LAGOS ASSEMBLY'S QUEST FOR QUALITY POLITICAL REPORTAGE

For politics correspondents, the opportunity to enhance their reportorial skills came when the Lagos State House of Assembly organized an editorial and writing skills workshop for reporters and information officers. CHINELO OBOGO was there.

The time was 9am and the venue was the Harmony Castle Hotel, Ikorodu, Lagos. The event was the 3rd Annual Retreat/Workshop organized by the Lagos State House of Assembly in collaboration with Boffos Associates for Information Officers and Politics Correspondents.

For an event of this magnitude, many politics correspondents drawn from different media were in attendance. Declaring the workshop open, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Ikuforiji Adeyemi stated that the objective of the workshop was to enhance the writing and editorial skills of politics correspondents to make them more efficient in discharging their duties.

His words: 'Our democracy in this country has reached a stage where we have to be very careful of the type of things we give to the public. The media has played a very great role in the entrenchment of democracy in the country and every professional journalist is a gatekeeper and watchdog of the society. The success of our democracy and government does not only depend on politicians and public office holders, it is the collective responsibility of everyone including the media.

I urge media practitioners to always crosscheck their facts before anything is published for public consumption because it will be unfortunate that if after we have fought for the enthronement of democracy, we destroy it with our hands. Your reports should always be factual and balanced. An imbalanced and false report is very harmful and it makes governance very difficult. It is our desire as representatives of the people that the media be responsible for the sustenance of democracy. This workshop is an avenue that will help sharpen and enhance the reportorial skills of journalists and help improve reportage.'

The Clerk of the House, Mr. Adewale Olatunji in his own remarks stated that he is always happy to be associated with any form of personal development. 'When this workshop started three years ago, little did we know that it will have the kind of impact it has now. A lot of correspondents have really improved their skills as a result of what they have learned in the past workshops and this is a great encouragement to us. Our desire is that when this is over, every participant will apply what he has learnt in the discharge of his duties,' he said.

One of the facilitators of the programme, Mr Dele Omojuyigbe who lectured on 'Writing Techniques and Stylistics', stated that the principles of journalism required that before anything is published all the facts and the sides to a story must be ascertained.

'We are practising a very sensitive profession and it is such that once a false report gets to the public, it has the tendency of causing negative ripple effects which may be difficult to contain and bring under control. It is therefore very necessary that reporters always get both sides of a story before anything is published.

Notwithstanding, it is the duty of the media to act as watchdogs in the society. They share the responsibility of exposing the ills and corruption in the society and to get the public informed on important issues ' he stated.

Also emphasizing the need for reporters to be dynamic and creative in their reportage, he said that no matter how compelling a story was, if it is reported in a flat and predictable way, the readers will read with disinterest.

'If you want to carve a niche for yourself in reporting and writing for any beat, besides ensuring that you report only facts, you will have to be dynamic. Readers should not be able to predict what you will write next or else you will be regarded as a boring and flat writer' he stated.

The training consultant, Mr Jide Johnson who spoke on the topic 'Understanding the basic elements of writing for the Mass Media' reiterated the importance of creativity and coherence when broadcasting or writing.

'There have been situations where news is broadcast and one cannot understand the thrust of what was broadcast. To be a prolific journalist, you have to have some elements of dynamism and the 'nose' for news. Most important of all, a successful correspondent should be a wordsmith and one who loves to read' he maintained.

Other resource persons include Mrs. Folu Johnson, Ayo Alao and Maureen Popoola. They spoke on the topic, 'The Principles of Agreement in Writing', 'Social Media and Broadcasting' and the 'Fundamentals of Writing' respectively. In her lecture, Johnson espoused on the importance of making constructive and meaningful statement stating that 'just like teachers, the media has the responsibility of informing the public and when wrong information is passed across, it may take a negative effect in the society.

For instance, if a something that is incorrect is published and a young child who is not very knowledgeable reads it, that information may form part of his psyche and he will grow up knowing the wrong thing unless he is corrected.'

Ayo Alao taught the participants the financial benefits of the Social Media and Broadcasting. He stated that the world, being a global village has transformed the media in such a way that an innovative person can make financial gains.

'Unlike the past years, the media has gone global in such a way that we can now read news from our phones and on the internet. The internet is at our disposal and someone who is innovative can make gains from using the internet to interact. We can start online magazines and newspapers where people can pay to advertise on' he said.