Femi Babatunde, Communication specialist explains the benefits of media awards for journalists
I must say that media awards surely play important roles in advancing the careers of journalists. Interestingly, only recently, a study was conducted in preparation for the Dimond Awards for Media Excellence, DAME’s, Silver Jubilee. The thrust of the study bothered on knowing how past winners of DAME have fared professionally. This involved painstakingly tracking the career progression of every DAME winner since its inception. The discovery was indeed quite instructive, as it showed that all of them, regardless of their year of induction into the DAME Hall of Fame, have been spurred to greater heights in their careers.
The advantage that comes from exposing one’s work to being benchmarked alongside other works of colleagues elsewhere. This is quite useful for receiving genuine feedbacks or evaluation over one’s works by a team of external expert assessors.I suppose we could generalise this for other credible awards also, both locally and internationally. Perhaps, the reason for this is largely psychological. And this is my own take: Once the innate desire for recognition, which we all yearn for, is recognised and duly rewarded, it tends to awaken the greatness in us and of course, show us what is possible if only we could put more efforts.
What are the benefits of participating in media awards?
*Additionally, the privilege of enjoying the perks that come with winning awards, such as free travel or training opportunities, financial rewards, networking, etc;
*The enhanced personal and professional branding that comes through such awards, are some of the notable benefits that could from participation in media awards
For full reports of the December 2016 Media Career Q&A during which Babatunde shared his views, click this link