Journalism students in Kisii mentored, inspired at media symposium

Student journalists plant trees at Rongo University before the symposium.

Rongo University recently hosted a media symposium where students were mentored and also explored the vast field of journalism and related disciplines.

The event, which brought together members of the Writers Clubs of Kisii University and the host institution, was held with an aim to empower, mentor, inspire, nurture talent and exchange knowledge and ideas.

The meet, held at Rongo University’s Multipurpose Hall on Friday, also explored journalistic writing, digital publishing, poetry, creative writing, graphic design, videography and photography.

The event kicked off with a tree planting session led by Tonny Blaire, an environmental conservation enthusiast before Speakers dove into their topics of the day.

Ethics in Journalism

Rodgers Otiso, a seasoned Feature writer taught participants how accuracy, consent and transparency contribute to impactful stories, before tackling principles and ethics in journalism.

“Consistency is what makes a writer. The more you practice writing the more you become an expert,” he said.

Digital Publishing

Dan Nixon from Kisii University delved into the development and production of written material such as newspapers, books and magazines.

He encouraged young journalist to be creative and produce their own work because using other people’s work will cost them in future.

Expression through Poetry

Tonny Blaire and Abbu from the varsity’s Writers Club explored how to come up with good poems and prose. Tonny encouraged participants to be self-driven and also be passionate to succeed in journalism.

Creative Writing

Wafula Meshack, a writer and author from Rongo University led an engaging workshop on creative writing. The session emphasized how to become a good writer. He mentioned strategies like reading extensively, writing consistently and attend writing workshops s essential. Also through reading other people’s work we learn and become good writers.

Visual storytelling: Graphic design, Videography and Photography

Okoth from Rongo University and Reinhard Shihunwa and Idi Jibril from Kisii University hosted the visualization workshop where they expressed how pictures, designs and videos can be used to create a story.

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Participants learnt the importance of visual storytelling in complementing written content, in addition to engaging diverse audience in the digital era in addition to usage of design software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign.

Kisii University Patron Tinega encouraged students to be all-rounded. He said that students should consider having all journalistic skills for them to be considered in the digital market.

“There is stiff competition from citizen journalists and lack of employment does not mean there are no jobs, be competitive and market yourself,” he said.

By Faith Oloo

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