NewsClick Nigeria journalists, others attend Russia varsity sponsored intensive media training, awarded certificates
Two NewsClick Nigeria journalists; Toyibat Ajose and Alagbe Shenayon Elisha were among those shortlisted for the highly competitive four-day intensive media training sponsored and organised recently by renowned Russian University, RUDN.
Tagged ‘RUDN Professional Scholarship Courses in Intercultural Communication,’ the training held at the prestigious University of Lagos and other selected institutions across the country.
The courses taught served as vital platforms for fostering understanding, and proficiency in navigating the complexities of diverse cultural landscapes.
Dr. Mustapha Muhammed Jamiu, Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication and Leading Researcher at The Institute of Geopolitical Communications, Faculty of Philology, RUDN University, Russia, Dr. Natalia Ivanova, (RUDN University) Dr. Natalia Poplavskaya, alongside Dr. Olunifesi Adekunle SURAJ, (UNILAG) facilitated the course for both academia and professionals in journalism emphasizing the role of intercultural communication in today’s world and it’s essence to the society.
Dr. Mustapha Muhammed Jamiu, gave in-depth knowledge on what culture is and how it helps us accept people and interact with people regardless of their culture for economic growth and all. He nailed that culture can be learnt and be taught. He revealed that intercultural understanding is about peace, understanding peoples culture and working with it which made the participants acquired practical tactics for enhancing intercultural communication effectiveness within the digital sphere.
Dr. Jamiu during his lectures engaged the participants with discussions, englightened the participants with the essence of peace in intercultural communication during the first Two-Day Course Sessions.
Prof. Joseph Tejumaiye, Head of the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos, expressed expressed his sincere gratitude during his welcome address. He thanked Dr. Jamiu for granting participants access to invaluable insights into the evolving media landscape. Prof. Tejumaiye gave insight to the importance of adopting an entrepreneurial mindset in the digital era revealing that the world is going digital so also are the audience. He made known that in today’s world, it is the online media that first breaks the breaking news before the traditional media breaks the news.
He emphasized the importance of embracing multimedia and how the participants to the changing demands of journalism in the digital era.
On Wednesday, January 31st and Thursday, February 1st sessions, Mustapha concluded the training by encouraging participants to recognise that success is measured by their commitment to community journalism and media literacy excellence, and introduced the topics for the two days as Community Journalism and Media Literacy.
On Community Journalism, he said, “Commitment to excellence in education, addressing the pressing issues your respective communities face, as well as the issues you all as journalists face in an era marked by connectivity and digital transformation, are so needed for them to do impactful stories that will capture attention and make the expected effect,” stressed Mustapha.
He also emphasized on the need for Journalists to learn, unlearn and relearn. He stressed that today’s journalists must have the skills for Data Journalism which includes Data compilation, data cleaning, data understanding, data validation, data visualisation and article writing.
Dr. Mustapha identified information overload and misinformation as important issues for community journalists in the digital age. He identified strategies to solve them which includes providing local knowledge and skills to function as community journalists; creating social media platform and Media Literacy.
Teaching on media literacy, he said that refers to the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media content in various forms, including print, digital, and visual media. However, culture has a substantial impact on both media creation and consumption, as cultural characteristics influence media literacy.
A thorough understanding of this aspect of community journalism will allow an average journalist to understand his or her agenda setting role, which is a communication theory that investigates the influential role media plays in shaping public perception and priorities by emphasising certain issues over others.
He also emphasises how the media’s selection and attention on specific themes can influence which concerns get to the forefront of the public agenda as a result of their work.
Mustapha told the participants that every journalist committed to doing quality community journalism and having a good understanding of media literacy must develop what he called participatory communication because “the essence of media literacy is not to limit yourself as this is what will help you to hone your critical thinking skills to be able to do comprehensive analysis, and analysis is what ideal data journalism will turn into a quality story.”
Collectively, the participants, who all expressed their sincere gratitude for the programme, admitted that they had been armed with new views to launch impactful reports that were ready to change the global journalism scene.
Similarly, feedback from attendees were mirrored in the study tasks assigned after each training which showed the instant applicability of the acquired knowledge they will continue to exhibit as they explore the complexities of communication in the digital age.
Feedbacks indicated the immediate relevance of the acquired insights in both professional and academic endeavors.