Karachi: The Institute of Business Administration – Centre for Excellence in Journalism (IBA-CEJ) held a two-day “Communications Strategy Workshop” in collaboration with the Multi Donor Trust Fund. The editorial consultant for the Express Tribune, Abul Hasanat trained 20 government officials from Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkwa.
The workshop covered different mediums of communications which government officials can use to improve their work. Guest speakers included Digital Marketing Manager Nashit Munshi, Geo News Reporter Muhammad Qaseem Saeed, Freelance Photojournalist Ayesha Mir, Co-founder of Bolo Bhi Farieha Aziz, Right to Information Expert Dr. Syed Raza Gardezi, CEJ Director Kamal Siddiqi and CEJ Lecturer Shahzeb Ahmed.
On the first day, Mr. Hasanat conducted an interactive session on how the information department works and what tools government officials can use to work more efficiently. He explained the concept of news, feature writing and the inverted style pyramid to the participants.
Mr. Saeed introduced the concept of mobile journalism to the participants and shared tools and tips on how to use smartphones while covering an event. “Every reputed and known news channel and organization in the world today is adopting mobile journalism technology to make news-gathering easier, timely and cost effective. MoJo kits have made work easier and quicker,” he said.
The day ended with a brief on how advertisement and publicity can be optimized and discussed the fast-moving trends of social media marketing by Mr. Munshi.
The second day of the workshop kicked off with a session on ethics and the media landscape by Mr. Siddiqi. He spoke about being part of the communications department and how the personnel should get their message across to the public. He further discussed the issues that government officials face while dealing with the media and also shed light on the Code of Ethics of journalism.
Talking about the basics of photography, Ms. Mir taught the participants about the components of a photograph and how to handle and operate a camera.
Ms. Aziz walked the participants through fake news, safety on social media, and the Cyber Crime Law. Talking about account security, Ms. Aziz added, “We should keep different passwords for all social media accounts and should always have a secondary account associated. You should also check where your account was last logged in which will tell you if whether your account was hacked or not.”
Dr. Gardezi ended the workshop with a session on “Right to Information”. He briefed the audience on what “Right to Information” is and about the law in each province. “We will never know anything if we don’t ask, hence, it is important to use your right to information to know more,” he added.
The workshop concluded with a certificate distribution ceremony and a feedback session.
