Holly Edgell’s Journalism boot camp

It is common for Belizean journalists to run into each other while out in the field working on different stories.  On occasion they set aside personal and professional differences to assist each other in putting stories together.  But what’s a bit unusual is having them under one roof exchanging ideas on how to improve the quality of information being passed on to the public.  It’s called Dateline Belize, a weeklong symposium for journalists and other media professionals to hone their skills in handling and presenting information to their audience.  Holly Edgell, a professor in Missouri is in the country to conduct the workshop.

Holly Edgell, Co-coordinator, Dateline Belize

holly edgell

“For a long time I’ve wanted to do something in the way of training for journalists in Belize.  I think that the timing sort of evolved well because I felt that I had the expertise, I had the time to be able to bring something to the table because I didn’t want to be the blind leading the blind.  I wanted to be able to bring something so what I did was I started out by asking journalists what they would be interested in and I sent a little e-survey to the journalists that I knew over the web and I asked them a: would they be interested in getting some training and what would be the subject areas.  And so with that response I was able to then begin to say well there is a demand.  There is a thirst for knowledge and training.  So I approached UWI and they were really enthusiastic and everything finally came together in January of this year where we decided we were going to do it and go forward with it.”

janelle chanona

Janelle Chanona, Instructor, Dateline Belize

“I think the purpose of Dateline Belize is really to just increase the internal knowledge of the people working in this industry and as well as you said to make sure everybody is able to come together and pool their resources and pool knowledge.  Nothing that we’re doing here in Belize is different from media fields in other parts of the country so it’s; in other parts of the world so it’s just about getting together, sharing what we know, sharing what works, strategies for success and making sure that at the end of the day we are able to inform our audience and really put Belize in its best foot forward by having people, citizens make informed decisions.”