The IREN Eastern Africa Media forum is one of IREN’s key forums that targets media practitioners for annual brainstorming sessions on business, governance and other developmental issues.
For the last eleven years, IREN has trained over 500 journalists and communicators from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana, Zambia and South Sudan who cover business, governance and other developmental issues. The IREN Eastern Africa Media Training aims at exposing media practitioners to factors that influence events in the world and to principles of wealth creation, and to promote coverage of development economic issues in Eastern Africa media outlets.
Previous Media Training Themes
- (2015) Africa’s Productivity in the 21st Century: The Missing Link
- (2014) Africa Rising: Myth or Reality?
- (2013) Indian Ocean Rim: Gateway to Eastern Africa’s Prosperity
- (2012) Harnessing Digital Revolution to benefit Africa
- (2011) Is Eastern Africa Ready for China-India and Europe?
- (2010) The Billionth African
- (2009) Africa Resources Conflict: Whose Interest does the Press Serve?
- (2008) The Role of the Media in Positioning Africa in the 21st Century
- (2007) Turning Africa’s People into a Resource
- (2006) Conquering Poverty through Business in Eastern Africa
- (2005) Property Rights in the African Context
- (2004) Business and International Trade
- (2003) World Trade Organization and Africa.
The IREN Eastern Africa Media Forum 2020
Deploying Trend Analysis for Predictive Reporting
Media has a pivotal role in shaping society. Apart from informing and entertaining, the media ought to take a proactive step to keep the society abreast with current and future risks and opportunities. Media can either cause despondency or empower citizens to examine and interrogate the values and policies that society holds.
To play a positive role in future, It is imperative that the media horns its skills on trend analysis, a form of comparative analysis that attempts to predict the future based on recently observed trend data. Trend analysis assumes that what has happened in the past has an impact on the present and can be used to forecast the future. Trends can be short-term, intermediate and long-term.
East Africa has undergone a cycle of repetitive occurrences such as drought, floods, famine, the collapse of buildings, electoral violence, debts etc. It is only through trend analysis that respective East African countries can be forewarned for forearming.
Objectives
– to brainstorm on the principles of trend analysis and predictive journalism
-to cite examples of happenings that would have been addressed with trend analysis
– to discuss how to use data/trends to write tomorrows headlines and stories
-to identify challenges and opportunities of trend analysis
– to identify tools that facilitate trend analysis
