The Daily Trust Foundation, on Monday, began a training of 38 journalists on investigative reporting and digital story telling in Abuja.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the training, which was supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Chairman of Daily Trust Foundation, Malam Wada Maida said the Foundation is the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust newspapers.
Malam Maida said the Foundation’s cardinal objective is to respond to social issues in Nigeria and had been actively involved in training journalists.
“In the last three years, we have organised eight training activities of this nature in order to boost the capacity of journalists to do investigative reporting,” he noted.
The four day training in investigative and digital story telling, which is ongoing, is meant to respond to the current changes in the taste of consumers of news.
The Foundation’s Chairman said the training was essential in the internet age as it will help to empower journalists to present news to consumers in a combination of text, audio and visual format for greater impact on just one platform.
Maida said: “Truth be told, these days, videos make a whole lot of impact on readers than the two other options. For instance, Senator Elisha Abbo would have escaped with his indiscretion to assault a nursing mother in Abuja, if it were not for the fact that the video went viral on social media.”
He said the impact of that digital story was that the police stepped in and the Senate constituted a panel of enquiry on the assault. “Can you compare the impact of that video with that of a four paragraph story on a crime page in a newspaper?” Malam Maida enquired.
While he lauded the MacArthur Foundation for the support to Daily Trust Foundation, he urged the participants to take full advantage of the rare opportunity saying, “If you fail to change your career after these four days, you may never have the opportunity to do it again. I would advise you not to miss this opportunity to learn how to tell your stories in a digital format.”
The training is in two sessions, comprising the beginners and the advanced class where the 38 participants will learn the process of investigative reporting, practical ways of handling the camera, using audio-visual editing software, among others.
