessions, participants spend a second four-week period carrying out a field project, with supervision, leading to the publication of an article, video, or report.
The course addresses key challenges, including the vital importance of evidence-based reporting, dangers of misinformation, limited institutional support, and the marginalisation of African health narratives in global discourse. Through facilitated taught sessions on health journalism, ethical reporting, gender mainstreaming, air pollution, climate and health, and countering disinformation, participants are learning how to confront these challenges in a digital age fraught with viral half-truths and information overload.
Professor Daniel Pope, Co-director of CLEAN Air Africa said “We are up against a media environment dominated by rapid, unchecked communication where misinformation spreads like wildfire. That’s why this programme and the graduates leaving it are so important. The collaboration with Willow Health Media has been instrumental, and we’re excited to strengthen it going forward.”
Medical doctor and award-winning journalist Dr Mercy Korir, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Willow Health Media, said “Health journalism in Africa remains one of the most untapped opportunities. But we’re changing that one story at a time. But within those digital spaces, misinformation also thrives. That’s why we need trained, ethical journalists more than ever to provide credible stories in a sea of confusion.”
Running three times a year, the initiative aims to continually empower journalists and public health professionals across Africa to transform health narratives and combat misinformation.
Training for cohort II recently began with trainees acquiring the skillset to conduct accurate and well-balanced investigations into health-related stories.
Find out more about CLEAN Air Africa.