Next Gen Intern’s Diary: My First Month At CJID

“Hi, Stella. Check your email, please.”

“Hi, Stella. When I attach ‘treat as urgent’ to a message, it’s actually urgent.”

These words reflect my experiences over the past weeks and the quality of efforts that go into the work at the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).

I resumed my internship at CJID on September 16, and my experience in this first month of the three-month internship has been enlightening. Being integrated into the team and observing intellectuals putting so much effort into their work has deepened my understanding of CJID’s mission and helped me recognize various career paths I could explore in journalism.

The Next Gen Internship is a project of the Next Gen/Campus Reporter project at CJID which connects student journalists with mainstream media organisations to help them develop key skills and experiences necessary for a successful journalism career. This year’s cohort includes nine participants.

As a Next Gen intern at CJID, I was assigned to the Next Gen/Campus Reporter project. However, I have also had the opportunity to work with the Media Freedom project.

My first task upon resuming was to document all the stories published on the Campus Reporter website in 2024 and previous years in a database referred to as the Campus Reporter Story Analytics.

Using Google Sheets, I documented the story headlines, authors, links, themes, and genres. In the process, I found myself reading various reports from different campuses and realised the importance of students telling their own stories. Stories like “Dirty Hostels, Frustrated Students… Improper Waste Disposal Exposes UDUS Community to Health Risks” reflect how many government-owned institutions in Nigeria lack access to necessities and face problems such as unhygienic WASH facilities, erratic power supply, and poor healthcare.

Other stories further demonstrated how students in these institutions show resilience amid economic and social challenges, achieving great feats despite their circumstances. I also stumbled upon reports by campus journalists who are now prominent mainstream journalists in the country, showing how the platform has offered growth opportunities to many students. Reading through these reports from their early days made me believe that I could also grow and improve my reporting skills. This task also helped me realize how proper documentation can aid trend mapping.

I was also invited to join the 2024 Alfred Opubor Next Gen Awards Committee. The Alfred Opubor Next Gen Awards is an initiative of the Campus Reporter project that seeks to recognise and encourage exceptional campus journalists.

Participating in these team meetings has shown me the magnitude of efforts and brainstorming that contribute to the quality of CJID’s events and training sessions that I have admired. I witnessed how team members collaborated, shared ideas, weighed options, drew insights from past editions, and developed innovative concepts.

A particular lesson that stood out for me was the intentionality of the team lead, who is also my supervisor, Iretomiwa Dele-Yusuff, in devising strategies to ensure an unbiased judgment process. Seeing Iretomiwa develop concept notes for various trainings, such as the Introduction to Journalism Training at the University of Maiduguri and the Journalism Educators’ Training Initiative (JETI), reinforced my belief that every event convened by CJID is the product of deep thinking and intentional efforts.

With the Media Freedom Project, I was tasked with storifying previously documented press attack incidents for the Press Attack Tracker Compendium. In this role, I learned about the harsh realities journalists face, including various forms of harassment while carrying out their duties. It was disheartening to read about journalists being assaulted, shot, abducted, sued, or harassed without receiving justice. I also observed how Nigeria’s Cybercrime Act has been used to challenge journalists’ accountability reports. I fear these experiences, if not addressed, may lead journalists to self-censor, avoid in-depth investigations to evade trouble, and ultimately hinder the fight against abuse of power.

In addition to these tasks, I transcribed a recorded interview for a media freedom-related research project. Although I was aware of AI transcription tools, the ones I tried either indicated I had reached my limit for free plans or requested credit information, leaving me no choice but to use the time-consuming “stop-and-listen” transcription technique.

A staff member who saw me nearing completion of the transcription told me about DUBAWA.AI, a free tool designed to combat misinformation that I could have used. I had spent hours on the transcription before learning about this resource. This experience taught me the importance of seeking help from colleagues rather than keeping my work challenges to myself.

Amidst all these tasks, I also had the opportunity to guide campus journalists on proper submission guidelines, organise submissions ahead of the editing process, and receive submissions from participants in various projects organised by Campus Reporter. I find this chance to assist campus journalists quite fulfilling.

This diary would be incomplete without acknowledging the welcoming attitude of my team members, who are always ready to offer gentle supervision and guidance—especially my team manager, Busola Ajibola, whose constant encouragement and advice have influenced my work attitude during this first month. One piece of advice that has particularly resonated with me is to never consider the tasks assigned to me as insignificant, but to look at the broader picture and extract lessons from each task.

Overall, spending the past four weeks among intellectuals engaged in quality work has exposed me to more career options I could explore, influenced my approach to work, helped me understand the essence and demands of CJID’s mission, and made me realise that every quality output—be it training, event, report, or otherwise—that I admire from CJID is a result of intentional efforts.