By Deborah Madu
A non-profit empowerment media organization, Africa Foundation For Young Media Professionals (AFYMP) took the bull by the horn by carefully selecting 12 young media aspirants from different tertiary institutions, for a 2-day fully funded empowerment workshop which began on Monday, 20th of June, 2022, in Academy Suites, Ibadan.
The Executive Director of the organization, Yinka Olaito in his opening speech stated that the reason for this empowerment initiative by the AFYMP team is ” to empower fresh media minds who will in line with the organization’s mission, elevate Africa’s media landscape into global standard through capacity development and reinforcement of ethical values.
He also added that the AFYMP team is deliberate about investing intellectually in young minds who will think beyond awards and take risks, young minds who will neither care too much about popular opinion nor do business only how it is usually done to make a striking impact in the media industry.”
In a bid to enrich these young media aspirants with optimum intellectual knowledge, individuals from highly recognized media organizations were keynoted speakers on the Day 1 of this event, and among these persons were, Mr. Femi Ipadeola of Boom TV; Mr. Adejumo Kabir of Human Angle Media, and Dr. Suraj Olunifesi of UNESCO network for Nigerian universities.
While the first speaker, Mr. Femi Ipadeola talked about “how to build a strong media business model regardless of the volatility in the society and how to build a strong media brand”; the second speaker, Mr. Adejumo Kabir emphasized “the core elements and ethics of (campus) journalism, sourcing rules, how to get stories and factors to consider to remain safe on campus”; then the 3rd and last speaker for the day, Dr. Suraj spoke on “investigative and data-driven reporting, three basic types of reporting and the pros and cons of investigative journalism.
In the evening session of the event, Dr.Suraj also spoke on “different media houses, primary roles for a student newspaper, functions of a campus newspaper, the need to effectively manage and ensure healthy relationships within academic communities, and how to build a journalist-audience lationship as a campus journalist”.
After the day’s event, Favour Adeyemi, one of the selected participants who is a 300-level Mass Communication student at the University of Ilorin expressed the profound joy of being a part of the workshop. She said, ” I have known mass communication to be basically about Broadcasting, Print, and Journalism, but Mr. Femi’s speech today has opened my eyes to the media entrepreneurship part of mass communication and now I know that there is such a thing as media branding and media business model. I am glad I was selected as a participant in this workshop”.
Another participant, Owooluwa Olaomo who is a 200-level Mass Communication student at the University of Lagos also expressed joy and accomplishing feelings regarding the workshop as she said, ” I applied for this workshop because I wanted to experience hands-on activities related to my field as a communicator other than the theoretical aspects being taught in my school and also to network with other students and I am so happy that I am getting all of that from this AFYMP workshop, I am happy I was selected as a participant”.
A third participant, Latifat Fashina, who is also a Mass Communication student of Lagos State University as well as a campus journalist said, “I enjoyed today’s event, especially the business model and media brand session that Mr. Femi handled. Although I am a campus journalist without a niche yet, I write on various news topics but business news interests me more and I am glad I got added knowledge from Mr. Femi’s presentation”.
Photo: Favour Adeyemi: A smiling picture of Deborah Madu, a participant from Babcock University, during lunch break.
