Adeniyi Yusuf
The Department of Linguistics, African Languages and Communication Arts, Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, has held its semester media workshop for 100 Level students offering the course title, “Basic Reporting Techniques in Society”. The lecturer-in-charge of the course is Mr. Oluwatobiloba Lawal.
The workshop, which was held at the Faculty of Arts Auditorium, aimed to teach students the rudiments of news writing, features writing, and investigative reporting.
Present at the event include Head of the Department, Dr. Shalom Onadipe; Director of Centre for Yoruba Studies, Prof. Ahmed Adesanya. Other lecturers present include Dr. Olabode Abimbola, Dr. Alimat Eleshin-Ajikobi and a resource person at the department, Mr Okegbemi Taiwo.
At the event, a representative of the New Daily Prime announced that the media house platform would be used to promote communication activities of the students.
Over 500 students of the institution were in attendance at the event, where they learnt the rudiments of news writing and the essentials of journalism.
Speaking at the event, the first speaker, an award-winning journalist, Aina Temitope, described news story writing as factual account of events that is timely and objective.
She said, “News writing is very important to journalism. Without the 5 Ws and H, every report will be incomplete.”
Temitope also emphasised that rumour should be taken away from factual reporting.
Also, the second speaker, the head of Companies and Markets desk at BusinessDay, Alli Wasiu, spoke on the concept of feature writing, stressing that such journalistic pieces allow for flexibility and creativity.
He noted, “Feature writing begins where a news story ends,” adding that the essence of such piece of work is to make impact and bring people into account.
Wasiu said every news story has a potential to become a feature story, provided that the writer is equipped with the necessary skill set, including understanding the rudiments of news and ability to ask the right questions.
He said, “You must understand that feature stories are people-focused articles that try to solve problems, hold government accountable, and provide reliefs where necessary; they are hitherto solution-based stories.”
Also, another speaker, a journalist, Muhammed Lawal, stressed the importance investigative reporting.
He said, “Investigative reporting is a form of journalism. It uncovers hidden truth, corruption, and injustices.”
The workshop was closed after students asked several questions from the speaker and answers were given accordingly.
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