Mr Yusuf Zango, the Editor-in-Chief, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) says the agency is poised to equip its reporters with latest techniques in reportage in line with global trend.
Zango said this on Wednesday in Abuja at the end of a two-day training for NAN reporters organised by Code for Nigeria, a subsidiary of the Story Lab Academy, an IT company.
He said the training was a continuation of training by the agency in collaboration with Google, which started in 2017 to empower reporters on the use of charts along with their stories.
“As you know, we are in the digital age and people don’t have time to read through text and the use of chart present facts in a very clear and short form.
“So people who are in a hurry look at the chart and they will be able to do a better comparison of what is actually happening about a story because charts explain the story more.
“When we use charts on figures, it explains the story in a better way and it enriches the story and saves the time of readers, ‘’ he said.
Zango said the training, which was held in Abuja and Lagos since in 2017, had just continued in 2018.
“This is because the whole curriculum was not covered; that is why Google found it necessary to come back to continue the training,’’ he said.
He expressed optimism that all NAN reporters would be trained, not just in Lagos and Abuja, but also those in outstations would benefit from it.
“We have more than 50 per cent of our reporters outside these two stations and Google has agreed to consider this and in the next one year all reporters will be able to pick a story and turn it into chart, ‘’ he added.
Mr Ambrose Ariagiegbe, a representative of Code for Nigeria and the resource person, spoke on Geo-journalism, the act of using maps to tell a story.
“Rather than just write a text, you can support it with visuals because they say pictures speak more than a thousand words.
“So if you have a write-up, you can easily embed this geographical data alongside to reinforce what you are writing about and it is also interactive.’’
Also speaking on the training, Miss Andidiong Okon, Programme Assistant, Code for Nigeria said the training was for journalist to use technology to improve their story telling and reporting skills.
Okon said that the choice of NAN was because of its wide reach and its subscription model, which made it the most appropriate choice.
“We have introduced a couple of other programmes to NAN, especially relating to areas of our interest which are development, health and gender.
“And NAN has been interested in this opportunity as well as a programme we call project shield, a Google programme.
“And the agency has been opened to adopting programmes and practices and I can see that the organisation is interested in improving the expertise and skills of journalists.’’
Mrs Yetunde Bada1, a participant said the training was for future journalism as people like to see pictures of the stories being told.
“If you say 100 people died across Afganistan, its good but if you also can place pictures of states, locations and areas of where they died, it makes the story better,’ she said. (NAN)
