Journalists from six Eastern Caribbean countries including Dominica are now better able to use their profession to make positive changes to communities using Information Technology.
The other countries were Barbados, St. Kitts, Antigua, Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Guyana.
These islands were selected to participate in a two-day workshop dubbed “Change Your Story Digital Media Training”.
It focused on giving a different perspective to the way persons view news and making a positive benefit in communities by telling stories using apps on your mobile phone.
A journalist from Dominica News Online represented Dominica at one of the training sessions held in Antigua and Barbuda this week.
Meantime International media trainer/Coordinator of the Digital training, Dan Mason said the program has been successful; targeting at least twelve journalists per country.
“We’ve been working with journalists and communication professionals… creating a network of journalists across the eastern Caribbean who can collaborate in the future,” Mason said.
He said the enthusiasm and commitment of persons makes him feel proud to be part of the program and one day hopes to see the participants become community leaders.
“If we can just put the foundation blocks in place, for me, that would have been a fantastic start,” he said
He added that he looks forward in collaborating with other countries and delivering this training to others.
The training involves practical work such as taking pictures by using various techniques, shooting videos in different angles and creating podcasts using your phone.
The apps which were used for editing were Anchor, Inshot, Quik and Voice Record Pro.
The Change Your Story digital training originated in Nigeria, Africa in 2015.
It is driven by the High Commission to Barbados in the Eastern Caribbean in efforts to support good journalism and communication in the region.
Dominica has journalists nou? If so who are they? We have propaganda announcers but not journalists. In other parts of the world journalists inform the people and even take the lead ahead of the police to investigate allegations so they could properly inform the people. What no we have in Dominica is nothing short of how you expect preschoolers to behave and I am surprised that the coordinator of the program did not take them to a preschool setting rather than a media workshop.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention DNO.
Any aspiring journalist should welcome any opportunity to advance their craft.
Now more than at any time in the profession is there access to the means of distribution of one’s work through information technology.