Extractive sector reportage: CJID wants mediums to prioritize training

The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) has called on media houses to prioritize training and retraining with aim of building capacity of journalist in reporting the extractive sector of the economy.

This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of Stakeholders engagement dialogue on the research of the efficacy of media training on extractive sector reporting organized by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) held in Abuja last week and released by CJID Deputy Director (Sustainable Development Programme) Mr. Akintunde Babatunde Wednesday.

It recommended that a percentage of journalists grants be given to newsroom to foster more collaborative works and capacity building should be organized for editors in a bid to understand the registers for reporting.

According to the communiqué, “We need to start looking for comparisons beyond the traditional newsrooms, like going global to adopt innovations.

“Journalists should involve editors in these commissioned reports for a smooth editorial process.

Trainers need to interface with newsrooms based on their realities.

“When organisations are giving grants, they should communicate with someone internally in the newsroom, to ensure the reporter delivers.

“There is a need to understand the dynamics and politics of media organizations and we need to start rethinking the positions of our journalists and start seeing them as knowledge producers and training them for knowledge management.

“Training institutions should market training to newsroom managers, asking them to nominate appropriate people for the workshop.

“It is important to bring the newsroom managers on board, but the passion of the reporters must first be established.

“There should be step down trainings organised by journalists who attended these trainings”.

However, the following recommendations on how to hold Journalists accountable were made in the communiqué: Training institutions have to know the journalists they are dealing with,  Journalists should be constantly engaged and followed up, Journalists should be trained based on the sector they report on, Verify that letterhead submitted for recommendation are valid by getting in contact with the organization,