After successfully recording and creating a 2 minutes video on under-reporting gender-based violence, Chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Akwa Ibom State and State Correspondent of the Daily Independent newspaper, Mrs. Idongesit Ashameri, applauded the Daily Trust Foundation for allowing her to learn video editing using kinemaster.
“Trying our hands-on video editing, using our mobile phones, many thanks to Daily Trust Foundation for the opportunity,” she said after uploading the video she created with her team members after the class sessions.
Another journalist, Mr. Kufre Etuk, and Publisher of an online newspaper in Akwa Ibom State, Crest Newspaper, who was also part of the training said, “MOJO is the way to go now and you guys have demonstrated this. Knowledge gained from the three days drilling cannot be forgotten, thanks to Daily Trust Foundation and MacArthur Foundation”.
These are some of the testimonials of over 40 participants at the three-day multimedia training organized by Daily Trust Foundation in collaboration with MacArthur Foundation for journalists in South-South and South-East held in Uyo between October 27 and 29, 2021.
The training course included topics like multimedia/mobile journalism, storytelling: human angle, writing for online, video and audio 10, social media optimization, media ethics and guidelines, audio-visual production, photography, and editorial processes alongside practical sessions.
The training sessions were handled by former Editor-in-Chief of Daily Trust newspapers and board member of Daily Trust Foundation, Malam Mannir Dan-Ali; Dr. Theophilus Abbah, Director of Daily Trust Foundation, as well as Ola Akinrowo and Perry During, Chief Executive Officer of Visual Flow Media Limited.
Malam Mannir Dan-Ali, who handled the storytelling session: human angle, emphasized that human interest stories generate reaction and create impact, adding that a good human interest story will spark anger, empathy, compassion, sympathy, motivation, fear, laughter, and love.
He stated that the power of human interest reports to evoke emotions, makes them appealing and attractive to readers, and as such, there is a need for journalists to humanize their news stories.
Speaking during his opening remarks, Dan-Ali said there was a need for the continuous training of journalists in Nigeria, as they need to keep improving on their capacity through modern training in multimedia.
He said the foundation had been involved in such training and humanitarian interventions over the years and commended the support of the Akwa Ibom State Government towards the programme and other projects with the Daily Trust newspaper.
“The foundation has been around for some time now and has intervened in areas of journalism training, scholarship to indigent Nigerians, and fundraising to support IDPs in conflict regions of the country,” he said.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of the training, State Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Mr Ini Ememobong, commended the company for embarking on the training, and urged the teaching of patriotic reportage, saying it would help to attract investors than drive them away.
“Patriotic reportage will help us identify what reports we should dwell on to attract investors and not to create fears and make investors abandon the country, or create disunity and conflicts,” he said.
Ememobong advocated the inclusion of journalists within the employ of the state government in future trainings, saying it would also help build capacity for them and their employers.
He called on media practitioners to focus on the international oil companies operating in the country, to chart a way towards averting a continuous increase in the price of domestic gas.
“The gas flared over the years in the South-South part of Nigeria can be converted to greater domestic use so that the price can be made affordable,” he added.
Speaking on Multimedia Journalism also known as MOJO, Dr theophilus Abbah, Director of Daily Trust Foundation said the convergence of the new and old media, and the advancement in technology has revolutionized the world including the media industry, thus the birth of MOJO.
Abbah explained that the revolution has made it compulsory for journalists to acquaint themselves with the necessary skills to be relevant as journalists in a media convergent world.
He listed the implications of MOJO to include beats change, checking blogs and social networking sites, enlisting online community to get to the bottom of an issue, trawling through statistics and obscure reports to find connections and stories, access to media around the world for alternative perspectives, readers’ ability to challenge journalists through their blogs, and ability of journalists to reachout to those affected by news content through polls and social media.
Perry During, Chief Executive Officer of Visual Flow Media Limited, and Ola Akinrowo talked on utilizing and optimizing social media platforms, mobile phone videography, essentials of mobile video editing, choosing platforms and formats among other things
