Journalists in Kogi State have received a one day intensive training on getting adequate skills in investigative journalism.
The training was organised by Stallation Times Media Services in collaboration with the Wole Soyinka Centre for investigative journalism.
The training tagged ‘’Get Involved, Dialogue and Improve, G-DRIP, was held on 24th May in Lokoja, Kogi State Capital.
It gave journalists in the State the platform to focus more on other investigative captivating stories and the entrepreneurial aspect of journalism with enough knowledge on techniques, ethics, tips, data collation, recommendations and more in writing detailed investigative reports.
The lecturer, Mr Idris Mohammed of Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto State, taught journalists on the new trends in data mining in investigative reporting.
He urged the participants to use them to expose corruption, human right abuses in the society and hold government accountable for all their deeds.
“’We realize most journalists lack the skill and knowledge to investigate stories that are not available in the public domain. Journalists can elaborate on the data either from online or offline making use of digital and technological tools available on mining data, retrieving information that is usable in writing stories,” he said.
Similarly, the project coordinator, Mr Isiaku Ahmed presented papers on pitch writing for investigative reports.
He emphasized on the entrepreneurial aspect of journalism and how to get grants through investigative reporting.
‘’We teach them the basic skills that is required to weite investigative report, to also pitch their reports even if they require grants from elsewhere. For them to know their professional ethics and enabling law in writing stories,” he said.
Participants aligned themselves at the end of the training to give the media space a lift in terms of investigative reporting while making use of the skills acquired.
Confidence Okwuchi
