NACJ Trains Members on Investigative Journalism

Abdulrasheed Akere Abdulkareem reports,

Abiodun Jamiu, a 400-Level student of Political Science and President of National Association of Campus Journalists (NACJ), Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS) chapter, has facilitated a journalism talk on reinvigorating campus journalism in UDUS at the NACJ congress held at A134 lecture hall (FAIS Building) on 5th December 2021.

He spoke on the theme, 'Investigative journalism, should it be a pal or pariah on campus. He conceptualised Investigative journalism as uncovering what someone is hiding for the purpose of public interest.

During the training session, he noted that any investigative journalist must be aiming at the public interest.

"An ideal investigative journalist report must be a feature story with uncovering of fact, digging for a fact, exposing crime for the interest of the general masses," he said.

According to him, "you have to go undercover to write a story. But it is not a must for your story to be undercover before It can be an investigative story. Undercover is when an investigative journalist employed or engaged in spying by joining the criminal squad or evildoers to expose the secret they are hiding for the public interest."

He differentiated between investigative journalists and ordinary reporters, noting that ‘she said or he said journalists' are the ordinary reporters known for covering every political event while investigative journalists always go on the risky story to search and obtain facts.

“Journalism is expensive while the journalist is poor because one has to spend his funds while working on a project but don't be dissuade; your gain is coming soon,” he said

He added that the other names of investigative journalism are enterprise journalism, in-depth journalism, and project reporting.

He noted that every one of five W's (who, what, why, where, when) and H (how), particularly 'why' as the basic elements in investigative reporting which are needed to be taken care of. He also said that investigative journalists' stories must effect change and make an impact.

He asserted that a good journalist must have a nose for NEWS and he gave out some hints on how to get story ideas, noting that the trainees can localise issues happening in international countries, read widely enough on other media houses like Al-Jazeera.

He said: “There is a world outside the school you can write on, focusing on either terrorism, security, education, health or sport and you need to have a good, critical and patient editor as a good investigative journalist."