Yobe trains youths on social media, digital communication

The Yobe State Government has organized a oneday workshop for youths that are active on the social media from across the state on the usage of social media and digital communication.

Tagged ‘Building a Strong Social Media Presence in the Age of Attention Deficit’ the workshop, organized by the Ministry of Information, Home Affairs and Culture, took place at CEDARS Conference Hall in Damaturu.

Declaring the workshop open, the Commissioner for Information, Home Affairs and Culture, Hon. Abdullahi Bego, said the training was to equip the youth with skills that would make their work better.

“As you know, social media today is very ubiquitous and people attend more to social media than they even do to traditional media. The reasons are very easy to understand as these are technologies that are so common, easy and cheap.

“That is why we thought that it is important to bring many of these youths who are very active on social media together to exchange ideas and show them few things that would make their work better,” Bego said.

According to him, though many of the youths are influencers, they lack basic traditional journalism training, hence the decision by Governor Mai Mala Buni’s administration to sharpen their skills.

“We are going to train them on how to be effective on social media, how to avoid things that could lead to litigation, how to avoid spreading fake news, how to ensure context and background to some of the things that they pool so that people are better informed not confused.”

The commissioner, who commended Governor Buni for his support for youths, said the state government decided to train over 100 youths with the first batch numbering 50 participants.

Papers were presented on ‘Factors in the Work of Social Media Influencers, Various Social Media Platforms: Features, Positive and Negative

Uses’ by Dr Musa Usman and Dr Ibrahim Uba Yusuf of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri.

A media consultant and digital communication expert, Mr. John Adama, presented a paper on ‘Building a Strong Social Media Presence in an Age of Attention Deficit.’