Next Gen Intern’s Diary: My September Experience With Crisp Nigeria

I started a three-month internship with Crisp Nigeria. It felt like stepping into a new world, filled with opportunities and challenges. I was officially onboarded as an intern on October 13, 2024, during which I was taught how to navigate the newsroom within today’s dynamic media landscape.

Crisp Nigeria is an online media platform dedicated to climate change, youth and women’s inclusion, and solution journalism, I received the organisation’s house style guide upon resumption, which would serve as my compass for writing stories. A few days later, I was also introduced to the backend of the story website. Although I had some prior knowledge, this training was a revelation; it was much more technical than what I knew before and I had problems figuring out Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

From September 16 to 20, I completed my first assignments and produced two stories: Rising Flood Incidents in Nigeria: Causes, Consequences and Solutions and Meet Patience Ndidi Key, Edo 2024’s Only Female Gubernatorial Candidate. Uploading these stories for publication taught me invaluable skills such as headline casting, tagging, categorising content, selecting feature images, providing image credits, and understanding SEO. Each step felt like unlocking a new level.

After completing the first and second stories, my supervisor, James Ojo, guided me on how to add background context to a piece. By the time I began the next story for the month, I had already learned how to structure a narrative for flow, ensuring that events followed logically while providing necessary background information. One challenge this month was improving the SEO of my stories; however, as I continued uploading my own work to the backend, I began to grasp these features more effectively.

Towards the end of September, I produced another story titled The Hamster Combat Craze: Why Are Youths After Quick Money?. This piece was particularly challenging as it involved data-driven storytelling aimed at addressing a pressing issue. It took considerable time to produce because of its human angle; in the course of doing the story, I interviewed Nigerian youths in various locations. After publication, the editor provided constructive feedback on areas for improvement in my writing. This critique has motivated me, and I hope to produce a better data story next time.

I also wrote two other stories: YANGG to Hold ‘Africa the Future Conference’ on 5 October and its follow-up Lagos Gov’s Aide, SPARK Africa CEO, Harvard Alumnus… Meet YANGG’s AFC2024 Speakers. The main challenge while crafting the first story was finding a compelling angle, but I realised that the purpose was to create awareness for the event, so I developed the headline from that angle. During the correction phase by Crisp Nigeria, I learned more about news angles.

By mid-October, I began work on another story; however, due to its requirements for fieldwork and research, the work is still in progress.

Throughout this journey so far, I have made it a point to ask questions, ensuring that I am on the right track.

Though this is just the first month of my three-month internship, I am immensely grateful to CJID and Crisp Nigeria for all that I have learned so far. With each passing day, I am eager to continue learning and growing to navigate the media landscape effectively.