Today iLab Liberia wrapped up a training for Liberian human rights journalists in social media. The training started on December 8th and finished today. There was one session each day that lasted for two hours. Fifteen journalists from both print and electronic media institutions participated in this training. The social media training covered blogging, particularly Tumblr and Twitter. Some principles of using social media were also discussed, such as including tags in a blog, mentioning your blog or post in a tweet and styles of writing posts as a journalist.
During the training all of the journalists started tumblr and twitters accounts. For example Ms. Tecee Boley started http://teceeboley.tumblr.com/, Mr. Sam Zota started http://samzota.tumblr.com/, and Mr. Oniel Bestman started http://onielbestman.tumblr.com/. At the training we were told by the journalists that many of their stories are not heard due to the lack of space in the dailies to publish them. The Journalists saw the training as a new tool through which their untold stories could be heard, seen and read.
After this training, iLab Liberia confirmed that there is a great need for such training for Liberian journalists, and as such iLab Liberia plans to host another social media training soon. Please check back later. Here are some photos from the event.[promoslider height="600px" category="journalismtraining"] Luther D. JekeTraining Director*iLab_ Liberia