Advice for district information officers

VETERAN journalist, Ray Mungoshi, recently took down memory lane, Rural Communication Service district information officers, when he shared ideas, experiences and tips on how to cover areas they will be assigned.

The information officers were undergoing a Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services induction course in Harare.

In an address punctuated by anecdotes, Mungoshi, now the Executive Secretary of the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust (ZMMT), advised the information officers to always respect the people and cultures of the areas they will be posted to while executing their duties.

“Don’t go with a chip on your shoulder and the ‘I know it all’ attitude because you will fail in your duties,” he advised.

He said lack of knowledge on his part, of people’s mores of Bikita, in Masvingo Province, once earned him a rebuke from a historian.

“I wrote what I thought was a brilliant story on the installation of a Chief kwa Ziki in which one chosen elderly man would strip naked and have women twerk in front of him and not get aroused. If he got aroused then the Chief would not be installed as he was the wrong person.”

While this was tradition, Mungoshi said, his story while factual, showed contempt of a people’s tradition something the information officers should avoid.

“You need to put in an honest shift every day. You must be well-connected with the people of the area starting from the villagers all the way to the district officials, police, parliamentarians, politicians, magistrates and business people and others. You are the ones who bridge the communication gap between the people and the policy makers.

“It is your job to capture their concerns and take them to policy makers. As such you must be a well-grounded journalist. Unlike during my day, today speed and accuracy is the essence of modern journalism, because you are competing with citizen journalism among others,” said Mungoshi.

He advised the officers that if they excelled in their duties, the sky is the limit for them as they progress.

“I went to Bikita as a district information officer first-then under Zimbabwe Information Services (ZIS) – in 1986 straight from college. I was then moved to Gutu and because of the hard work I did, I was chosen to be among the first eight provincial ZIS officers to join two others from Head Office in Harare on a scholarship by the International Press Institute in the United Kingdom to study.”

His related his journalism journey from reporter, Bureau Chief, News Editor and Editor of The Herald to his current post saying there was nothing to stop the officers from scaling higher heights.

“But the key to that is hard work. You need to be the first to get the news regardless of the situation. As Information Officers, you play a key role in the development of the country because your reports will bridge the communication gap between the people in the village and policy makers.”

The officers will be deployed to Mudzi, Muzarabani, Hwange, Lupane, and Zvishavane among other districts, and in Harare.