Chairperson, Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, Bauchi State chapter, Rashida Yusuf, has tasked journalists on effective reportage of gender sensitive issues, to enhance social and economic empowerment of women.

She said this during the inauguration of a two-day training exercise for 20 female journalists, on Wednesday in Jos.

Ms Yusuf said the participants would be exposed to skills and emerging techniques in reporting gender sensitive issues, as well as mental health sessions to promote a healthy lifestyle.

She said the exercise was in furtherance of the Industrial Training Fund capacity development programme for journalists, to enhance productivity.

The chairperson highlighted that training and retraining of journalists was crucial to upholding best practices in the profession.

Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Plateau State Council, Ayuku Pwaspo, urged female journalists to be a voice to the voiceless by becoming agents of change in society.

She advised them to take up leadership roles in society and partner with other media organisations to develop media contents on under reported issues.

She said, “As female journalists, we are change agents in our communities because issues of gender based violence are happening in society every day. We should combat gender bias by becoming a voice to the voiceless in our communities. We can achieve a lot as journalists in our media spaces by posting our reports on platforms such as the Facebook page, X handles, Instagram and other platforms. We must increase our presence in the digital media by sharing positive stories, thereby becoming influential voices because times have changed.”

A resource person, Lilian Idiaghe, in a presentation on confidence building and leadership skills, identified self-awareness, mentorship, training/development, risk taking, leadership roles and self-care as crucial in enhancing the career of female journalists.

According to Idiaghe, journalism plays a crucial role in shaping public opinion and influencing social attitudes.

She noted that bias in storytelling could perpetuate harmful stereotypes and reinforce existing imbalances.

(NAN)