Azerbaijani journalists see multimedia journalism in practice during London visit

Azerbaijani journalists from broadcast and print media were hosted by the Thomson Foundation in London last week for a five-day visit as part of a business journalism training programme.

Destinations during the visit included the Azerbaijan Embassy, the BBC, the Telegraph and the Financial Times to see how some of the world's most famous news organisations used digital media.

They also took part in exercises to practise mobile and more advanced multimedia techniques led by Thomson Foundation trainer Dan Mason.

This visit to London builds on two weeks' training in Baku during which participants were introduced to multimedia tools and were familiarised with business practice and terminology.

Aynura Piriyeva from the programme's funder Pasha Bank said: The reason we are investing in journalism is because we want to make sure that there are capable journalists who don't just take information the way it is and publish it.

We look through these articles on a day-to-day basis and we can really see the difference.

This is why it's the third year that we have run this programme with the British Council.

Konul Ahmadova, the Baku-based programmes officer at project leaders the British Council, said the programme had become very famous amongst Azerbaijani journalists:

Big experience' The number of applicants is growing more and more every year because, of course, it is a very big experience

She said that there were skill gaps amongst Azerbaijani journalists in multimedia and added that many do not speak English, which the course seeks to address.

One participant, Abbas Akhundov of Trend Information Agency said the programme has introduced him to many new techniques that he is already putting into practise.

For example I created audio in London and I uploaded to Soundcloud and shared this link with my colleagues in Baku so they can listen to it, he said.

This programme is unique in journalism, especially for agency journalists.

Farid Hasanov of ANS TV said he was interested to see the importance of British print media compared to that of its Azerbaijani counterpart, which he noted did not command such high status in his homeland.

He was also impressed with the integration of print and digital media at the Telegraph and used the visit to the BBC to find some expert contacts for his work at ANS.

Young and eager' Our journalists are young and eager for more information about journalism. That's why this programme is really good for Azerbaijan.

Farid's colleague at ANS Elnara Mammadova said she noticed a great difference between the London newsrooms and the one in which she works as a news anchor in Baku.

When we studied journalism we were told that professionalism was not something that changes across the borders, from what I have seen today and yesterday, the criteria can be different around the globe.

I worked as an anchor for five years, she added. I probably thought that was the highest limits that I could reach. But when I joined this course and came to London I could see that the limits of professionalism are much broader than I imagined before.

While most of the visitors are looking forward to passing on the knowledge they have gained to colleagues, one group member has a direct role in educating the next generation of journalists in Azerbaijan.

Pervane Ibrahimova, who teaches international journalism at Baku State University, said the visit has been useful for her teaching.

"When I teach to my students, I talk to them about the BBC, Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times and this time I visited them. Now I have a better impression and more experience of these institutions.

The students are keen to learn about new media, she added. We need to develop the skills and capacity of teachers in those areas. Every bit of information and knowledge we acquired here was extremely important and interesting.

Post by Thomson Foundation.

LINK:	http://www.thomsonfoundation.org/news-and-features/2014/03/26/azerbaij...
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