Bernama urges media students to adopt MOJO skills

By, Husna Fathiyyah

GOMBAK, 5 November 2024: As technology advances, journalism is transforming rapidly, with mobile journalism, or ‘mojo,’ at the forefront. For communication and media students, mastering this skill has become essential, as it offers a competitive edge and opens one to diverse career opportunities in a fast-paced media landscape.

In conjunction with National Journalists Day (HAWANA 2024), a series of campus tours was launched for the first time this year with the aim to provide students further insights into journalism and media literacy. The third edition of HAWANA 2024 tour for Central Zone was hosted by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) on 4 November 2024.

Among the highlights was a mojo course conducted by Syed Lylia Hariz Al-Qadri from Bernama’s Digital Media Desk. Mojo is the act of collecting and producing news content using mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

According to GWI data on January 2024, social media has become the source of news for 44.4 percent of Malaysians today. Therefore, to keep up with the barrage of information, it is important for journalists to master mojo skills.

“By mastering Canva, Capcut as well as AI tools including ChatGPT, you can produce a variety of media content on-the-go, including articles, videos as well as go on live,” said Syed Lylia.

Having a decade of experience as a journalist, Syed Lylia shared in-depth of his expertise doing mojo including tips and tricks on how to take good photos and videos, understanding camera angle, frame per second (FPS), resolutions as well as figuring out the best camera settings. He also emphasised the importance in investing quality equipment, including the latest smartphones, good quality microphones as well as stabilisers to produce quality news content.

Echoing Bill Gates’ famous quote, “Content is king,” the head of Bernama’s Digital Desk urged media students to refine their photography, videography, and content creation skills, as these skills are valuable and applicable across industries.

Earlier, the launching ceremony was attended by officers in the Ministry of Communication and BERNAMA, as well as lecturers and communication and media students from seven different public universities around Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Perak, including IIUM, UPM, UKM, UM, UITM, USIM and UPSI.

The HAWANA 2024 campus tour was previously held in Sarawak (25 May) and Sabah (25 October). The upcoming sessions will be held next in Melaka (Southern Zone), Terengganu (East Coast Zone) and Penang (Northern Zone).***