Welcome to the year dubbed 20-wealth, don’t ask me why or who the pioneer is all I know is that we are living in a free country where you’ll never ran out of trends or creativity. I guess it’s never too late to pass on my compliments of the new season. I have been asked on one too many occasions as to why I have neglected my-blog? The reality is… I didn’t, just that a lot has emerged (career wise) since my last post till the one you’re reading now hence I’ve been busy like a bee. Luckily it has been growth, development and success and I am so grateful to see people taking interest; it is not because I am smart but God grace.
Moving on… recently there I was minding my own stuff when five media students rocked the newsroom looking for an editor to help them with their assignment, unfortunately the editor was not around but that didn’t mean they were not going to get help. I am a graduate myself and have been practising for about a decade now so I offered to step in and give a helping hand. Browsing through their list of questions were basics like how one entered the field, affiliation the company fall under, a day in a life of a journo and a draft on phases articles go through before it gets published.
Well all these I can answer even right in the middle of the wee hours of the morning. Knowing me I wasn’t going to spoon feed them therefore decide to engage them and find out how much they know about the media industry seeing they are in their second year of study. “Disappointed” is an understatement I wonder if “shocked” can cover for it, the poor journo-wannabe were in the dark about what I am talking about when I mentioned 5W’s and an H principles and they took the throne home when they dwelled deeper not knowing what the “press ombudsman” is all about and it irked me more to realise that they were popping around R28K a head for zilch. I thought with that amount I’d reserve R8K for my time allocated to them as I tutor them and then the rest will go into acquiring equipment, believe you me by the end of their training they will emerge fully fledged journo’s who are fierce and already bringing diversity in the industry. They presented a campus newsletter to me and none of them had a by-line or caption, “maybe this term we will write something” was their response; hello! That’s too late if you ask me. Front page article and photo was courtesy of a local newspaper which appeared some time ago, why publish something from a well-established paper on a campus paper while you have students studying that field? What is this tuition fee for? When will they learn or gather the experience that media companies require? Soon they will graduate and would have no snippets or clip whatsoever to include in their portfolios, what does this mean for the future of our budding journo’s?
I don’t like entertaining the blame game but someone has to be held accountable, I have always maintained that theory as part of tutorial in tertiary institutions is vital but should not consume most of the term. Distributing manuals and later reading in front of class is old school and unnecessary, students can do that at their own convenience and come class time pose questions, seek clarity and so forth. Majority of their time should be spent on field with a pen, writing pad, voice recorder and camera sourcing out stories as that is the only way they will perfect the craft they yearn to enter in the near future.
For these poor students sake I hope the situation change as it’s a waste of parent hard-earned money and it is a god-eat-dog out there and perhaps they will break through as lately it’s not about what you know but who you know.
