by By Efa Sunday
Journalists have been tasked to write compelling stories that are geared around community development and to strengthen accountability.
This formed the central message of the one-day media training organized by National Point/Forwards Communications Limited in collaboration with The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Reporting and MacArthur Foundation on the topic “Local Government Administration in the Niger Delta: Strengthening Accountability, Inclusive Development through Investigations, Data and Solution Journalism”, held at Ayalla Hotels, Yenogoa, Bayelsa State.
Speaking at the training, the Managing Director of Forward Communications, Ibiba Don Pedro, said the idea of training journalists on local government administration reporting is both apt and necessary at a time when the Supreme Court has granted them autonomy. Most journalists are too obsessed with reporting urban-centred issues, neglecting vital reports affecting the ruralites, who constitute the majority of any state.
In her welcome address, she further cited the example of flooding ravaging many communities in the Niger Delta, that is not receiving attention by both the federal and state government due to under-reportage by media personalities. She therefore urged practitioners to beam their investigative lights on issues around the local communities, which she believes has become a “conduit pipe” in the hands of the politicians to siphon money.
Presenting a paper on “Media Training on LG Administration in the Niger Delta: The Perspective of Regional Development”, Prof. Steve Wordu explained that local councils were created for service delivery to provide basic social amenities, and secure people who live in the rural and marginalized areas. He however added that the local government system since 1999 has become a failure due to ungoverned spaces created as a result of governance deficit, which he further stated has led to social unrest and insecurity.
Prof. Wordu therefore employed journalists to use investigative tools to unearth unwholesome practices bordering on accountability, transparency and abuses by political office-holders to bring about development and good governance in the local communities.
Meanwhile, he urged the practitioners to possess adequate knowledge of the working environment and the specific challenge peculiar to the area under investigation, while using digital tools to write compelling developmental stories.
On his part, presenting a paper on ‘investigative reporting, Inclusivity and Solution Reporting to enhance accountable governance to promote local government administration’, the editor-in-chief of THE BEAGLE NEWS, Dr. Judex Okoro, tasked journalists to look towards writing stories embedded with solutions. According to him, “Solution journalism is the new trend in journalism. Investigative journalism has been over-flogged.”
In his lecture, Dr. Okoro further added, “Solution journalism investigates and explains critically how people can solve widely shared problems. While Investigative journalism defines what is going wrong, Solution journalism tries to respond to problems through rigorous coverage of solutions to tell the whole story.
“Solution Journalism provides a balanced and constructive view of the world by investigating responses to social issues,” he also added.
Meanwhile, the veteran journalist also provided some pillars of solution journalism as response, insight, and evidence, revealing a shortcoming, and outcome. While concluding, Dr. Okoro called media personalities “to fill the void left by national media by focusing on local stories and issues which builds strong and more connected communities.”
Meanwhile, Chief Constance Meju who spoke on “Gender Reporting and Inclusivity” called on all stakeholders to spread their reports to cover the marginalized group which includes, women, children and people living with disabilities. She called on reporters to address and bridge the widening gaps in gender programming, even as she called on government and stakeholders to build public facilities that are PWD-friendly.
While rounding up the training, data journalist, Mr. Sunny Dada in his presentation “Data Assisted Reporting” exposed journalists to websites relevant to the investigation and that can also assist in writing factual and compelling stories.
