Third month as an intern at the Hope Newspaper: Diary reports

It was a great privilege and opportunity to participate in the 2024 cohort of the CJID’s Campus Reporter/Next Gen internship programme where I was assigned to intern with The Hope newspaper.

The three-month engagement allowed me to acquire more practical knowledge and journalism experience, understand newsroom operations and hone my feature writing, fact-checking and editing skills. 

Throughout the last month of the programme, I worked with the production studio where I learnt more about the production of news and feature stories in newspapers. I was, however, given the opportunity to learn and contribute to other desks in the newsroom. 

This month, I also participated in several trainings including the CJID’s Media and Development conference in Abuja. Based on the conversations at the conference, I wrote a report titled AI revolution; Media houses must keep pace to stay relevant. I produced this report from the points I jotted down during one of the panel sessions. The experts who spoke at the summit called on media professionals to embrace AI-driven solutions to tackle societal challenges and advance the role of journalism in an evolving world.

Moving on, I worked on a report on social media’s contributions to mental health challenges among youths. This report spotlighted the mental health-related consequences of excessive use of social media. Some of the consequences mentioned in the report include:  anxiety disorders, depression and suicide.

All in all, I am very grateful to CJID and Campus Reporter for this internship opportunity. I have learnt a lot and gained much knowledge on news reporting and how to cope in a newsroom. I hope to do more as I progress into the future.