Xchange Hama Media Services trains citizen journalists on ethical reportage, data journalism

Xchange Hama Media Services has trained and improve capacity of citizen journalists and community youths in the use of contemporary media platforms to advocate for community development and leadership accountability in Bauchi State.

Solacebase reports that the two day capacity building in collaboration with Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) and funding from the MacArthur Foundation aimed at developing youth skills in citizens journalism and to train youths as advocates for development, accountability, equity, and social justice.

Addressing the participants at the opening session,  Dr Ibrahim Disina the Chief Executive Officer of Xchange Hama Media Services Ltd, who is also the Project Director of the Collaborative Media Project charged participants to make the best use of the opportunity offered by the project to promote accountability, development, equity, and social justice in the communities and the State.

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Disina said the training will strengthen media independence, improvement in accountability in both government and private sector.

In a presentation titled, ‘’Ethics and professionalism in the practice of journalism” , Publisher of Solacebase online newspaper based in Kano,  Abdullateef Abubakar Jos, emphasized the need for participants to always adhere to ethics of the journalism profession to give credibility to their stories and protect them from unnecessary litigations and safety of the practitioners.

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He noted that truthfulness, fairness , objectivity, balance and accuracy among others in reportage should not be jettison for anything.

On his part, publisher of Wikki Times, a Bauchi based online newspaper, Haruna Muhammad Babale, in a presentation on ‘’Data Journalism Visualization/Infographics’’ dwell on how participants can enrich their reportage with the use of Infographics and the data analysis to support their stories.

A communique issued at the end of the training said participants were drawn across the three senatorial zone of Bauchi.

It noted that other presentations centered on Concepts, principles, and practice of development communications, News Reporting and Writing, Tracking development projects , Digital journalism and Concepts, principles, and practice of citizens journalism.