By: Ayoolajesu Ojo
The Union Of Campus Journalists, University Of Ibadan on Tuesday, 20th of May 2025, organised a one-day training for three local press organisations including, Faculty Of The Social Sciences (FATSSSA), Faculty Of Law and Faculty Of Economics at Room 022, Faculty of The Social Sciences.
The training which is part of a two weeks training for LPOs under the Union, focused on news writing, features and investigative writing.
The training began at about twenty minutes past five, with the press prayer led by the Public Relationshm Officer II of the Union, Victor Siyanbola, followed by a brief overview of the programme as well as all self-introduction of campus journalists in attedance.
The first session, News Writing, was anchored by John Eriomala from UIMSA Press.
He encouraged the participants to engage themselves in reading articles outside their LPOs and beats, citing news writing as the most important beat in journalism.
“If you cannot write a news report, you are not a proper campus journalist yet,” John noted.
He also explained the definition, terminologies, and relevant captions of news writing, laying emphasis on fact-checking with relatable examples.
Training Campus Journalists on features writing in the second session, the Vice President Editorial of UCJUI, Toluwalope Ayeye, defined features writing as a “detailed and in-depth story that explores human interests”.
She explained the characteristics, types, processes, and challenges of features writing.
Also, She stressed that features articles must contain multiple credible and relevant sources to input the human angle, citing quotes and dialogue as a tool for this and other referential examples.
In the concluding session, “the art of investigative reporting”, facilitated by the UCJUI President, Olanshile Ogunrinu, he stated that investigative journalism is the most important niche in journalism as it exposes corruption abuse of power, citing Fisayo Soyombo as an example of investigative reporters.
He highlighted the relevant skills required for a standard investigative report and also shared some of his favourite investigative articles.
In his final remarks, Olanshile appreciated everyone who attended the training for the impressive turnout.
