Journalists complete digital media workshop

Twelve journalists across the various media entities in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) including four members of Searchlight’s news staff, this week gained invaluable knowledge from a digital media workshop funded by the United Kingdom.

The workshop was hosted at the soon to be opened British High Commission Office from February 3-4, and was delivered by Multimedia Trainer and Mobile Journalism Specialist, Dan Mason.

Mason has worked with the British High Commission on other projects, and has visited St Vincent previously.

This time, the multimedia trainer used practical teaching methods to impart vital knowledge to media professionals on a range of technological skills that will allow them to better relay information.

Attendees will now be able to, using only their mobile phones if necessary, create podcasts, edit photos, videos and audio clips, among other useful skills.

“Change Your Story”, as the training sessions were called, was designed to improve the digital media capabilities of participants, and encourage a solutions-based approach to journalism.

The training sessions were not limited to St Vincent and the Grenadines, but were replicated across the Eastern Caribbean, in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis; and Guyana.

The workshop had a dual purpose, the second being, to highlight the opening of new UK High Commissions offices in Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Although the opening of the office in SVG was expected to be this month, a date has not been officially announced.

Resident British Commissioner to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Steve Moor, commented at the beginning of the workshop that, changes in technology has “turned the media world upside down.”

He asserted that “the old model of print and audio-visual media has been rapidly overtaken by universal access to information and data, via the internet and mobile devices.”

Continuing to address participants, Moor added that “this workshop is designed to improve your digital skills and encourage a ‘solutions-based’ approach to overcoming those challenges. The training seeks to improve your skills in creating multimedia content for an audience largely accessing information on mobile devices, via social media or online.”

On successfully completing the training workshop, all attendees were awarded certificates of achievement, signed by the High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Janet Douglas, and the trainer, Dan Mason