By Felista Auma
Field female journalists based in Northern Uganda have been urged to embrace multimedia journalism to remain relevant in an ever evolving newsroom environment. This was during a one day multimedia training for 15 field female journalists at Kakanyero Hotel in Gulu city last week.
Multimedia journalism is a form of communication that combines different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single presentation, in contrast to traditional mass media, such as printed material or audio recordings.
Ms Lucy Acii, a field female journalist and editor with Vision Group’s Radio Rupiny in Gulu city has practiced the profession for 14 years. ‘‘During our time when I started journalism, we had limited platforms to deliver our news content. It was basically print and electronics then. But now the beauty of this (multimedia journalism) is that we have very many platforms where we can deliver our contents. We have facebook, twitter, you can also open up a YouTube channel, blogs, websites where you can deliver your messages to a much bigger audience. We now have a wider reach, and there is also a platform for you as a media house to sell one content through many platforms. As an individual journalist, it gives you a wider platform to sell yourself, Ms Acii said last week.
She added; “The challenge is how to gain all these skills to tell a story for more than one platform.”
Ms Josephine Karungi, the former News Manager at NTV Uganda, asked the 15 field female journalists who attended the multimedia training to embrace multimedia journalism if they are to be competitive in the job market.
“Put yourself out there and do the work. How you place yourself out there and show you want to learn will draw people who genuinely want to help come closer to you. You grow in the newsroom by showing how different you are from the rest with the quality of your work and skills. You should be able to multitask to survive in the newsroom,” said Ms Karungi.
She insists that for any journalist to grow in their various skills and experience, they must embrace creativity and originality to fill gaps in the media space they work in.
“Good can never be suppressed,” Mr Tabu Butagira, the managing editor at Daily Monitor told the female journalists during the training.
Mr. Butagira said if one honed their skills and proved worthy of assignments or being trusted to execute story ideas, they can never be sidelined for being a woman during assignments, at least not under his leadership. He said the ideal should be journalists being assigned to do work according to their competencies.
Mr. Benon Oluka, the Africa Editor for Global Investigative Journalism Network-GIJN and a multimedia trainer told the trainees that in order for female journalists to grab the emerging opportunities in the media industry, one has to tell stories differently using texts, audios, graphics, videos, photos and the various multimedia tools.
Ms Diana Ajok, one of the few female multimedia journalists in Northern Uganda with experience in multimedia journalism said;
‘’I had less experience but because of the faith I had in myself, I leant most of the things from the job. I learnt on hard-ground, that’s why it is very hard for me to forget. When you want to achieve something, you don’t mind how hard it is. The main problem I have with female journalists is that they are lazy and want to be in their comfort zones. Get out of that environment and grow. No one will come looking for you if you show no interest in learning new skills,“said Ms Ajok.
Julliet Oroma, a Gulu FM journalist expressed joy and appreciated FEMJOF-Uganda for the initiative of training female journalists in Gulu city.
“I actually went for the training without a clue about multimedia journalism and I came back well-packed. I got knowledge on camera and also learnt how to deal with people’s attitudes when out in the field, Oroma says.’
The discussion happened during the one day training organized by Female Journalists Forum – Uganda (FEMJOF-UGANDA), a not-for-profit Community Based media Organization in Gulu, Northern Uganda.
With support from Women in News under the Social Impact Reporting Initiative, the field female journalists interacted with national multimedia trainers and editors to understand the current media terrain, share, learn from their experiences and train in multimedia journalism.
