A Kano based online news platform, Stallion Times with the support from the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), and MacArthur Foundation, on Saturday organised a one-day training on the effective use of social media for media professionals and civil society organisations (CSOs) in Kano state.
The training which is under its Governance and Media Literacy project tagged “Get Involved, Dialogue and Improve (G-DRIP)” in Kano and Kogi states had media professional across various platforms as well as civil society organizations in attendance.
While speaking, the Executive Director of Stallion Times Media Services and project coordinator for “Get Involved Dialogue and Improve (G-DRIP), Mallam Ahmed Isiyaku said the reason for organising such a workshop was simply because of a gap that was noticed.
Isiyaku rued that people, mostly journalists and CSOs do not usually derive solace from posting or creating contents for impact or making changes, rather than posting hilariously about their personal lives, which he said may even land them in serious security threats.
He wondered why people normally find joy in posting secrets about their personal lives on the social media, or revealing their secrets to another people publicly who may turn around to use it against them.
“These and other several reasons are why we organise this workshop to train journalists and media professionals to generate ideas in order to create compelling contents for social media, then also as for civil societies, those that equally write can also create contents on social media platforms about their activities at the grassroots.
”This we think can create impact, can bring a change in what we have been advocating for, for good governance, anti corruption and for development\”, he submitted.
On his expectations from the participants after the workshop, the Stallion Times supremo exuded the confidence that he expects them to keep the ball rolling, adding that he had already saw some of the participants exploring what they were taught during the workshop.
He said even while the workshop was ongoing, they had already started creating videos, animations, infographics and making catchy posts, instead of making long sentences.
” That is what I want to see. The next stage is targeted at particular audience or particular duty bearers”, he wittily added.
On his part, the facilitator of the workshop, Mallam Isah Ali Musa expressed his delight in the way and manner the participants have had the quick grasp of what he taught them during the workshop.
He noted that in this digital era, it has become unavoidably imperative for journalists and CSOs to have the requisite knowledge of how to create compelling contents to engage their audience and as well hold governments at the local, state and federal levels to account.
He also tasked the participants on the need to up their games, warning about the threats that the coming of Artificial Intelligence (AI) posses to their jobs.
