Emmanuella Lekwauwa
The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, Lagos has expressed the need to leverage the opportunities that come with the digital space while addressing its challenges to capture and share social realities at scale.
The essence is to develop the capacity of visual journalists to implement satirical, investigative and humorous cartoons.
Also, the aim is to equip stakeholders to tell compelling and impactful stories.
The project tends to help journalists understand and apply the knowledge of various social media tools to better engage on the issues that their works address.
The Zoom event is set to commemorate the 2023 International Day for Access to Information being set aside by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
It is structured under the Visual Realities Initiatives of the WSCIJ, launched in 2016.
The summit was themed: “Online Space, access to Information, and Capturing Social Realities,” with six panelists and over 63 participants in attendance.
A freelance photographer and Doctoral student at Cardiff University, UK, Nelly Ating, explained how journalists who are referred to as watchdogs pose a huge threat to politicians and elements of miscreants in government and power.
Photography simply brings visibility to social issues.
It is a double-edged sword that could be used for social change and panic selling.
Speaking at the Summit, Ating said: “Politically, that has been used widely to showcase political branding and image management.
“These political images utilise journalistic ethos.
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“That’s what makes it lean in-between public manipulation and communication.”
One of the panelists, a professional cameraman with TVC Communications, Godwin Nwachukwu, expressed his displeasure in the industry owing to the claim that video journalists are not being celebrated enough though journalism is tilting towards social media.
While stating one of the challenges confronting photojournalists, Nwachukwu said: “People could use your video and at the end of the day there is no credit to you.
“Also, there are physical dangers and the stealing of intellectual property.”
He used this avenue to advocate for video journalists to be recognised for their journalistic work and given access to subsidised equipment and funds even in terms of loans.
He said this will give a sense of belonging to those that want to come into the business.
Another panelist from Channels Television, Sodiq Adelakun, added that photojournalism goes beyond catch-up visuals as there is a need for them to upscale their skills, following which the idea of open format comes into play.
In his words, open format is a way of making use of videos, pictures, cartoons and illustrations in terms of data to tell a story responsibly.
Adelakun also highlighted the need to verify one’s work, thereby ensuring meeting the standard of journalism at the global level.
He said there is a need to learn how to multitask in terms of text, video photos and also give data analysis while reporting.
While admonishing visual journalists to continually train and re-educate themselves, he emphasised the need to research a story, look at the concept, use the right tools that can tell the story, and endeavour to verify before publishing.
He said: “Most of the time you have to be aware of the information you are accessing because the information you are accessing is like a time bomb because you are the one seeing it and transferring that information to another person can cause a lot of havoc.
“That is where the idea of helping to tell the story responsibly comes into mind.”
Citing a Political Cartoonist at Daily Times, Mustapha Bulama, Adelakun pointed out the need for other cartoonists to come together to promote the profession, thereby contributing to the country.
While implementing the technique that helps bring change in the drawing aspect, one has to understand the drawing and convey the message along with it, he said.
He added: “One key thing about understanding the cartoon is knowing the content and what the cartoon is all about and if the person does not know all these, he may not necessarily understand what the cartoon is all about.”
A media practitioner with Premium Times and 2021 Report Women of the WSCIJ, Titilope Fadare, buttressed the aspect of mobile journalism.
Fadare opined that mobile phones are used to aid editorial production and that she has taken time to train professional/campus journalists, interns and editors to capture social realities and also be competitive alongside other newsrooms in the media space through the use of mobile phones.
She said: “The Nigerian newsrooms need to mainstream mobile journalism because it’s a way to capture social realities.
“And it is important to see mobile journalism as a tool in fighting misinformation.
“And as journalists, we hold the responsibility to harness the power of mobile journalism for the greater good and ensuring that our storytelling remains truthful.”
Fadare pointed out one of the challenges in the space, especially in the use of mobile phones, which has to do with the storage capacity on the phone and the quality of the phone as well.
Also, the transferring of video content from one social media platform to another sometimes brings a drop in quality in terms of sound lag.
The Deputy Director of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Kolawole Oludare, re-affirmed the right to freedom of expression as contained in the law and Section 22 of the Nigeria Constitution that says media practitioners, including citizen journalists, are free to uphold government to be responsible and accountable to the people.
Oludare said this implies that the work of the citizen journalist is important as well, but that they should understand the purpose of the law while they amplify the work that journalists do.
In his opening remarks, the Programme and Research Officer at the WSCIJ, Samson Ademola, called on photojournalists and cartoonists to put in for the upcoming entries to ascertain how investigative their work can be as they receive acknowledgment for it.
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