On Thursday, StartupSouth Enterprise Development LTD/GTE taught 50 journalists from the Southern region of Nigeria how to use innovative technological tools to report on events and ecosystems in the Niger Delta and beyond.
The organisation is a startup ecosystem development and advocacy outfit that inspires founders to build high-scale ventures in Nigeria with a specific focus on the South-South and South-East regions.
Addressing the participants, the Convener, Uche Aniche, said that the workshop was aimed at training journalists in technology reporting.
Aniche also said that the workshop would enable journalists in the Niger Delta region to understand the terms and tools of innovative technologies to be able to report the upcoming launch of innovative groundbreaking solutions built by Xend Finance.
He urged journalists to be passionate and intentional in their understanding of technology innovation and the importance of applying them in their daily reportage to promote accountability in society.
One of
the facilitators and Head of News, Nigeria Info FM, Port Harcourt, Mrs Chioma Ezenwafor, said that technology reporting had gone very far and created publicity about the latest innovation.
Ezenwafor said that technology and innovative reporting entailed using modern and innovative technological tools in reporting events and the ecosystem.
She further underscored the importance of knowing innovative technology terms and using them appropriately in reporting or writing articles as journalists.
She said that technology journalism helps to drive innovations, can also drive power and helps journalists to ask the right questions when things are going wrong in the technology industries and hold them accountable.
Ezenwafor urged journalists to understand the tech journalism landscape, the key tech and innovation, which she mentioned as Fintech, Edtech, Agritech, blockchain and Health tech.
She also urged them to niche down and report on any of these tech keys and also identify the relevant stories in the tech in
novation.
A Senior Tech Writer, TechCabal, Mr Frank Eleanya, urged journalists to use apps on their smartphones to harness the potential of tech innovation.
Eleanya also advised them to build a strong online presence, personal branding and audience engagement aside from storytelling.
He urged journalists to use data to create compelling narratives in storytelling, and also study the history of tech before reporting tech innovations.
Contributing, the Founder of iBrandTV, Mr Keni Akintoye, urged journalists to identify tech tools that can make them stand out as experts.
Akintoye further encouraged them to understand data analysis and use them in their daily work to produce quality reports.
Source :News Agency of Nigeria