Journalism training in Malawi has progressed in leaps and bounce since the country’s return to a multiparty system of government. Historically, the media training institutions have approached journalism training from a traditional perspective in keeping with the way journalism has been practiced in the country and the region. In terms of curriculum standards, each institution pursues its own. While this is generally a norm in most training institutions in the world, including Malawi, it is preferable to have certain bench marks for all institutions. But media in Malawi is responding to changes in technology and embracing the new media. This requires a re-examination of the curriculum that the media training institutions have been offering to bring them at par with the best practices elsewhere. Consequently, there is need to review the curricula being taught at these institutions and revise them to respond to new demands and to reflect the UNESCO model curriculum for journalism education. The justification is that while each institution pursues what is most relevant to its target trainees, certain minimum or core standards should be common across all courses. This is important because the role of journalism in promoting democracy and development is well established and this has created the need for well trained journalists.
 
Given that most journalists are increasingly using multimedia technologies to inform the public, scrutinise the way power is exercised, stimulate democratic debate and thus aiding political, economic, social and cultural development. One way of ensuring that this is achieved professionally, is by making sure that journalism has a core education structure with a balance between the practical and the academic. This project’s aim is to strengthen multimedia journalism training and initiate a gradual migration to the UNESCO Model Curricula for Journalism Education in Malawi.