Pix Mr Lekan Otufodunrin, Executive Director, Media Career Development Network/Training Instructor, 4th left; Mr Olusegun Koiki, Chairman, League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents LAAC, 3rd left (both standing) flanked by members of LAAC during a 2-day Capacity Training Workshop organised and sponsored by the League held in Ikeja, Lagos on Wednesday. Photo by Lamidi Bamidele
The leadership of the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondent, LAAC, recently organized a 2-day capacity building workshop for its over 30 members.
The capacity building workshop held in Lagos at the LCCI Building, Alausa, Ikeja Lagos was targeted at opening an additional door of intake of knowledge about the new trends in news writing and journalism practice especially in this era of social media.
The facilitator, a veteran editor and media career lecturer, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin emphasized that journalists must sit up, embrace and navigate the current complex media environment of today.
According to him, to succeed, they need to be proficient in traditional reporting techniques, investigative journalism, data analysis, solution and multimedia storytelling using infographics, videos, maps, photos, audio and texts.
Otufodunrin urged those who are yet to come to terms with today’s reality that the technological advancements of the 21st century have changed journalism in many ways.
He noted that, Aviation reporting being a specialized beat, journalists covering it both print, electronics and online must be adept at using various digital tools and platforms for content creation, distribution, and audience engagement.
For those running online platforms, Mr. Otufodunrin drew their attention to collaborative form of writing, bringing onboard other journalists to consistently feed the platform with incisive and educative stories and write ups to pull people to the online platform.
The facilitator also harped on the ethics of the journalism profession such as accuracy, fairness, and objectivity.
He noted that the pressure to be the first to break a story can push one to forget the importance of fact-checking and verifying information which every good journalist must guide against, especially in this era of social media.
Otufodunrin highlighted the importance of maximizing opportunities saying, “know available training opportunities, seminars, webinars, workshop, conferences, masterclasses, fellowship”.
