By Obansa Ibrahim, Lokoja
No fewer than 39 practising journalists in Kogi State were trained on Multi-Media Newsroom Practices by Stallion Times Media Group on Thursday, at the Modern Age Event Hall, in Lokoja the Kogi state capital
The training is to enhance their investigative reporting capacity and sustainability.
Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of Stallion Times, Isiyaku Ahmed who declared the one-day “Multimedia Newsroom Training” open in Lokoja, said training was part of the implementation of the three-year Participatory Governance and Media Literacy project tagged “Get Involved, Dialogue and Improve Project (G-DRIP)” in Kano and Kogi states.
He said that the objectives of the training workshop include among others making journalists to understand the multimedia newsroom design and workflow as well as acquainting them with the roadmap of a story in a multimedia newsroom.
It is also aimed at getting the media professionals to appreciate the use of technology to deliver investigative reports in a blend of text, static images, animation, video and audio clips.
The project, according to him, is being executed in collaboration with the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism under the Collaborative Media Project (Collaborating for Media Independence and Government Accountability), funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
“In this initiative, we are looking to amongst other things, build the capacity of media practitioners on investigative reporting, journalism ethics, safety, media literacy, independence, and sustainability.
“News organizations have moved to multimedia, using multi-platforms to tell stories.
“Reporters and editors needed to be empowered and with the necessary skills that would make them tell stories in social spaces, which now accommodate a large audience.
“We at Stallion Times recognize the importance of embracing and using new technologies and platforms to effectively convey stories that resonate with the audience in the digital age.
“This workshop, therefore, is designed to introduce the concept of multimedia newsroom storytelling that caters to all sorts of audiences and platforms.
“It will help journalists appreciate the use of technology to deliver investigative reports in a blend of text, static images, animation, video, and audio clips”, he said.
The training workshop featured among others, Multimedia Awareness; Concept and Effective Use of Multimedia as well as Essential Skills, Tools for Multimedia Journalism delivered by Isiyaku Ahmed and Stephen Salawu.