Back Home

I am back home. Feels good. I owe you all some pics from Senegal and some from Holland. I will get back soon. I am writing this in a hurry so catch you soon. Don't be upset when I am not regular, I have some exams to write soon so I am preparing

West Africa Network of Economic Journalists (WANEJ)

We have just ended the seminar officially. We decided to create a blog. I just did that on behalf of the group. check it. http://networkofeconomicjournalists.blogspot.com

Senegal

I am in Senegal now, specifically Dakar. I will be travelling to Saly, another city in Senegal to attend a conference later in the day. I am attending a conference on the Economic Partnership Agreements between EU and ECOWAS. The Question is should Africa go ahead to sign the EPAs with EU. I will inform you about the outcome of our meeting on my wordpress blog. http://ha81.wordpress.com. I will also give you story updates on my website www.thedevelopmentagenda.com.
PS I forgot to take my camera's cord so you can only see pictures when I return to Ghana.
Have a Nice day

Practising Video

I just tried to upload a video on you tube and I want to try to insert it into this post to see how it works. Thanks to my colleague Giann, I have been able to upload successfully. I still need more practice, so don't be bothered when you see me holding a camera around and taking some pictures, I am just perfecting my skills.

All over the world now people are talking about new media development. On-line, or Internet Journalism is fast becoming trend and statistics from news papers, radio and TV organizations in the Netherlands shows that more young people prefer readng on-line or digital copies of news rather than buying a news paper.

I have been training in the Netherlands at the Radion Netherlands Training Centre for the past six weeks, where I have learnt a lot, including putting audio and video into an on-line feature or article. The advantages of on-line is that one can reach millions beyond his or her own borders. I did this video this morning as a form of practise to test my skills on inserting videos on Line

Hannah Asomaning

Journalist

Ghana News Agency

www.thedevelopmentagenda.com


we had a speed dating session this morning

Some Inspiration, some advice

Living with people who have diverse opinion can be seen as a challenge sometimes, however, the beauty of it is that we also need to learn how to accommodate each others view, in that way we learn a lot from each other.

Life probably would have been very boring if we all agreed to everything that everyone said. There is unity in diversity, what am I trying to say, I am contemplating my morning devotion message today and the lesson is sometimes the ideas that we see as strange might be good. God works in mysterious ways. I see myself differently from everybody, but for me being different is not the most important thing, being able to impact lives counts more

Help from Giann

I have finally a deal with Giann, my colleague from Peru, to help me perfect my video editing and uploading skills. Thank you Giann. He is refferred to as the "computer wizz kid in the class becasue he is so helpful and extra-ordinarly smart when it comes to technology.

I actually decided I wasn't going to switch on my laptop today so that I could sleep earlier but look at me. I fell into deep sleep immediately I got to my room for about an hour even before supper, so now I have nothing to do but to complete or better still tighten the bolts left to be tightened then I am there.

I have an evaluation form to fill, but I think the course had been really helpful. I like Abi, our course leader, she is strict but very helpful. I admire her strictness.

Have a lovely evening everyone, please don't hestitate to share your thoughts with me. I will be extra glad

Daily Editorial

I have just finished with the daily editorial, it is such a relieve. I was one of the editors and I did a story on the Israel-Palestinian Peace Deal, I want to put a link but I am still figuring that out. I am more used to posting stories on word
press so. I hope it works. It is working. That is the website I have been working on for the past six weeks. I have enjoyed it and have really learnt a lot.

I am also settling to do my back home action plan then I can be done for the day.
By the way, I still haven't fully figured out the posting of video on youtube. I will not rest until I am able to do that perfectly and once I do it, sure I will infrom you.
Wish you a Nice day.

Anne Frank Museum and co

Hello, Do you know about the Anne Frank Museum? It is a story related to the holocaust. I know you are not familiar with it, I wasn't either, I learnt a little about it today. I can't tell you much about it because I am still trying to read about it but believe me, it is a place where one million people or more visits every year.

There I am standing infront of the museum, (the last pics) you can't take pictures inside so I couldn't get one, It was a new learning experience for me thanks to Stijn, my friend who invited me over. Sorry the Anne Frank museum is in Amsterdam.

City Tour

Then I took a city tour, we visited some flower shops, clothes shop and had some typical dutch meals, I enjoyed it, you know, but I yearned for my Ghanaian meal, Stijn and his girlfriend Ilse are such a delight, do you want to know what happened next. hmmm

Bicycle

I tried to ride Ilse bike, it was a shame, I could not paddle twice and I went swaying side by side, I had to give up.

the flowers,

I also visited the flower shop, then I met Nii and the wife, they gave me a treat. I am tried I should be resting so.....another time. I will tell you more but before I go Nii and I discussed very serious development issues about Ghana. Keep an eye on http://www.thedevelopmentagenda.com/ I will update you with development stories later

Learning the video editing

I have been trying all morning to publish a video but something is just not right. When I post the video on youtube, then they tell me there is something wrong. I am figuring it has got to do with how I save the file. I have to save it with Window Movie maker or something, I can't figure that right, Oh my God. I can now film and post in the story board on window movie maker, publishing it is my next big hurdle. Oh I am praying I can get someone to perfect my baby skills in the course of the week.
The issue is I can publish, saving a file is the problem. Are there any experts out there please help!!!! Well I will publish what I have done on my laptop now I will update you if I am able to publish to you tube. The video is not likely to have sound, I don't know why, I have to visit Hilversum, to see the shops so I will be leaving soon. The video is taking such a long time. I am also washing my clothes. Hmmmmmmm

Video Editing

Yeah, I still have to do some practice on video editing, as I told you my video editing excercise did not go well and I need to perfect it before I come home. I will be trying that out this weekend, I will show on this blog my practice. I will go to hilversum and then to Amsterdam then I can download, edit and upload it. I hope I will do well. I am eager to get it right.

Well, Well, Well

Well, we have finished the feedback session. They really questioned my video but like I said everything went bad on the day of the interview.
we also argued about whether a journalist could add his or her opinion to a feature story, I supported that yes we can, we are also knowledgeable people and it is only fair to add a fair opinion.
I do not know what we are doing for the rest of the day, I am hoping it goes fast because I am really missing home. This training period has been worth it, I learnt a lot, It also served as a good holiday and I met different strokes of people. We really had diverse views and opinions about a lot of things. Sometimes the editorials are somewhat... too much criticism but I took it as fun.
more updates later. http://ha81.wordpress.com

I Got It

I think I got it today, after the camera failure, I somehow found a video on youtube that could fit my article so I got it right there.

A lot of thinking because I was doing two feature articles, the Fair Trade Story and the Somalian Story I told you about. It all went well, I guess.

I will get feedback on the Fair Trade tomorrow, anyway.

read the somalian story on http://www.thedevelopmentagenda.com/ (You can view with Mozilla or google Chrome).

All in all, it went well and hurrraaay Glory to God.

I will check If I can show a photo, never mind the pose, I was making faces for the camera

What a Day - Camera failure

Today was such a stress, you should see how I am feeling now. I have not slept and have had to work all day till now (I am still working) Both Interviews went well, but my video went bad (sorry about that). I missed the video with the Chairman of the Doses of Hope in Somalia because something went wrong with the camera and I could not film for more than 7 seconds for the second interview when my memory card got full.
Guess what I haev to go back tomorrow to film again, (oh my God) what a shame but hey "all things work together for good for those that love the lord, that are called according to his purpose ."
I am still enjoying the training, I am trying very much to have fun... trying, I said, but all in all the most important thing is that I can practice when I am back home.
Watch out for me, my website www.thedevelopmentagenda.com will soon (I say soon) bounce back with a bang

What to do at mid-night

I woke up a little after mid-night and not knowing what to do, I read the psalms in the Bible and then hola, the internet keeps me company amidst some gospel music.
Meanwhile, I think I have a very long day today. I will be meeting Fatima, an inspiring woman from Sudan to share her story of a successful micro-finance operations in Sudan with the world through my site www.thedevelopmentagenda.com (You can view the site with Mozilla or google chrome browzer) look out for the story, it promises to be informative and helpful even if you do not know any thing about micro finance. Our meeting is at Utrecht, a nice city in The Netherlands.
I also have an appointment with someone from a Fair Trade organization in Hilversum at 1600 hours, I will also write a feature article on that so look out for it.
My prayer is that those stories will have impact on someone somewhere out there. It is getting to 5am now and I need to do my morning devotion.
I wish you all a pleasant and a Blessed day

Kitchen Party

It was such a hard time trying to find out how to update my blog. All the information was in Dutch but I finally figured it out. I will introduce you to some of the participants in the course with me. We had a kitchen party last saturday (June 6) it is my brothers birthday as well and I will share some pictures in this file.

I was with Funke, journalist from Nigeria we were trying to help a colleague from Colombia to bake Colombian bread

Hannah's Dairy

My name is Hannah Asomaning, I am a journalist currently working with the Ghana News Agency. I like blogging, especially as it allows me to share ideas with the rest of the world. On this blog, I will share with you some happy moments as well as some challenges that I face.
I believe in social-liberalism, I think that the individual when given the power is capable of developing himself at the same time it is important that governments stimulate the whole nation or a group of people to develop.
I am currently training at the Radio Netherlands Training Centre (June 9th, 2009) in online journalism and new media developments. Some of the things I am learning includes using audio, video and text in an online article and it is quite helpful.
In the very near future, I hope to be able to impact knowledge, especially to educate people about how they can access the media and be given a voice in the media. I do not beleive that news is always negative. I like to promote positive news.
Your comments are always welcome