National Wire About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories
By Dayo Emmanuel
The Consular General of the United States Consulate in Lagos, Rick Swart, has said that technology reporting remains an underexplored terrain that journalists should maximise.
Swart made this known at the Consulate during the sixth edition of the Journalism Clinic organised by the Consulate and the Media Career Development Network (MCDN), Lagos, on Thursday, April 18. Titled Technology Reporting, the session was the sixth in a series of bi-monthly media trainings which began in April 2025.
Swart, however, acknowledged the important role of journalists in educating the public on how technology affects day-to-day living. According to him, “The United States venture capital constitutes over 60 percent startup funding in Nigeria while more than 60 percent of Nigerian tech startups are incorporated in the US.”
He also highlighted ongoing collaborations between Nigeria and the United States in fintech training, artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure and innovation. He, however, urged journalists not to be overwhelmed by technical language, stressing that their main responsibility is to translate complexity into clarity.
Welcoming participants, the Executive Director of Media Career Development Network, Lekan Otufodunrin, said the six-part training series is part of a broader effort to strengthen journalism in Nigeria through specialised reporting.
“This programme ending today started in April 2025 covering investigative journalism, media law and ethics, multimedia storytelling, development reporting and business journalism,” he said.
He further stated that participants should look forward to continued mentorship and networking opportunities with past participants as the programme winds down.
The main trainer at the event, Chief Executive Officer of Communiqué, David I. Adeleke, took participants through the fundamentals of technology reporting.
According to Adeleke, “A lot of tech reporting are abstract and highly contextual,” he said, stating that, “Technology is in everything but it doesn’t show in how we report it, we don’t actually talk enough about how it affects everyday people.”
Adeleke also said, “When a company raises x amount of money, how it affects the people should be the issue for journalists and not just the figure raised.
“The people element of journalism that has been missing for a long time is changing in the last 20 years that journalists have started humanising their stories.
“In the last 20 years we have come from not talking enough about the people to talking about the people too much, we are striking the balance.”
Defining tech journalism, Adeleke said, “Tech journalism is the part of journalism that explains and exploits how decisions, systems, tools powered by technology affect the people. It is not press release distribution, it is not big criticism.
“For a very long time it was, but we must be able to strike a balance between publishing things the people send to us as a hard question but as if you are reporting a story.
“You need to ask who does this story affect and how you need to know who the story is reaching. Secondly, you must be able to ask who benefits from the story you publish.
“Definitely somebody is benefiting and this is why you have to be careful that people are not using you to push an idea or agenda.
“This is the problem when it comes to access journalism. This is the best you can make the people feel something about technology that won’t make it abstract to them.”
The facilitator also paired participants into groups of two for a practical exercise. At the end of the session, participants reviewed the exercise and shared insights, learning from one another’s perspectives.
