BY JOY OFASIA
THE Media Association of Solomon Islands President Georgina Kekea encouraged local journalists to tell their stories using mobile journalism.
Ms. Kekea highlighted this in her speech during the official closing of a weeklong mobile journalism (MoJo) training held for local journalists in Honiara last week.
She said most of the time, journalists tend to think about the local audiences only without realizing that with Mojo, it can cut across borders and countries.
“Most of the time, I think we tend to think about the local audience only, without realizing that with MoJo, where it cuts across borders and countries, our audience is not just the Solomon Islands, but it’s the global audience that we can tell our stories through what we do,” the MASI President said.
Journalists and MASI members attended a five-day Mobile Journalism training course at King Solomon Hotel. The training which commenced from 27 to 31 May with the presentation of certificates to the participants was jointly organized by the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Media Action.
She encouraged journalists to use their skills wherever they were in their communities to share their stories with a wider audience.
“It’s instantaneous wherever you go in the community. As long as you connect to the internet, you can just do a story in the community, a story with the people, put them up on Facebook posts, wherever you are accessing them, and you can also share our stories with a wider audience,” Gina said.
The MoJo training course taught journalists about Rule of third, shot sizes, camera angles, movements, crossing the line, mobile filming, VN editing, open camera, Filmic pro, Lumafusion, Davinci Resolve, StreamYard, exposure triangle, and interviews.
The MASI president said that journalists learned something new, which has given different perspectives to the work and roles that they play in their respective organizations.
“I hope you’ve learned something new from this and also gained a different perspective on the work that you do and the roles that you play in your respective organizations,” she said.
The training was funded by the British Government through a partnership between BBC Media Action and its Media Strengthening in the Solomon Islands to learn how to help journalists and media professionals do their work in the country.
Bashar Sharaf, a multimedia journalist and trainer who facilitated the Mobile Journalism training has encouraged Solomon Island reporters to use their mobile phones to share their stories, promoting awareness of the country’s current situation. Sharaf has worked with the Thomason Foundation and BBC Xtra Arabic since 2002.
