With the changing terrain in the information dissemination sector, experts have continued to harp on the importance of taking advantage of technological innovations to take proper advantages of the evolving media convergence.
Recently, Dr Mukhtari Magaji, a lecturer at Bayero University Kano, urged journalists to prepare for the transition; acquire the skills that will make them survive for convergence in the media – a mixture of texts, audio, and video. He said this will surely be the key to production and consumption of media content via a single medium of communication.
Perhaps, it is along this line that Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust newspapers and other titles as well as owners of Trust TV and other multimedia platforms, took a further step in realising this on Saturday when it held the maiden media hackathon in Kano for young innovators.
The event was in collaboration with StartUp Kano, a Kano-based organisation grooming talents in different expertise.
Tagged “Media Hackathon: The future of media Kano 2022”, the event was an initiative aimed at pooling and encouraging young innovators in technology with prospects in the media industry.
Participants were drawn from various aspects of expertise who have developed several innovative concepts to promote and gear up the evolving technological advancement of the media.
Aisha Tofa, who is the founder of Startup Kano, said, “the Hackathon is organised to see how we can support young people in technology and creative industry to come together and create things that will simplify the use of media for users and consumers.
“We have two teams namely, team technology and team creative that created tech softwares, mobile apps and websites that journalists can use to simplify their works while they later write on trending topics across the globe and then graphics designers create designs for the Daily Trust and Trust TV.
“At the end of the day, we picked the best and rewarded them while the rest that did not win will be mentored to keep up and upskill their knowledge.”
Speaking, the Editor-in-Chief and Chief Executive Officer of Daily Trust, Malam Naziru Mika’ilu, said the company is engaging the young minds to see how it can support them in ways of news or media consumption and also to support their work.
“We want to see how to collaborate more to work with them either as for them joining our company or as freelancers because they are young and they understand what their age mates want and how they consume news and other kinds of information.
“We want to tap in their expertise with which we could be helped to create new ways of reaching young audiences,” He said.
He added that the exercise will be a continuous process as the company is looking up to other start-ups in other states like Kaduna, and the federal capital, Abuja, among others with the aim of tapping into other opportunities.
While congratulating them for winning, he assured all participants of the company’s resolve to work with them in different capacities.
“I want to assure you that everyone is a winner and this is the beginning. We are going to work with you either as full-time staff or freelancers with our company from anywhere you are,” he said.
The General Manager of Trust Television, Malam Ibrahim Shehu, said engaging the talents will certainly make an impact on the channel’s programming as the station is looking at breaking barriers in television broadcasting.
“As you can see from our content, we need young people that are very creative in videography and also content production that we can commission to do things for us from any part of the country so they can be part of our journey.
“As a new channel, we want to get the best of the best so that we can put competitive content out there for the kind of journalism we practise as a company generally.”
Three winners emerged from each of the two main categories, that is the creative and technology categories.
For the creative category, Yazid Umar came out as the winner with a cash price of N200,000, while Salamatu Adamu was the first runner up and won N100,000 cash price and Abdussamad Ibrahim emerged as the second runner up and he also walk away with N75,000.
From the technology category, Sa’id Sani emerged first with a cash prize of N200,000 while Munir Ibrahim came second to win N100,000 and Aminu Babayo finished third to claim N75,000.
Yazid Umar won the first position in the creative category for creating a videography–a short video clip on the highlights of the International Women’s Day which went viral across social media platforms. His presentation was adjudged the best for its seamless transmission of the message.
Salamatu Adamu wrote a feature article on the Russia-Ukraine war and its economic impact which captured all areas and angles of the trending topic which has earned global attention.
Abdussamad Ibrahim clinched the third prize with his work which was the design of a cover page for the Daily Trust newspaper.
For the technology category, Sa’id Sani who emerged the overall winner designed a news android application with push notification feature which will simplify and engage the audience without stress, while Munir Ibrahim designed a landing webpage for the Daily Trust and Podcast editions.
Aminu Babayo developed a news aggregator software which brings in several news platforms into one place to simplify and bring about user friendly and easy access to news consumption.
Speaking shortly after receiving his cash gift prize of N200,000, Yazid Umar said it would assist him to buy equipment to further do some work.
“I am delighted to have emerged as one of the winners of this event and I sincerely thank the management of Media Trust and Startup Kano for the initiative.
“As for the cash prize I received, it will definitely help me to buy the things I don’t have,” he said.
Also speaking, Sa’id Sani said he was delighted with the opportunity given him to participate in the competition, which he described as a morale booster.
“My morale has been boosted. The first time I came across the hackathon, I thought to myself just to participate not with the intention of winning but to test myself and see how far I have gone in what I choose to pursue.
“Alhamdulillah, it was a success and I am now really inspired to put more attention into what I am doing,” he said.
Ali Sabo is a media practitioner and the communications officer for Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD). He said while the media remains a very important tool the masses are still looking at trying to salvage issues in and around the society in terms of development and corruption, its integration with technology will go a long way in achieving the new role.
“It is no longer an option. We need technology to move the media industry today. What Media Trust did was really impressive and this is what even giant international media organisations are transitioning to.
“You can’t even know many vital things that are happening these days without the aid of technology, especially in areas of authentication and investigation.
“We all know how fake news and propaganda are spreading these days like wildfire; it is through technology the media is riding on to bring these threats to the barest minimum.
Sabo further urged Media Trust to keep up with the good initiative especially how it decides to engage the youths who are the custodians and consumers of content, who have the ideas and know how to develop them. He added that the initiative “will create a serene media space’’.
