The book addresses the important role of the media as a part of democracy to enhance the democratic experience, the broad aim of the training manual is to raise greater civic consciousness among media professionals about the democratic role of the media in the transitional democracies of the developing world, and to enhance the civic competence of media practitioners to aid them in their analysis and reporting of civic affairs, and finally encourage greater prioritization of civic news among media institutions.
Training methods include boxes that contain highlights of specific civic issues and phenomena, exercises that give activities aims at stimulating student reflection, and pointers for media investigation that pose specific questions to prod media interest in a civic issue or phenomenon.
By the end of the training program, students should be able to analyze the relationship between media and democracy, explain and apply the principles of civic journalism to citizen participation, explain the meanings associated with the concept of democracy and citizenship, demonstrate knowledge of the institutional infrastructure of democracy, and interpret human rights in relation to media and democratic citizenship.