CJID Trains OAU Campus Journalists 

In its commitment to supporting “Evidence-based Multimedia and Investigative Journalism in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions,” the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), formerly PTCIJ, has trained about 45 student journalists from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). 

The 4-day training took place from the 15th to the 18th of February 2022. Participants were taken through investigative journalism, journalism ethics, conflict reporting, multimedia journalism, fact-checking, and more, to improve their journalistic skills. The facilitators for this training included Mrs Busola Ajibola, Mr Deji Adekunle, Ms Femke Van Zeijl amd Mr Eno Mboho. 

In the course of the training, Mr Deji Adekunle identified that practitioners must be independent and be accountable to their readers, viewers, listeners. He furthered that the motivation of every story must be around issues of overwhelming public interest. 

Mrs Busola Ajibola, while introducing the students to conflict reporting, gave prominence to the need for journalists to tell the truth in conflict situations to help communities avert them when necessary. “The defence of democratic values and institutions are the core of the true journalistic ethics,” she added.

With the use of a practical approach, Ms Femke Van Zeijl helped students understand how to analyse the conflict as well as how biases can influence conflict reporting. Mr Eno Mboho took the students through the importance of multimedia journalism and the process of planning multimedia content.

On the final day of the training, Busola Ajibola ended by stressing the need for journalists to be conscious of their mental health.” No story is worth your life,” she explained.

Reactions From Participants 

In her reaction, the President of the Association of Campus Journalists of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Faith Alofe, said: “The training by CJID was an eye-opener for our campus reporters. This training came at the best time when the association is currently recruiting new members into the association and they couldn’t have gotten any profound and in-depth training apart from this one.”

“The different sessions and practical classes are taken by the facilitator were the guidelines that are needed for campus reporters and mainstream journalists and I am confident that every participant will take all these into our daily practices of Journalism on campus and beyond.”

 She further appreciated the organisers and facilitators of the training for taking out time to impact campus journalists. “We are very grateful for the opportunity,” she added.

As for Owolabi Philip, “The training is an opportunity to improve and update my knowledge on journalism. It is an eye-opener, full of theory and practice that makes journalism come alive. At first, I was indifferent about the whole thing but on my first meeting with the knowledge being shared and the understanding of the facilitators, I had a quick rethink and I’m happy I did.”

“I learnt a lot from this CJID training and one thing I’ve come to realize is that if you can’t do the extraordinary (make sacrifices), you can’t thrive in the field of journalism,” Adebayo Miracle shared.

According to Lawal Lanre, “The training was insightful, educating, and elaborate, it’s an eye-opener to knowing the core of journalism and the professional aspect of becoming a seasoned and unbiased journalist who has a bird-eye-view of every story before making it a public consumption.”