By Doris Obinna
There is certainly no end to learning, as journalists were empowered in the second edition of a media workshop organised by 9mobile recently., when at least 50 journalists connected to the online capacity-building training, which is part of the company’s commitment to strengthen and advance the growth of Nigeria’s journalism profession.
The second edition of the workshop for journalists was drawn from across different news desks with the theme “News Reporting: Using Analytics in News Gathering and Understanding of Audience Profile.”
The session was facilitated by experienced multimedia producer and social media strategist, Usifo Omozokpea, who is the audience development manager (West Africa) at The Conversation Africa.
Omozokpea said the use of analytics in news gathering was critical in navigating the ever-competitive battle for attention. He also noted that the dynamics of journalism have long changed.
According to him, in addition to dealing with a dwindling budgets, news outlets are faced with attracting audience attention; the audience can no longer be taken for granted.
He said: “This poses a central challenge for journalism, as its role is premised on connecting with an audience. Analytics is a two-sided thing, the content and audience analysis. To this end, it has become necessary for journalists to equip themselves with the knowledge of their target audience, using data and analytics.”
Omozokpea noted that audience data is a complement to the journalist’s intuition.
“There is always the firsthand experience. What analytics does is to provide guidance on how to tell the story better using appropriate headlines, graphics, photos, descriptions etcetera, while keeping the audience in mind,” he explained.
Commenting on the session, the executive director, regulatory and corporate affairs, 9mobile, Abdulrahman Ado, represented by 9mobile’s PR lead, Chineze Amanfo, described the choice of topic and facilitator as apt, given the robust response from participants.
She said: “We appreciate the fact that this training session was worth the time spent. The immediate feedback of participants indicates clearly that the session has not only been interesting but very insightful and refreshing. We will continue to provide the platform to equip our media partners with the skills required to
scale up their practice and adapt effectively to the rapidly changing news landscape.”
She added that, given the scope of the topic and the interest it has generated among participants, the next session may also be dedicated to discussing the subject matter more extensively.
One of the participants at the training session, Deji Fakorede, remarked that it was insightful, relevant and timely. While appeal- ing that the initiative should be sustained over time and expanded to include more journalists, he noted that the initiative was laudable and compelling and capable of driving a big change in the Nigerian media landscape.
The capacity training session was the second edition in the series, and had in attendance journalists from print and online news platforms as participants.