As media evolves, it demands more from professionals and organisations.

Welcome to the first edition of “Media Career Diaries (MC Diaries)” of the Media Career Development Network (MCDN). As promised in our launch post, this edition rounds up the gist from media conversations and training in the past few weeks, the latest career moves of journalists and other things you need to look out for as a media professional in Nigeria.

Media Talk Points and Focus

There have been many happenings in the media space in the past weeks with various virtual and physical training by different organisations and events in commemoration of World Radio Day. In the first weeks of February, NLNG, IPC, SWIJ, and LIDA Network hosted different training for journalists. Dataphyte and WSCIJ recently launched reports on media reportage of the 2023 general election and the representation of women in the media respectively. 

Gender and Female Representation in Media took the front row of media talk points in the past few weeks. Between January 30 and February 1, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited held a capacity-building workshop themed Gender Active. It was another edition of the national energy company’s #NLNGChangeYourStory workshops to equip women journalists with cutting-edge digital communication and social media skills for reporting gender-based issues.  The representative of the Chairperson of the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) and other female journalists present shared lessons from the workshop in this MCDN report. 

Similarly, Ann Godwin of Step-Up for Women in Journalism also organised a one-day capacity-building training on February 16, tagged “Career Road Map for 2024” to empower journalists with knowledge of how to advance their careers in line with current industry demands. In the highlights of the webinar reported here Executive Director of MCDN, Lekan Otufodunrin ; MD of National Point Newspaper, Ibiba Don-Pedro, Journalist and Digital Expert Paul Chimodo and  Godwin charged female journalists to take their career into their own hands, ensuring progress and success by actively making decisions and taking action to grow. 

Giving context to the need for training interventions for female journalists, a recent WSCIJ report, “Who leads the newsrooms and news” launched February 15 revealed the low representation of women in media and the news across the varying genres of media in the country. The 90-page report was produced as a part of the WSCIJ Report Women! Newsroom Engagement program supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It revealed that women only hold 25.7% of leadership positions against 74.3% of men in the 111 media organisations surveyed across Nigeria.

Reviewing the report, Theophilus Abbah, PhD , Director of Daily Trust Foundation said the report “holds a mirror to the face of media owners, media executives, and newsroom leaders, showing an error that needs to be corrected and a mistake of gender imbalance in the news business, a mistake because there are no gender norms in the media business.”

Another prominent topic in the media community in past weeks was the World Radio Day celebration themed “ A century informing, entertaining and educating”. Media houses hosted programmes to commemorate it, WSCIJ also hosted an X space discussing the power of radio for investigative reporting, and MCDN also collated radio career stories shared by some journalists on their social media pages.

Other media events during the covered period include the International Press Centre’s FOI training for journalists in southwest Nigeria and LIDA Network’s webinar on telling impact-driven African stories. 

Latest Career Movements and Wins

MCDN had earlier reported the move of journalists like Samad Uthman, Dada Bamishe and Moses Emorinken to new platforms. There have been other journalists who have also changed jobs since then. 

Muhammad Akinyemi (Princelyx) formerly with Tech Cabal as Senior Editor has now joined MDIF’s Nigeria Media Innovation Program (NAMIP) as a Media Advisor offering guidance and support to participating media organisations of the program.

Investigative Data Journalist, Olanrewaju Oyedeji formerly with Dataphyte has now joined WikkiTimes as Editor, leading the investigative and data-driven journalism media organisation

Investigative journalist Grace Obike has added the 2024 Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) Media Africa Award for Local Journalism to her list of awards. She won the award with her story on the “Abuja community where girls’ breasts are suppressed to save them from rape” published in The Nation newspaper.

Olatunji Olaigbe, an environmental and investigative journalist, has been announced as one of the six winners of the 2024 GRID-Arendal’s Investigative Environmental Journalism Grant. With a grant of about €1750, Olaigbe will be investigating illegal practices in West Africa’s renewable energy sector. The freelance journalist’s journey into international reporting was documented in this interview with MCDN last year.

What’s New

Media research and data analytics organisation Dataphyte has released a report on the role of media in Nigeria’s 2023 election coverage. The report titled “The Media’s Agenda-Setting Role: Insights from Coverage of Nigeria’s 2023 Elections” detailed the findings from a content analysis of monitored news on 10 national and 36 state media outlets.

As mentioned earlier, the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) also released a report on gender parity in Nigerian newsrooms and news leadership. The report titled “Who leads the newsrooms and news” can be downloaded here.

Three years after the 2021 Birnin Yauri abduction and many forgetting the tragic event, HumAngle has produced a documentary on the 11 girls who didn’t return. The 33-minute documentary is now on YouTube.

If you are a gender-based issue reporter or currently working on a gender-based violence story, this CJID handbook on Gender-based Violence Reporting will help your work

What is Coming? Opportunities for Journalists

Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) announced calls for application to different training and fellowship opportunities. If you are a campus journalist, early career journalist, conflict journalist, data journalist or fact-checker you need to check them out. Female journalists and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply too.

Women Radio WFM 91.7 is currently looking for female reporters and journalists to join their team. Check out the few requirements here and apply if you are a good fit.

Prime Progress is still looking for experienced female journalists and a social media manager and content creator to join their team. Check out the requirements here and apply if you are a good fit.

Tiger Eye Foundation is inviting Nigerian-based investigative journalists for its 2024 Nigeria Investigates Workshop. Early to mid-level investigative journalists practising in Nigeria can apply for the five-day training till March 15

Thank you for reading this first edition of MCDN Media Career Diaries (MC Diaries) a community-powered and community-focus publication for the Nigeria media professional community. Please make sure this publication is successful by engaging with it and sharing it with your colleagues. As a community-powered publication, we need your input and feedback to keep it going, feel free to reach out to us with any information on X, LinkedIn, through email at Info@mediacareerng.org; mediacareerng@gmail.com or WhatsApp at +2348050498530.