Auta silas
Africa Media Development Foundation (a non-governmental organization) in conjunction with a Kaduna-based software solution group, NextMerge on Tuesday, trained 20 Kaduna-based Journalists on blogging and effective use of the internet in order to enhance their professional skills in respect to advancement in technology.
The Coordinator of Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF), Sekyen Dadik, in her opening remarks said the essence of the training was to prepare, train and encourage journalists to be abreast with advancing technologies while taking up their responsibility of informing the public with factual and timely reports instead of allowing unprofessional take over their work.
According to her, journalism is revolving hence the need for trainings and retraining, noting that there would be a time when everything will be internet driven, and anyone who is not up to date would be relegated to the background.
She added that the training was also aimed at providing a platform for bloggers to have access to software and ICT problem solvers to enable them deliver effectively, and to encourage others to build up blogs.
While making his presentation, Silas Auta of NextMerge, who took the trainees on the rudiment of blogging, expressed worry over increase number of blogs managed by unprofessional with misleading information at the expense of trained media practitioners. He noted that, AMDF has provided a platform where issues relating to launching and managing blogs can be gained.
In a remark, representative of the Correspondent Chapel of the Kaduna Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalist, Dominic Uzu, urged participants to make judicious use of the knowledge gained during the training to be up to date.
He said, “It is very important I commend participants who are here to be part of the reality on ground. I urge you to take every session of the training very seriously no matter how old you are. It is a lifetime experience and we cannot just afford to be left behind”.
AMDF is a non-governmental organization aimed at enhancing media professionalism through trainings of media professionals among others while NextMerge is a group of young software and ICT professionals based in Kaduna state.
