Local Azerbaijani reporters at web journalism course/photo: Gulnara Akhundova

With the number of Azerbaijani bloggers having tripled in the last year, the country is entering a new era of journalism. Gulnara Akhundova reports from the Azerbaijan Media Center on the last day of a web journalism course helping to train a new generation of Azerbaijani online journalists

The Azerbaijan Media Center’s conference room is bustling as a group of 16 local journalists stand alongside David Brewer, a media strategy consultant from UK. They are receiving their certificates after ten days of learning about online journalism skills, how to use social networking tools for news gathering and news dissemination, and how to operate in a converged news environment.

Content delivery for multiple mediums a must

Brewer, who was the managing editor for the launch of BBC News Online and CNN Europe Middle East and Africa spoke about the importance of media organisations delivering content to whatever device the user turns to in order to access information.

 - It is no longer good enough to produce content for one platform only. Media organizations must operate as converged, he said.

He also commented on the energy of those attending the course and praised the Azerbaijan Media Center on their choice of participating journalists who produced some excellent material and at short notice.

The future is about new media

Most of training participants believe the future is about new media.

- As the internet is expanding in Azerbaijan the importance of new media is growing. This training was very helpful in terms of building capacity for further development of new media. Now, I can deliver this kind of training to colleagues in my home district, Saatly,  said  Mirafgan Sultanov, a video journalist.

For the first time in Azerbaijan, Brewer presented the main principles of how to set out a news organization’s core editorial proposition, how to operate a converged newsroom and how to devise an issue-led journalism strategy that addresses the concerns of the audience and informs public debate. As a result of the training, dozens of twitter and blog accounts have been created by participants attending the two-week course.

The Azerbaijan Independent

The participating journalists also set up a fictional news organization called  ‘The Azerbaijan Independent’ in order to practice the training principles and ideas.

As part of this they attended and tweeted from a news conference, held their own news meeting and wrote an online story about the event they had covered, which was published on this site, and on Media Helping Media. Rahman Rahimov, an interpreter for the training says he has learnt much during these two weeks at Media Center.

- I used to think I knew a lot about social media. After joining this training, I understand I didn’t, he said. A few years ago, Rahman wrote a book about Azerbaijan but could not share it due to lack of funds. Now, he can easily do this with twitter, facebook and blog. 

Raising the standard of online journalism

With newly-gained knowledge and skills web journalism training participants enter the new age in their professional life. According to the Azerbaijan Media Center Director Elshad Farzaliyev, the training has brought together some of the most active new media reporters in Azerbaijan.

- Thanks to this training, we now have a group of reporters who will bring with them a good standard of journalism to the internet medium,” Farzaliyev said.

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