Teaching the Art of Telling a Good Story

Anyone working to combat the devastating epidemic of HIV/AIDS in Africa could be forgiven for becoming discouraged or overwhelmed at times. But South African journalist Mia Malan has specialized in this topic for nearly six years, and shows as much passion as ever for this work.

DARREN TAYLOR Mia Malan, Internews Kenya

For the last fifteen months, Malan has been training Kenyan radio journalists how to report on HIV/AIDS effectively as Resident Advisor for Internews' "Local Voices" project in Kenya. In that time, she says she has found plenty to keep her motivated and inspired. The journalists that Malan has trained have won international awards and scholarships. Best of all, they have reported stories that have gotten tangible results.

"When the art of telling a good story clicks for them, I get excited every single time. It simply does not wear off," she said via email from Nairobi. "That makes every workshop worth it: to see their faces— and their scripts— when the magic of radio starts to make sense to them."

For five years Malan was the national health correspondent for South African Broadcasting Company. She won awards for her HIV/AIDS reporting, was CNN’s African Radio Journalist of the Year in 2000, and was selected as the Reuters Foundation’s Medical Journalism Fellow at Oxford University in 2001, where she researched the media’s reporting of the scientific politics of HIV/AIDS.