Jessica Birthisel | Sept. 27, 2010
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| Courtesy photo |
| Associate professor Jim Kelly was interviewed by Zohaib Saleem Butt of Express News and Express 24/7 in Lahore during his July trip to lead AIDS/HIV workshops. That visit marked the end of his three-year series of training workshops for South Asian journalists. |
The workshops in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka over the past three years seek to strengthen journalists’ ability to report on HIV/AIDS. Attendees include journalists, nongovernmental organization staffers and journalism educators.
Kelly’s late July trip to Pakistan marked his fourth trip to the region with colleague Jyotika Ramaprasad, a communication professor at the University of Miami. Miami Herald reporter Tsitsi Wakhisi also assisted on the most recent trip.
Kelly and Ramaprasad, along with workshop assistants, have conducted 13 workshops in South Asia and three in the United States over the course of a grant awarded by the State Department’s Office of Citizen Exchanges.
Kelly returned from Pakistan July 31, the day the grant expired. He had started this work in 2007, the same year he joined the IU faculty. Reflecting on the three-year experience, Kelly said the workshops have generated more than 50 news stories about HIV/AIDs, though the actual number could be much higher.
“We’re certain that for at least 10 dozen journalists, we’ve changed what they know about HIV/AIDS and the attitudes they have toward people living with HIV/AIDS,” he explains.
Kelly says he’s also certain workshop attendees will never report on the epidemic in the same way again.
“They will be more likely to consult authoritative sources both online and human sources in the medical community and the NGO community,” said Kelly. “I think we also changed the cultural understanding of the trainers that we took with us to South Asia. Almost all of them were there for the first time. They now know Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka as places of ancient culture and dynamic journalism.”
Though this project in South Asia has now come to a close, Kelly’s work with HIV/AIDS reporting continues, as evidenced by the J460 Reporting on HIV/AIDS in Africa travel course to Kenya he led last summer.
“These grants focused on HIV/AIDS reporting have provided me with a valuable background on which I could build J460 Reporting on HIV/AIDS in Africa,” said Kelly. “Without my knowledge of healthcare reporting in the developing world and the context in which it takes place, I don’t think I could have provided students with as relevant a course.”
Kelly says the Kenya travel course will be offered again next summer. Details about it and other School of Journalism travel courses are available on the Travel page.
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