Editor-in-Chief of Stallion Times
Stallion Times has held a training workshop for 40 journalists from various media organizations in Kano State where it taught them relevant skills and techniques in conducting investigative reporting under its “Get Involved, Dialogue, and Improve Project” (G-DRIP).
The training was conducted with the aim of building the capacities of participants with key skills and techniques used in investigative reporting, empowering journalists on how to write good pitches for investigative reports, and demonstrating to participants how to gather data and present evidence in investigative reports.
Mr. Isiyaku Ahmed, Editor-in-Chief of Stallion Times, who also doubles as the Coordinator of G-DRIP, stated in his opening remarks that the three years project is targeted at improving media literacy and promoting good governance and accountability.
He lamented the declining rate of investigative reporting, particularly in the north, observing that journalists in the region are now more inclined to report events and press release stories, than in-depth and investigative reports. He added that the project aims to have more investigative reports from the North.
He noted that journalists no longer conduct investigative reporting or write in-depth stories saying it is for this reason that Stallion Times is conducting the training to give participants the required skills, strategies, and understanding they need to be successful as investigative journalists. He said the training will teach participants how to write investigative stories, present data, and shreds of evidence for an air-tight investigative report.
He added that journalists will also be taught how to write good pitches that they can use to access grants, and as well to get support from their organizations to write investigative stories.
Isiyaaku said the project has had a considerable number of investigative reports that were written by journalists in Kano, adding that he is also looking to see more of such reports this year.
The lead facilitator during the training workshop, Idris Muhammad said his teaching module will enrich journalists with the skills required to excel in investigative journalism.
Muhammed said he noticed that journalists are no longer interested in unraveling stories that are not popular in the public domain, which he attributed to poor research and investigation skills. He said these obvious deficiencies among journalists imperatively call for rigorous investigative journalism training, as well as data-driven journalism.
He commended Stallion Times for giving the participants the avenue to learn as well as support them to write investigative reports.
