n Monday 5th of February 2018, the Presidential Committee on the North-East Initiative and the Victims Support Fund commenced a three-day training workshop on “Utilizing New Media for Humanitarian and Developmental Reportage” in Yola, Adamawa State. According to the PCNI Head of Media and Communications, Alkasim Abdulkadir, the workshop was designed to leverage the power of new media tools to broaden coverage of the North-East – a region which is regarded as a media dark hole. Expanding capacity in this area, he said, would greatly improve reportage of the government’s numerous efforts to rehabilitate and reconstruct the region. In his remarks, the Executive Director of the VSF, Professor Sunday Ochoche urged the participants to educate themselves as their usage of new media tools would thrust them from the precincts of a local audience to those of a global audience. He welcomed the efforts to build new media capacities of residents and enjoined them to wield the powerful channels of expression with a sense of propriety and responsibility. The PCNI State Coordinator, Barrister Bello Diram, who was also present at the occasion commended PCNI and the VSF for the workshop and urged participants to judiciously use the skills they will acquire for the service of humanity.
