Northern Pulse: Expert urge female journalists to write compelling stories

By Aisha Gambo

A media consultant, Mrs Tamani Yusuf has advised female journalists to produce emotionally compelling reports to force policies and actions based on such report contents.

Yusuf, a former Managing Director of Kaduna State Media Corporation (KSMC), gave the advice during a two-day workshop on child sensitive resources organised by the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Kaduna Chapter.

"We should not write stories just for the sake of writing stories. We should write stories that will compel our audiences to listen to the stories and to act based on the stories that we've written.

"It's very important as women journalists that any time they are writing a story on children, most especially children that have been tampered with, there are certain principles that they need to work with to ensure that they protect the child,"she said.

She also urged women journalists to uphold the ethics of journalism and desist from pursuing sensational news, expecially while reporting women and children.

The training was supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) with the theme: "Strengthening Child-Sensitive Media Reporting,”

Participants were drawn from different media organisations across the state to learn and share ideas on child sensitive reporting.

Some of the participants commended the organisers saying that the workshop was interesting adding that they now understood the child right act and how to protect children while writing stories.

Sabeera Aliyu , said she would start reporting stories about children and vulnerable women in a way that would protect their dignity.

"This training is an opportunity that reminded me that, as a reporter, my stories have impacts on people, especially for women and children,"she said.