A four-day journalism workshop organized by the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) in collaboration with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation’s Turkey office took place in Izmir, western Turkey. Journalists Banu Tuna and Gökçer Tahincioğlu, who coordinated the project, led sessions on news development, story focus and storytelling, while journalist Semra Pelek covered editing in the digital age, court reporting and the importance of following up on news stories.
MLSA — The Journalism Workshop for Journalists, organized by the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) in collaboration with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation’s Turkey office, took place from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 in Aliağa, a district of Izmir province in western Turkey.
Young journalists gathered to work on the upcoming issue of GazeteMLSA, spending four days alongside experienced journalists developing news pitches and learning about story planning, storytelling, court reporting and editing.
The workshop was coordinated by Banu Tuna, secretary-general of the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), and Gökçer Tahincioğlu, Ankara bureau chief of the news outlet T24. It began Thursday, Oct. 29, with participants meeting and reviewing assignments they had been given ahead of the event.
The training program began Friday, Oct. 30, with a session led by Tuna titled "Pitching and planning news stories." Participants explored how to develop story ideas and plan the reporting process.
In the afternoon, Tahincioğlu used examples to explain how to structure a news report as a narrative and present it to readers. He emphasized narrative coherence, the sequence in which events are presented and the overall flow of a news story.
The day's final session was led by journalist and MLSA Trial Coordinator Semra Pelek, who discussed the changing role of editors in digital publishing in a session titled "Editing in the digital age."
The third day of the workshop, Saturday, Oct. 31, opened with Pelek's session on "Court reporting and following up on stories." The discussion focused on covering judicial proceedings and the importance of sustained reporting on legal cases that journalists are following.
In the afternoon, Tuna and Tahincioğlu led a session titled "Finding the focus of a news story." Participants worked on defining the scope of a story, identifying its central issue and building a narrative around that focus.
Tahincioğlu led the day's final session, examining storytelling techniques through examples of different news reports.
The workshop concluded with an editorial meeting attended by Tuna and Tahincioğlu, during which participants presented and discussed their news pitches. The group considered potential stories for the upcoming issue of GazeteMLSA and reviewed ideas the young journalists had developed throughout the workshop.
In addition to providing training on the news production process, the four-day workshop gave participants an opportunity to develop their own reporting proposals and receive feedback on them during an editorial meeting.
