A two week training session for some media men and women selected from 23 Countries across Africa is underway organised by Climate tracker.
Fifty (50) journalists are taking part in the Africa Drylands Fellowship Training holding through a series of webinars.
“It is indeed thrilling, I was delighted to meet with new colleagues, had some exciting experience and overall, all was fine. I intend to enrich my know-how in climate change and environment reporting” Nalova Akua, a reporter from Cameroon declared after the first webinar session that held Tuesday May 18, 2021.
The fellowship workshop is in prelude to the first ever Digital Global Landscape Forum Conference in Africa, but special attention is on creating a supportive environment for journalists in Africa to report on the various Drylands challenges in their respective nations.
“When developing your story topic into an idea, you should skip the basics and ask critical questions” says Lina Yassin, Operations Manager at Climate Tracker, as she drilled the journalists on “Ideation to Story” during the first webinar session.
Focus on Day One, was to introduce the media men and women to the program and on how to work on a story.
For two hours, the journalists listened to presentations and equally had the opportunity to interact with each other through breakout sessions and with the trainer through questions and answers sessions.
One of the main challenges with investigative journalism is conducting interviews and security of journalists. Responding to questions from the participants and from her presentations, the Operations Manager, Lina Yassin, enjoined the journalists to always carry out research on their story ideas, so as to focus their questions on what they don’t yet know and what they want their audience to know.
“You need to be aware of your surrounding, the existing laws and available risks. If they risk is too high, you risk loosing future opportunities to tell other stories.” Lina Yassin, said.
The participation of the journalists was amazing to the organisers.
“We’re super excited to kick off the training sessions in the lead up to the @GlobalLF Conference on Drylands Restoration in Africa!!! Thank you for all the support everyone, we got such great feedback & we’re enjoying working with this group of young journalists! #GLFAfrica” Climate Tracker tweeted shortly after the end of the first training session.
The Journey
Following the training guide, the 2021 Drylands Restorations Fellows would have three training sessions to expand their professional skills and dive into climate related reportings.
Some would focus on “Field Reporting 101” and “Media Analysis of Drylands Stories in Africa”.
Besides these, special thematic sessions with experienced experts would also school the media men and women on the big picture, problems and challenge of Drylands in Africa as well as examples that work.
Worth noting is the fact that all the participating journalists at the various training sessions would have free access to the Global Landscape Forum Conference, Africa 2021.
The forum proper would run from June 2-3, online, due to health challenges linked to the covid-19 Pandemic.
