Media Professionals have been urged to focus more on Humanitarian needs, development and conflicts resolution rather than sensational reporting to give the victims a sense of belonging.
A lecturer with the Mass Communication Department, Bayero University Kano, Dr. Bala Muhammed gave the advice in Maiduguri at a Workshop on Humanitarian Reporting organized by the International Committee of Red Cross, ICRC
Dr Bala who observed that journalists often neglect victims of crisis, urged the Professionals to report the root causes of conflict with fair and accurate data for better understanding.
“Humanitarian reporting is related to peace journalism and development journalism. Reporting this aspect enables the public to understand the perspective of the downtrodden, the perspective of the victim. Most of our sensational reporting from the Nigerian Media is from side of the sensational, for instance the insurgency has done this and that most Journalists do not take the angle of the victim to report their plight and what the future holds for them. It is a very good angle for journalist to create news items rather than the usual perspective use over time.
The Communication Coordinator, International Committee of Red Cross in Nigeria, ICRC Mr. Robin Waudo explained that the training was organized to expose journalists to humanitarian reporting and to enhance their knowledge on the need to solution Journalism.
Some of the participants thanked the ICRC for the training and promised to put in to their reportage the experience gained at the training.
The Workshop drew participants from Electronic, Print and New media organizations.
Reporting by Hadiza Abdulrahman, editing by Daniel Adejo.