Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light – Joseph Pulitzer, 1847-1911
(A review of 50 World Editors: Conversations with Journalism Masters on Trends and Best Practices, Mike Awoyinfa and Dimgba Igwe, Corporate Biographers Limited, 2014)
As a lover of words and books, there are some books you purchase and you decide to put by your bedside as a reminder that you have not read them and you don’t want such books to be lost in the forest of your to be read books (TBR) on the bookshelf. One of such was Mike Awoyinfa and Dimba Igwe’s 50 World Editors: Conversations with Journalism Masters on Trends and Best Practices.
Although it was published in 2014 and I only got to buy a copy two years later! When I purchased the copy, I was still in active journalism and had only from time to time peeped at the pages briefly; telling myself that I would read it whenever I am on vacation. But as it usually is, journalists hardly go on vacation. It is a life of one breaking story after another. The few times I had let myself pick it up I sometimes get engrossed and then drop again telling myself it is not a book to be read in a hurry. It is a book you must get enough time to read (study, in fact) in order to be able to grasp the essence of it. So, about two years ago when I left the frenetic world of the newsroom to pick up another life as a teacher of future journalists, I decided to go back to the book and acquaint myself with what the masters of the world of my profession had to say to two equally great masters.
Going through the 628 pages of this book aptly described as a “Collector’s item” is no doubt a treasure trove of journalism and wisdom. In fact, I asked myself why I postponed reading it in full for so long, especially when I was still active in the newsroom! What the duo of Awoyinfa and Igwe have done with this book is to distill into one book volume many years of wisdom about journalism and the craft of writing by talking with those who have seen it all.
Any reader of this book would go away more informed about the profession of journalism and if such a reader is a practitioner, it would reshape his/her views about the job. No one would go through this book and remain the same. It also demonstrates the level of knowledge they have about the profession and all the practitioners they encountered and spoke with in the book! It is not a book that could have been written by anyone who is not a master of the game. Talking with editors from a diverse world and culture and being able to ask relevant questions that made it into this book shows the level of the authors’ preparedness.
Speaking to 50 editors and asking them how they define what constitutes news is revealing. The answers from all shows the dynamic world of journalism. When I left the newsroom and got to the classroom and was assigned to teach newswriting, something I had been doing for almost three decades; writing and editing news. My first recourse was to go to the library and fish out textbooks to help me define what it is. I got many of them and the definitions they gave me were to me too limiting. It was then I remembered my bedside companion! I quickly raced back to the duo of Awoyinfa and Igwe! They may not have set out to write a textbook but this is more than one; it is practical and concise.
The definition of news that I got were more than what I needed and we debated and wrote essays and papers on what we found out of the traditional text books. Take this from Gillian Tett, editor of Financial Times, “News is anything that illustrates how money is moving around the world. Who has money? Who controls money? Who is making money?” And this from Michael Jeremy of ITV Regional News, UK, “News is a snapshot of how the world changed,” while to Robert Esser, of The Mail, UK, “News is something you say oooh, aaah to, when you hear it.”
From the Nigerian front, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, one of the icons of journalism describes news simply as “…That story that some people somewhere would want to kill. There must be somebody somewhere who does not want the story to be out. There must always be an interest. A cover-up interest. An interest that does not want something to be revealed.” On the other hand, Nduka Obaigbena of ThisDay and Arise News defines it as “News is news; news is what is happening, what is new. For it to be news. There must be something about it that the reader has not heard before or read anywhere before. News is novelty. If it is not new, it is not news,” while Bayo Onanuga of The News sees it as “Something that is new, something that is extra ordinary, something that people would see and say, “Wow!” Something that is strange to them, that is not the kind of run-of-the-mill thing.”
To John Momoh, the chief executive of Channels Television, “News is reportage of events that are happening day-to-day, things that are happening all around us…And news affects us because it is a product that is social, economic, political, cultural and whatever.”
But the book is not about definition of news alone, it covers all the breath of what constitutes what is good journalism and how to achieve it. Talking about what is good reporting, Dele Olojede the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and publisher of the defunct NEXT Newspapers says, “Good reporting is about the ability to emphatise with the people you are writing about without necessarily getting sucked in, without getting emotional.”
50 World Editors: Conversations with Journalism Masters on Trends and Best Practices, is a compendium of a book about the ethics, economics, political and philosophy of news and journalism that any journalist practising today or planning to dabble into the profession must read and study. Awoyinfa and Igwe have done a great deal for this profession with the publication of this book about a decade ago. The striking thing about it is that the book touches on every aspect of the profession. When the book was published, the internet and online publication of news had not penetrated has it has done now, however, most of the editors spoken to had foretold that the face, phase and manner in which news is consumed and produced would change. It has come to pass and continue to be disrupted, but one thing that has not changed is the nature of news itself. As one of the editors observed, neither Google nor Yahoo has reporters, they all depend on what reporters and editors put online to function and feed their channels.
This is a timeless book that deserves to be read and taught in all our schools of communication across the country. It should be an essential read for any would-be or practising journalist. Imagine reading about nuggets of the profession from masters like the iconic Harold Evans and other great editors across the globe. No book is ever completely written, I would have loved to read the views of the trio of Mohammed Haruna, Ray Ekpu and Dan Agbese on the subject. However, the absence of their views does not in any way reduce the worth of the book. It is a treasure every journalist worth the measure should possess and read.
