The classroom falls silent as Professor Dorothée NDOUMBE walks in.
The click of her high heels echoes through the room before she greets her students with a warm smile. Elegantly dressed, often with a touch of blue or red, she brings a quiet energy into every lecture. Behind her calm voice is the authority of a journalist, a researcher and an educator determined to shape a new generation of journalism and communication professionals.
On Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 July, our Master’s programme in Corporate Communication and Marketing at ASMAC (Advanced School of Mass Communication) welcomed her for Journalistic Writing. What was meant to be a technical course became an immersion into the ethics of the profession.
Journalistic writing, she explained, is not just about writing well. « It is about collecting, verifying and presenting information with clarity and responsibility. It is about serving the public interest. » Her teaching method was direct and practical. Theory was immediately linked to practical experience.
“An editorial is the newspaper’s position,” she said. “It is short, signed by the head of section, and it is the most important article in the paper.”
Then came the lesson that stayed with the class: “Journalistic style gives priority to human interest. Present the facts first, always cite your sources, and remember: journalistic writing is about rewriting.”
This rigor comes from experience. Before joining ASMAC, she worked as a journalist. That newsroom background still shapes how she teaches. Today she is also a scholar in Information and Communication Sciences. Her PhD from Aix-Marseille University examined how the media shape public debate during sociopolitical crises in Cameroon. She has published different works in collaboration with others, on media coverage, on the role of journalism in public communication and on many other aspects.
She does not teach from textbooks alone.
Jhbbbn She teaches from cases, from mistakes made in real newsrooms, from the pressure of a deadline.
Beyond the Master’s programme, Professor NDOUMBE teaches print journalism to undergraduates at ESSTIC. There, she drills students on the fundamentals: reporting, structuring a story, respecting sources, and defending editorial independence. She belongs to a generation of Cameroonian academics working to professionalize journalism and strengthen ethics in the media. Yet her impact goes beyond the syllabus. What students remember most is the atmosphere she creates. She speaks with authority but never with arrogance. She pushes students to think before they write and to verify before they publish.
“Behind every story are human lives,” she reminded us. “Words have consequences.”
For future communicators, marketers and journalists, Pr. NDOUMBE offers more than academic content. She transmits a professional culture built on rigor, ethics and curiosity.
As the final class ended and notebooks closed, one idea remained clear. Journalism is not simply a job. It is a discipline of responsibility. Writing, she taught us, is not putting words on paper. It is observing, questioning, verifying and rewriting. That, perhaps, is Pr. NDOUMBE’s most lasting lesson – one her students will carry long after leaving the ESSTIC classroom.
