A Mobile Journalism (MoJo) workshop, aiming to equip journalists and broadcasters with cutting edge digital story telling skills has concluded on Friday 31 st 2024, receiving much praised from the participants.
Funded by the United Kingdom Government, the workshop, which began on Monday, May 27, was conducted by BBC Media Action in partnership with the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI).
Less theoretical and more practical, the intensive training required participants to use rule of thirds, shot sizes, camera angles/movements and apps to gather, edit and distribute news with only their smartphones and tablets.
Participant, Linton Kere of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) described it as an “excellent” training.
“The fact that I say it is an excellent training is because it give us journalists the idea on how we could go in-depth, using only our
mobile phones to get out stories out to our audience.”
Giving the training a 100/100 score, Kere extended his appreciation to BBC media action and UK government for making the workshop a possibility.
Barava FM reporter Jimmy Nolan said the MoJo training course was timely given that people now consume news digitally.
“This training is suitable for the digital era that we are living in now where most people access news on their mobile phone,” he said.
Upon conclusion of the workshop, British High Commissioner to Solomon Islands, Thomas Edward Coward who was present to hand over certificates congratulated the participants and commended them for their work.
“You keep us informed and you shared our stories and that is really important,” he said.
Acknowledging that though the country is geographically scattered and culturally diverse, he commended them for their commitment and efforts to unify and informing the nation.
Facilitated by Bashar Saraf, a BBC journalist and trainer who worked extensively in the Middle East and North Africa encouraged reporters to utilize mobile phones to willingly and proudly tell Solomon Islands’ stories.
“Please have your story told, and don’t let other people tell your stories. The world needs to know about this place (Solomon Islands),” he added.
The training is part of the BBC Media Actions support towards enhancing Solomon Islands Media Industry.
