About thirty media professionals across ten states in Nigeria have participated in a three day intensive training on digital journalism Pathfinder International in the nation’s capital city, Abuja.
The training, according to Pathfinder International’s Media and Communications Officer, Mr. Bayo Ewuola was aimed at increasing the knowledge of these selected Journalists to meet up with the contemporary digitalization of the mainstream media and ensure a stronger connection with their online audience.
Pathfinder international believed the training will in turn increase advocacy for family planning in AFP states, and Nigeria at large.
The media and communications officer said because many people are using social media, it was imperative to train these Journalists on digital journalism ideology even as they leverage on the platform of existing mainstream media in the country.
As strong partners of family planning issues, the various resource persons also encouraged participants to go back and increase advocacy especially in their various states for increased funding and financial investments on family planning.
Mr. Bayo in his introductory remarks also introduced participants on the transition of journalism from mainstream to new media and explained the status of family planning media advocacy to them.
A resource person, Mr. Razaq Abilagbo, a digital media expert ushered participants into the significance of various social media platforms explaining to them digital media vocabularies. He also lectured them on how to create a blog to share stories amongst other related topics.
Multibweh Danjuma another resource person who took the participants on what makes a good social media post highlighted on how to adopt contents for different audience and the importance of cultivating an online community for proper service delivery.
On his part, Mr. Pem Musa who trained participants on mobile journalism, which involves using their smartphones, concept and tools, editing pictures, creating bespoke infographics and creating and editing videos using smartphones and publishing them urged participants to make good use of the techniques learnt.
On behalf of the participants, Mr. Wika Gofwen from Plateau State appreciated Pathfinder International for the training and the resource persons for their indepth analysis of the workshop’s curriculum adding that the training richly blessed all participants who are anticipated to stepdown knowledge gained for societal benefit.
At the end of the training, each of the participants was able to create a blog which the Pathfinder International Media and Communication Officer urged them to make good use of it to reach out to their targeted audience creating visibility and more awareness for family planning.