By Omorodion Itohan Mercy
“What makes you special?” This, it seems is a question every budding journalist should answer.
Just after the media entrepreneurship cohort concluded their two-day training session on “Media Entrepreneurs, Niche Building Programmes,” the Africa Foundation for Young Media Professionals (AFYMP) 2022 workshop continued, welcoming the second cohort which comprised of campus journalist to the venue of the training, Leadwort Hotels, Port harcourt. These 10 campus journalist were selected from different federal universities across the South-south and the South-East parts of Nigeria to be trained on “Ethics, Safety, Governance and Fact Finding.”
The Executive Director of the AFYMP welcomed these student journalist and briefed them of the high expectations AFYMP had for them. He left them with a question “What makes you special?” to reflect on.
This particular question was also asked by Dr Hannah Amah, the facilitator for the session “Strategies for building media business models.” She posed the question “What makes you special as an individual and as a journalist?”
She encouraged them to nurture and capitalize on these special traits in building their brand and in sustaining it’s equity.
After her session, the student journalists had another intense session with Prof Charles Atat on “Ethical principles and Governance in Journalism”. The facilitator, citing a lot of real life experience of notable media professionals took the class through a rundown on the major components of journalism and its code of ethics. He also led an interactive session, depicting practical situations and coaching them on how best to handle them.
Other media professionals also coached these student journalists. Dr Golden Ontyema emphasized the need for networking among journalist in his session – “Managing relationship within the academic communities.” Mr Samuel Ajala also advised these student journalists to find their niche as there are several areas of journalism still undiscovered or under explored. He also centred on the dynamicity of journalism.
In his section – “Data driven journalism”, He discussed some of these novel areas and encouraged the students to explore. In his closing address, he said “Put in the effort and hone your skills” as the media industry is waiting for them to bring their A-game and take over the reins.
The workshop concluded with Mr Yinka Olaito adding a nugget of wisdom. He told the campus journalists that they could be “Game Changers” if only they would be deliberate about improving themselves. He assured them of the immense support that AFYMP and other media foundations are willing to provide if they as young journalists can put in their energy and become the next legends.
Amidst a lot of cheers and photographs, the participants received their certificates and left for their respective destination with a lot to ruminate on and a determination to put to good use, the training received.