Towards furthering the cause of news by multiple means, the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism in collaboration with the Wole Soyinka Foundation, is set to launch the ‘Art of the cartoon: Imaging social realities’ project, at the Lagos Business Club Ikeja, 50 Hakeem Balogun Street, Central Business District, Alausa, Ikeja (Beside NECA House, Opposite Afrikan Shrine), on Friday 2 December 2016 by 10am. Professor Wole Soyinka first endorsed the initiative during the Centre’s tenth award programme public presentation event, on 9 December 2015 in Lagos.
The Art of the Cartoon project is intended to contribute to raising discussion on the status of cartooning in Nigeria’s news media. The Centre plans to use the initiative to develop the capacity of reporters in the genre, by stimulating the culture of satirical, investigative and humorous cartoons through training and mentoring.
At the launch, Professor Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate, will present the keynote address. Other speakers drawn from media houses and organisations interested in the subject matter will join him to speak to the theme of using cartoons to document and communicate social realities across the world in general and in Nigeria in particular.
The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism has nurtured the idea of championing a programme for cartoonists in addition to its award category in editorial cartoon as it observed that it is one of the most neglected genres of the Nigerian news media. The art of the cartoon project, which commenced with the monitoring of cartoons in seven national newspapers in April 2016, will finally provide the desired opportunity.
The initiative will be supported with social media campaign, especially on Twitter, through the organisation’s handle, @WSoyinkaCentre using the hashtag; #ArtoftheCartoon
Signed:
Motunrayo Alaka
Centre Coordinator
motunrayo@wscij.org
