By Theresa Moses
With over 20 years hands-on experience in broadcast journalism across 12 different radio and television houses in Nigeria, Ify L. Onyegbule, has become a household word in homes and offices, especially in the up-beat commercial city of Lagos and Federal Capital Territory Abuja.
Team Lead of Truspeak Media Academy and contributor to www.thedailyreport.ng Ify has taken the Medialogue Series & professional training of broadcast media practitioners across different parts of Nigeria.
Against the foregoing backdrop, Ify took the proactive step of encapsulating into a book, her two-decade experience in interacting with the public and helping to sharpen the operational skill of fellow broadcast media workers. The book is aptly entitled How Did We Get Here?…25 Mistakes That Radio Presenters Must Avoid. In the 72 page book, the author clearly highlights daily happenings in the course of work as a radio presenter, drawing from her true life experience of 20 years as a broadcast journalist and still counting.
This book is indeed an eye-opener and a must read for every journalist – both print and electronic. And perhaps, it will be very helpful to the social media writers without any training or work experience in journalism. For example, the author’s key word is, “learning from every mistake.” That is the language of a worker who has passed through the mill of news gathering, production and airing for public consumption.
‘Who Needs A Script’ and ‘We Are Better Than Reporters’ are my favourite topics among the 25 chapters of the book. On the importance of a script to the broadcaster, she offers: “The very first stage of presenting anything on air is the most important one, which is putting your thoughts together. A good, well-written and defined script will help you put forward your issues clearly. Writing script does not mean you are stupid or not intelligent; it simply shows that you are organised and you know what you intend to talk about on air. Scripting, Focus and Determination are the operative words here.
“Script-writing helps you to put your thoughts together, itemize what you want to say and put them in order of preferences. You could decide to put your thoughts down in bullet points and deal with it point by point, when you have mastered what it is you want to say.”
Another chapter with a controversial but sentimental appeal is “We are better than Reporters. Her articulation of this topic held me spellbound. I have so much love for radio and the behind-the-scene reporters who gathers the information and presents it within a short time-frame (deadline).
Ify further explained the importance of reporters and presenters. “Everyone’s contribution (both reporters and presenters) is valuable to the overall output of the station, no one works in isolation.” She counsels: “Every presenter must possess the following qualities: self-confidence, poise under pressure, enthusiasm and energy, the ability to use stories and examples to make points, brevity, audience focus and showmanship. All these are important because every day on your job you are putting up a performance with you as the lead actor.”
Although the author did not elaborate more on this topic but she value the role of the reporters: “These days, many young people have failed to realise that these roles are interwoven and people now do a well-rounded job of reporting, presenting, production and many because of the advancement in technology…the presenter needs to understand that he has nothing to put forward in the area of news and news programmes if the reporter has not put anything together”.
No doubt, Ify has gained more as a presenter/on air personality in the electronic media who enjoys greater attraction through interaction than a reporter. However, she adds “Reporters must be able to develop and locate their own sources of information. They must be able to work quickly”. But, in the traditional print media, the reporter/correspondent is the epicentre, both in the newsroom and among the reading public.
Despite my humble experience and professional sojourn of over a decade in the industry, I’ve learnt a lot from this book. I advise anyone who wants to succeed in the profession to have this book as a guide. That is not all. The book is also recommended to corporate affairs/public relations executives, integrated marketing professionals and other who care to know something about the electronic media.
“Be creative and come up with original contents and don’t forget to get your content right; that’s one thing you must learn if you want to master the trade.” I leant that from the author and my mentor – Ify Onyegbule.
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