I had supervised a student’s thesis project for the past couple of months, titled: the variety of #Somalia media content— the study finds not only similarities in media content but also lots of copy pasting from one media house to the other(s)— word to word.

Majority of media houses ascertain their news through an online media monitoring approach, leaving the public consume the same information (without variance in angle and approach) in all platforms— digital being the culprit.

I have attended (in a different capacity) a couple of functions in #Somalia where media were well represented. The news highlights out of such events is scary. Some of the most valuable news items/soundbites in those events are not brought to the light of the public.

Somehow, media in #Somalia do not cover or assign specialized journalists to the judiciary, parliament or even the social sector, let alone economic sector. All focus on the executive branch of government. As a result, standard media covered syndrome prevails.

The above study recommends (among others)— journalists in Somalia should further undertake specialized training to competently cover specific sector of public interest & remain authoritative in those fields.

Higher learning institutions should also embrace communications and media training. Currently only @SNU_University & Mogadishu University offer degrees in journalism— the latter offers it as a political science & media degree. There is evident deficit in media training #Somalia