Assessment of Digital Communication Skills Among Journalists in Adamawa State

The digital transformation of journalism requires practitioners to develop competencies in digital content production, social media management, and data journalism that are often absent from traditional journalism training. This study assessed the digital communication skills of practising journalists in Adamawa State, North East Nigeria. A descriptive survey was conducted among 120 journalists from print, broadcast, and online media organisations in Yola and Ganye, recruited through the Adamawa State council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists. A structured questionnaire assessed self-reported competency across ten digital journalism skill areas: social media journalism, multimedia storytelling, data journalism, online audience engagement, digital verification, content management systems, mobile journalism, podcast production, search engine optimisation, and digital ethics. Results showed that social media journalism skills were the highest rated (mean 3.8 out of 5.0) while data journalism (mean 2.1) and podcast production (mean 1.9) were the lowest rated. Only 28.3 percent of respondents had received any formal digital journalism training from their employing organisations. Younger journalists consistently reported higher digital skill scores than colleagues with more than ten years of experience (p < 0.001). Online media journalists had significantly higher skill ratings than print journalists on eight of ten competency areas. The study concludes that digital journalism skills gaps are widespread in Adamawa State media and recommends a regional digital journalism training programme coordinated by the Nigerian Union of Journalists North East chapter. Keywords: digital communication skills, journalism, Adamawa State, digital journalism training, North East Nigeria