By Nahla Bendefaa
My time in Ghana was spent as an intern at the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). The foundation is a regional non-governmental organization whose work primarily focuses on media development and freedom of expression. MFWA’s advocacy work primarily addresses violations of freedom of expression, which often include attacks on journalists. This is deeply connected to my professional and academic interests.
Interning at MFWA brings together two of my passions: NGO advocacy and journalism. I have experience working in both industries and have often marveled at the differences between the two. Interning at an organization that straddles this line has been fascinating. The most glaring is, of course, the pace of work. In my experience, NGO work tends to be more drawn out while working in a newsroom is a faster-paced ordeal. At MFWA, it seems that both worlds collide. While some projects are handled with attention over multiple weeks or even months, other tasks are launched at hyper-speed as they make their way from copywriting to translation to editing to publication in a matter of a few hours. As a multilingual communicator, I am often pulled in to help with the faster tasks as I can edit the French content. However, I have also conducted audits of website and social media traffic trends, developed integrated marketing strategy proposals that are still pending approval, and helped establish a content calendar process for the communications team.
For me, being an intern at MFWA has been about more than the internship tasks themselves. As a Ph.D. student, I am also in Ghana conducting a research project on Ghanaian journalists’ perception of journalism as a profession, journalism roles, and ethics. MFWA has been an undeniable partner and valuable resource as they have helped me me recruit journalists to interview. Moreover, members of the foundation have also been extremely generous with resources that provide an overview of the Ghanaian media and journalism industry which lays the contextual groundwork for my study. I am deeply grateful to MFWA for the help, support, and understanding they have provided for my research over the past month.
As I look toward the next couple of weeks, I can’t help but think of what this program has brought me. The pragmatic lessons outlined above are of course at the top of the list. But I would be remiss if I did not mention the wonderful people I have gotten the chance to work alongside, get to know, and break bread with. These colleagues have exemplified what Ghanaian culture is: an unbridled desire to share everything from their morning bofrot to their tips about navigating life in Accra. After all, these are all coworkers who came together to celebrate my 30th birthday a mere three weeks after we first met.