Trainings in Media Baithak were designed purposefully for capacity building of media professionals and members of civil society, so with such empowerment they can play their role of bringing peace and harmony in the society.
Tr # 1 – Mobile Journalism
Training on mobile journalism held in Media Baithak on 27 April 2019 was an ideal blend of media and civil society members. Mobile journalism expert Ayaz Khan covered all aspects of mobile journalism (MOJO); storytelling, scheduling, story boarding, shoot in live, camera framing, and editing. Participants were members of civil society, journalists, educationists, and activists. The journalists were given task to work on stories by taking the in-depth point of views of civil society experts. Renowned journalists Syed Masood Raza and Najia Ashar emphasized on the importance of collaborating activities between media and civil society members, explained the role of media and civil society in social justice, accountability, and democratic processes.
Tr # 2 – Social Media in Journalism
With the advent of social media in the second decade of 21st century, the importance and role of electronic media started dwindling. At this moment journalist felt a need to take the change into their benefit, but to do this they first have to be equipped with the knowledge and skills required for social media management. A training for journalist and members of civics society named “social media in journalism was held on 13th July 2019 to increase awareness for role and impact of social media in journalism. Mr. Hussain Afzal, trainer, also discussed the ways social media can be effectively used in journalism for security purposes and verification of data. Najia Ashar, another trainer, then defined the interconnection between media and civil society. Three activities were also conducted during the workshop. In the first activity, participants were asked to give their feedback over wrong, incomplete, or improper impact of a video of public interest. During the second story journalists along with civil society members were assigned a social issue from newspapers to create a concise story for digital audience. Third and the last activity was most interesting of them all, journalists had to interview civil society members over an issue of public interest and device the interview in shape of picture, short video interview, write ups, or sound bites.
Tr # 3 – Voicing and Presentation Broadcasting Skills for Digital Media and TV
Media holds a very crucial responsibility in the society. It helps in supporting democratic process, induce peace and harmony in the society, and educate masses over current affairs. Despite of the great responsibility, media personnel and journalists are found to be less trained and capable to play this role. To empower journalists by enhancing their broadcasting skills for television (TV) and digital media, a one-day training was arranged on September 14, 2019. The trainers focused on the tips, techniques, and required understanding of the news media broadcasting to fresh and mid-career journalists in light of stories related to social justice journalism, accountability journalism, and democratic processes. The trainer, later, took the recently surfaced human rights abuses such like extrajudicial killing, domestic violence, and honour killing to train the participant over how to report on them in line with fine journalistic values and media ethics. The trainer not only took into account anchoring but also highlighted production angle in the required content needed to produce a high-quality news production. Nadia and Faisal reiterated that social justice journalism and accountability journalism are prerequisites for a healthy and vibrant democracy as journalist our watchdog for public interest. “Journalism can help consensus emerge coma improve the knowledge, and judgement of voters during election process. such trainings hold a significant positive impact in the society at large in the bigger picture.” Faisal Karim
Tr # 4 – Fundamentals of Digital Writing
This training, held on 2nd November 2019, was designed for working journalists that are active in the field of media and are eager to learn the digital tools needed to create a successful web strategy for their content. Digital Writing is another term for content strategy, i.e., how to present the work that is being created or curated for a certain platform. Trainer Lubna Jerar elucidated that digital writing is more than just a skill, it is a means of interacting with ideas and with the world, a way of thinking and expressing in all grades and disciplines. Digital writing can help participants develop critical thinking skills and support learning across all subject areas. Journalists, community members, and policymakers must work together to promote technology development in newsrooms to create learning environments that support digital literacy. We are at a crossroads where the medium of journalism is changing but the basis remains the same, she emphasised, we have evolved from the print and broadcast platform to digital the way we present our stories has changed and so have the strategies & style. Apart from teaching part, the training also included critical analysis and writing a report on 3 case studies published in newspaper at that time.
Tr # 5 – Peace and Peacebuilding through Journalism
10 training sessions were conducted during 2020 and 2021 for journalists on peace and peacebuilding. The fundamental idea for providing professional journalists the idea of peace and peacebuilding was to amplify peacebuilding efforts in Pakistan through mainstream and digital media. The journalists were guided about fundamentals of countering violent extremism (CVE), programs of CVE, role of government, media, and civil society in CVE. At the end of the training, the forum was left open further discussion.
