Makerere University 4th Year Journalism Students Skilled in Multimedia Storytelling & Digital Safety

By Bongonyinge Felix

Over fifty (50) fourth year Journalism Students  at Makerere University have received skills in Multimedia Journalism and Digital Safety.

The training was conducted in the Upper Lab of the Department of Journalism, Makerere University facilitated by a team from Ultimate Multimedia Consult (UMC) with funds from the US Mission.

It is a two weeks workshop that started on Monday September 30, to Friday October 11, 2019. It targets to atleast 60 the students to gain skills and knowledge in Multimedia Storytelling, digital security and safety and Good Journalism as the team leader UMC, Mr Businge Gerald states.

“Trained students are expected to appreciate the skills in Multimedia storytelling because it is the standards of Journalism and you should produce contents consumable on Phones and computers,” Mr. Businge said.

“They should also be able to share skills learned in classes to media houses they would work for in future,” he added.

Mr Kaija Wilson  Akiiki, a lecturer at the Department said the department has decided to train journalists that can meet the industry demand because you cannot run away from it.

“As a department we need to train our students with Multimedia tools which has become the norm and industry needs a journalist who can produce multimedia content in videos, audio, text, picture and graphics,” Mr. Kaija said.

Among others, the training focuses on topics such as Basic Web Design and CMS, Creating Podcasts and Online Video Channels, Basic Mapping skills for journalism, Data Visualisation and Immersive Storytelling.

“The training has given us new skills and different way of thinking about journalism. We have learnt how create online contents and put it in audio, video, text in different digital platforms for them to be consumed differently,” Jill Ainebyoona, a fourth year student of Journalism said.

Sandra Chepkurui, also one of the participants said that “the training has introduced us to various digital tools to tell stories in all formats”

All participants will pitch in their stories and the best 20 story ideas will be sponsored to completion. The best three completed multimedia story will win smartphones as a way of empowering participants to continue practicing multimedia.

The workshop is part of the Multimedia University trainings and from Makerere, the UMC team will go to two more Universities to empower them with multimedia skills.