Looking for the story within the story, putting the spotlight on the instructors, and the value of interacting different cultures: one journalists study experience in Germany.

Adeyeye Joseph writes features for THIS DAY in Nigeria. He recently spent two months in Germany participating in intensive media training in environmental reporting. Adeyeye found that the skills he learned, however, had a much further reach than the name of the course implies.

In the concluding part of this two part series, RAP 21 hears about Adeyeyes experience at the International Institute for Journalism in Berlin, and what he brought back to Nigeria, both on a professional and personal level, from this once in a life time experience. This week, Adeyeye Joseph speaks about the training he received, his experience in Germany, and the value of his international class.

Adeyeye confesses that the written part of the course was the most gruelling, but also the component from which he benefited the most. The instructors were drawn from top English media: We had Alex Kirby from the BBC, Paul Brown from Guardian of London and an editor from the Observer, named Anna. Alex handled news writing, Paul features and Anna editing.

From these journalism experts came a few particularly salient tips: Paul and Alex’s drilling made me realise that you could get the story across without writing an epistle. From Anna, the editor from the Observer I learnt how to search for the ’story’ within the story. The idea was to search within a story idea for that newsy grain that would convince your editor that the story is worth pursuing. Adeyeye says he returned to Nigeria with one piece of knowledge in particular: Every lead is worth checking out.

The course took eight weeks. During the first three weeks we received lectures from experts in the fields of journalism, environmental science, agriculture and ecotourism. This period was an introductory period during which the lecturers introduced terms and contemporary issues in environmental reporting (i.e global warming, climate change etc.) to us, says Adeyeye.

Following the introductory lectures, the group of 15 participants travelled throughout Germany, and covered a conference on Renewable Energy. They also visited Geneva to visit the offices of major international organisations such as the World Health Organisation and the World Wildlife Foundation in Geneva. We also visited recycling plants, water treatment plants, the biggest chemical company in Europe (BASF) and a host of other places. It was a great experience and the organisers, our lecturers and the Germans were very nice. The students then returned to Berlin where they spent the last two weeks on the written component of the course.

Other events that particularly stood out for the features writer: I also spent time researching into the lives of black immigrants and the black community in Germany. The highlight was the evening I spent with the Foreigner’s Division of the Berlin police. We spent hours ’hunting’ illegal immigrants in Berlin.

The students werent the only ones who benefited from constructive criticism concerning their writing skills;

Some of the lecturers could have done with some bit of training themselves. Some had very funny ideas about journalists from developing countries. Someone actually came to the class with the intention of introducing us to the Internet. And as per their reaction to our writing none (of us) could have described it better than my Zimbabwe colleague who said, "it (their reaction) was more of surprise than acknowledgment."

In my class, we tore into some of the articles used by our lecturers as ’standard texts’. We felt even though they were well written the reporting was sloppily done. And they agreed with us. A lot of the participants confessed that they left with a greater understanding of other cultures. Two examples would suffice. My flatmate was Pakistani. I was surprised to discover that his views were more liberal than mine even though he lives very close to the Afghan border and I come from a part of Nigeria that is generally seen as liberal.

Of the fifteen students, four were from Africa; Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The rest were drawn from countries throughout Asia and Latin America.

In the beginning one of the Chinese participants in our class always prefaced her introductions with, I am Liu and I am special because I am the only pregnant lady in this class. Initially we considered this distractive until we got talking and we understood she had no uncle, aunt, brother or sister because of Chinas one couple one child policy. That piece of insight changed the way we looked at her and turned half of the class into doting nurses.

Adeyeye Josephs editor recommended him for the course after being contacted by the German embassy in Nigeria.

For more information on the International Institute for Journalism, visit: http://www.dse.de/iij/iij-e.htm