Media Career Development Network (MCDN), a non-governmental organisation devoted to promoting excellence in media practice and providing resources to meet the challenges of media career through regular training, mentoring and coaching for all categories of journalists and other media professionals, has released the 2023 edition of its annual Nigeria Media Capacity Development Report.
The fourth since 2021 when the organisation started documenting major trainings and capacity building programmes in the Nigeria media sector for the previous year, the report draws attention to opportunities for journalists and media professionals to enhance their career.
Announcing the release, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin, Executive Director of MCDN, said “This publication is a restatement of our unwavering commitment to promoting the need for conscious media career development for Nigerian media professionals through maximizing available resources and opportunities offered by media non-governmental organisations and institutions in the country.”
Apart from the regular highlights of programmes and activities of media NGOs and institutions in the country, quotes from interviews that MCDN has published on its website and database of media organisations, the 2024 edition has a revealing report from a survey conducted on the state of media training in the country for 2023 which is important for journalists and media training organisers to learn from.
It also contains an insightful interview with the Programme Director of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), Mr. Akintunde Babatunde, in which he offers detailed responses on emerging issues and opportunities that journalists should pay attention to in 2024.
MCDN commended media development NGOs and institutions in the country whose continuous work towards enhancing the capacity of journalists in the country form the basis of the report. The organisation urged the media development organisations to devise new ways of engaging more diverse participants in their programmes and focus on new areas of need of training for journalists.
The group also implored journalists and other media practitioners to make good use of the report which avails them the knowledge of who is doing what and what capacity development opportunity to look out for and maximise in their work as many other journalists have done with its past publications.
Mr. Otufodunrin appreciated the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) for providing the financial support for the edition and other organisations for their continued support and cooperation in various ways.
