The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) in collaboration with the International Institute for ICT Journalism (Penplusbytes) has organised a boot camp for student journalists across the country to make them more innovative in the profession. The one day booth camp was to provide the students with learning skills and exchange opportunities in online journalism topics such as Online News Publishing and Online tools for gathering news. The camp which was on the theme, “Enhancing your Future as a Journalist through Online Journalism”, attracted student journalists from five journalism training institutions in the country. The schools which were represented were; the Ghana Institute of Journalism, African University College of Communication (AUCC), Jayee University College, University of Ghana - School of Communication Studies, the National Films and Television Institute (NAFTI) and the Christian Service University College, which is based in Kumasi. Speaking at the launch of the programme on Friday, Mr Bright Blewu, GJA General-Secretary, noted that the ICT camp would also be used to educate the participants on revenue models for online news, modern trends in broadcast technologies and social media and journalism. “It has become necessary that today’s journalists harness the presence of these social network tools in the creation and dissemination of news content”. He pledged GJA’s commitment towards supporting its members to take advantage of new media to serve their audience even better while respecting the code of ethics and maintaining the highest professional standards. The Association also used the occasion to launch a social platform www.gjaghana.org intended to provide its members with opportunities to effectively explore the benefits of social networking tools as they interact and connect with the general public. “The face of journalism is changing rapidly due to the advent of new technologies which have brought in their wake both challenges and opportunities”, he added. Dr Kwabena Riverson, Penplusbyte Board Chairman, noted that the training also formed part of Penplusbyte’s 10th anniversary and cited essay competitions for journalists in Africa and training packages for media houses as some of the activities earmarked for the celebration. “The areas that we will be covering at this boot camp forms part of our objective to provide exemplary leadership in ICT training”. He noted that so far Penyplusbyte had trained over 100 journalists from various parts of Africa and across the globe in cutting edge new media technologies and contemporary ICT issues. Dr Riverson said Penplusbyte had initiated a project dubbed: “Reporting on Oil and Gas”, to educate journalists on the intricacies of the oil and gas sector.