How much impact did Media Career Development Network make in 2021? below is a review of our modest accomplishments. We appreciate all organisations and individuals who made them possible.
Support for students journalists and campus media
On Thursday, December 30, 2021, Precious Ewuji of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti won the Revelation of the Year Category of the Students Media Personalities, Nigeria national awards sponsored by Media Career Development Network.
The sponsorship is one of our numerous support for student journalists during the outgoing year that has seen us training and mentoring some across campuses in the country virtually and physically, including Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Nigeria Institute of Journalism, Lagos, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Covenant University, Otta and University of Jos.
We launched an Online Internship platform for student journalists to address the problem of limited internship placements for those who have to undertake compulsory internships as part of their course requirements. We were able to get placements for some and our Whatsapp group have continued to provide resources and opportunities on daily basis.
In the New Year, we intend to intentionally reach out to more student journalists and organisations to provide the necessary skills and mentoring to prepare them for a fulfilling career in the profession.
Launch of Annual Nigeria Media Capacity Development Report
In acknowledgement of the commendable capacity development support for the media in the country by Non-Governmental Organisations, we launched the annual Nigeria Capacity Development Report to document their various programmes activities and resources in January.
It also contains feedbacks from participants and beneficiaries of the various programmes and projects on what they learnt and suggestions for improvement.
Other contents include:
*Attestations by journalists who maximises the opportunities they had in 2020
*Opportunities for student journalists, Awards, Insightful interview quotes on capacity development by accomplished journalists, Funders
*Database of media NGOs and support organisations
*How to maximise capacity development opportunities in 2021
We appreciate the cooperation of organisations and individuals who generously shared their reports with us for publications.
Download Full Copy of Report Nigeria Media Capacity Development Report 2020
The 2021 Report will be launched in January 2022
Training for Journalists
With the support of the United States Consulate, Lagos, we held a training on Post- Election and Accountability for journalists in Bayelsa State with participants from print, electronic and online media organisations.
The overarching objective of the workshop is to build the capacity of the participants to hold the newly sworn-in Bayelsa Administration officials more accountable while in office.
The workshop also was to engender a culture of democratic accountability and good governance reporting among local journalists in Bayelsa State.
The training was well received by the participants who commended the sessions facilitated by former Dean of School of Communications, Lagos State University, Ojo, Professor Lai Oso and Executive Director, Lekan Otufodunrin as very insightful and empowering.
Assistant Editor fo Premium Times, Taiwo Adebayo facilitated a webinar for journalists on Managing Sources in Investigation.
Other training sessions were held during the year for staff of Ogun State Television, Abeokuta, Insurance and Pension Correspondents, WaNa Data members of Code for Africa, Campus Reporters, Participants of the Female Reporters Leadership Programme by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, and Members of the West Africa Solutions Journalism Hub.
We appreciate the support of our funders, organisations that invited us for training, our facilitators and participants.
Launch of West Africa Solutions Hub
For the implementation of Solutions Journalism Africa Fellowship by our ED, our website hosted the dedicated West Africa Solutions Journalism Hub, which includes Solutions Report Monitor which is a one-stop site to access news, resources, and career opportunities.
Following the training held for journalists from Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Gambia, a network has been created for continued engagements and training on solutions journalism. More members from other countries in the region will be invited to join the group in 2022.
Members will produce solutions journalism reports to be published on their media platforms
Recommendations of Journalists for Opportunities
A publisher reached out to us early in the year to recommend some journalists for employment and we did. We are glad that some of them were employed like others also employed in other organisations based on our recommendations.
We are also on the lookout for training, fellowships, awards and other opportunities which we have shared with journalists who have benefitted from them.
We wrote recommendation letters for journalists during the year and we are glad some of their applications were successful.
Mentoring and Counselling for Journalists
A female journalist on a field trip in North-East Nigeria needed someone to discuss unexpected developments with and reached out to us. She got necessary counsel on what to do and was very grateful for having someone when can open up to at such lonely moments of confusion journalists face.
During the year we regularly responded to calls, enquiries and requests from journalists who wanted counsel with their career journeys. We got feedbacks that our support was helpful and we are willing to do mentor and counsel more journalists in the New Year.
Publication of career-enhancing content
Our website www.mediacareerng.org , now redesigned, has continued to be a must-read for journalists in Nigeria, Africa and beyond for career-enhancing content including news, jobs, insights, interviews and other resources.
One of our readers Ene Oshaba wrote in response to one of our interviews titled ‘How to win fellowships, get grants and freelance opportunities’ “This is so enlightening. Thank you for your commitment to grooming better Journalists through your mentoring and disclosures”
We remain committed to providing comprehensive reporting of media issues beneficial to the career of journalists.
Donations
We experimented with seeking donations for our work through #GivingTuesday and we are glad that we got some donations from individuals, including our Board of Trustee members and past beneficiaries of our mentoring.
We promise to utilize the donation and more we can get for the implementation of our programmes in pursuit of our goal of achieving the following:
+To promote excellence in media practice in Nigeria
+To organise media training and provide mentoring support for journalists and media professionals.
+To produce resource materials to enhance media career development.
+To engage in advocacy for freedom of the press in Nigeria.
+To provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, share experience, find mutual support and guidance for media professionals.
+To protect the interest & welfare of journalists and media professionals
Taye Obateru
Kudos for all you’ve been doing. May you find more fulfillment and cover more grounds in 2022 and beyond.