Bala Muhammad of the Bayero University Kano has advocated for humanitarian journalism to be included in the university curriculum for better knowledge about crises and issues that affect human welfare.

Mr Muhammad, a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communications, said this while speaking with journalists after a two-day workshop for media professionals in Kano.

He said the workshop was aimed at improving the reportorial skills of journalists in reporting humanitarian issues, which was organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Mr Muhammad called on ICRC and other organisations to collaborate and propose to the universities, especially at the graduate level, for humanitarian journalism to be a part of the studies.

“It will help the journalists to have knowledge of crisis and conflict reporting,” he said. “Most universities have health, development, communication, population journalism except humanitarian journalism.”

He emphasised that humanitarian journalists must be innovative, vibrant and shun fake news.

According to him, generally, the news of conflict involves other news values such as drama and oddity; therefore, it has an emotional impact factor that appeals to many people.

Mr Muhammad said a journalist must know the history of the place, the geography and how to understand fake news.

(NAN)