Edugist’s Senior Reporter, Folaranmi Ajayi, has highlighted the impact of the social justice reporting training organised by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) urging early career journalists to right the wrongs in society by pursuing this path.
The training, held in Lagos on Thursday, was designed to equip early-career journalists with the skills necessary for impactful social justice reporting.
Ajayi was one of the 22 attendees selected from 133 applicants. He expressed his appreciation for the training, noting its pragmatic approach. “The training was impactful, especially because it was practical-oriented,” Ajayi said. “Another thing I learned is that everyone can engage in social justice reporting if they have what it takes. Young and upcoming journalists should focus on the impact their work can cause and learn on the job, rather than focusing solely on the money.”
Fisayo Soyombo, the founder and editor-in-chief of FIJ, provided insights into the organisation’s commitment to social justice reporting and its importance. He highlighted the numerous impacts of FIJ’s reports despite the organisation’s relatively young existence. Soyombo explained that many journalism outlets avoid social justice reporting due to potential conflicts with influential figures who fund the media.
“Many papers avoid social justice reporting because they feel their sources of livelihood will be affected,” Soyombo said. “At the end of the day, you can’t even rely on that kind of patronage.” He further emphasised that FIJ had lost some potential customers due to its dedication to social justice, but urged attendees not to be deterred by similar challenges.
Soyombo encouraged early-career journalists to pursue excellence and choose fellowships that align with their career goals. “If money is the most important thing to you in life, I don’t understand why you should end up as a journalist. It’s not realistic. But if it is important to you but not the most important, and the things that are more important to you include impact, then it is what you should do, and you would find your feet at some point,” he said.
The final session of the training, led by Valentine Chukwu, FIJ’s monitoring and evaluation officer, focused on metrics for measuring the impact of social justice stories. Chukwu distinguished between outcomes and outputs, explaining that while outputs are the quantitative results of a story, such as social media shares and traction, outcomes are the broader societal changes the story aims to achieve.
“The outputs may include the number of social media shares and the traction that your story generates, while outcomes are the broader social changes your story aims to achieve,” Chukwu said.
This year’s training, like those held in 2022 and 2023, was organised in collaboration with the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ)’s Collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusion and Accountability (CMEDIA) project.
