Stories vital, yes, but there is more to fellowship

Nepalese Alfred Press Friendly Fellow Deepak Adhikari has been putting me under pressure to send him a link of any story of mine published this week. He expected me to make The Kansas City Star pages once more to bring my cumulative number of published stories to 10. Before we left Washington DC, for the fellowship proper, Adhikari set 10 as the benchmark number of stories he expected me (and him) to have pushed into the pages of our host newspapers by the time we meet for midterm in June. Although his benchmark is well within sight, we both agree that the fellowship is not all about stories – we got to learn the American culture, how journalists conduct their craft, access to news sources, media training, etc.

And so, I had set aside this week to work outside of the newsroom. On Thursday, I visited the University of Missouri - Columbia. I accompanied The Star senior editor Randy Smith and my home newspaper Nation’s training editor, Dr Peter Mwesige, who is visiting the U.S., to sample best practices in journalism at the university. At the school of journalism, we were taken through the training processes, including how the institution is handling the emerging issues of multimedia/convergence. Our host was the professor in charge of international programmes Fritz Cropp. Later we attended a party for Chinese scholar Ernest Zhang who was graduating with a doctorate degree from the school on May 16. On Wednesday, Mwesige spent most of the time meeting crucial staff at The Star, including publisher Mark Zeaman. I attended some of the meetings. I particularly enjoyed a brief given by opinion and editorial vice president Miriam Pepper on how to run Op-Ed pages.

On May 12, I delivered a talk to international students who are enrolled in a one-year training course at the University of Missouri - Columbia’s school of journalism. The students comprised practicing journalists and lecturers. They asked me a myriad of questions regarding the media industry in Kenya and how I covered the country’s controversial General Election last year. I was bureau chief of Eldoret where most of the horrific killings took place after the disputed presidential elections. The lecture took place at The Star’s magnificent press facility.

After my presentation, I sat and listened to a wonderful talk by Mike McGraw, 60, a special projects reporter for The Star. In his talk, the Pulitzer Prize for National reporting award winner stressed on crucial issues regarding news sources: Being honest to them; keeping regular contact with them; and always presenting facts accurately.

Some more good news was that at the features section where I am attached to currently, my two stories, one on a local essay competition and another on a sculpture exhibition, were published on the same day, May 8.

I am working on two other feature stories one of which is likely to run soon.