Crispng trains campus reporters on fact-checking, investigative journalism

Crispng, the youth-driven platform, has organised a three-day journalism masterclass for campus reporters across the country.

The virtual training, which held from December 29 to December 31, 2022, aims to help students acquire relevant skills to become successful journalists.

During the three-day session, the students were taught the rudiments of fact-checking, investigative journalism, as well as data and multi-media journalism.

They were taught by Elizabeth Ogunbamowo, a researcher and fact-checker with Dubawa, and Samad Uthman, a multi-media investigative journalist with TheCable.

The training ended with a mentorship class handled by James Ojo, editor and co-founder of Crispng.

According to Ojo, the initiative was introduced to prepare young journalists — mostly students — for future opportunities in the media landscape.

The editor said Crispng will work closely with interested volunteers after the training to consolidate the knowledge gained from the exercise.

“Being a youth-driven platform, we thought of initiating an opportunity like this to groom students who are passionate about journalism. This is largely due to the fact that some journalism students graduate from higher institutions without any practical knowledge of what they studied. We want to change the narrative,” he said.

“After the training, we hope to work with interested volunteers who will be contributing articles for Crispng. The idea behind the exercise is to bridge the gap between theory and reality and inspire campus reporters to write life-changing stories.

“We strongly believe it is going to be a rewarding exercise. We will be giving our volunteers all the needed support to grow their journalistic career”.

Those who participated in the training include students from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akunga-Akoko, University of Benin, Crescent University, and Ekiti State University.