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VOICES FROM WITHIN
Without the public there will no need for journalism for all media
products are designed to appeal to various audiences. In attracting attention to, and sustaining interest in their products, media owners and professionals must take to heart the lesson that the patron has value for time and money spent on media products. It follows, therefore, that to have impact; media messages must be sharp, strong and beneficial.
The public has seen a lot of media products since 1859 when late Rev. Henry Townsend introduced Nigeria’s first newspaper, Iwe Irohin in Abeokuta. Today publications of various shapes, tones and colours dot the newsstand – from the serious to the frivolous, the elevating to the enervating, the stimulating to the titillating, the scandalous to the pretentious and the uplifting to the depressing. Yet media product after product lays claims to a perceived need by the public for the decreasing sales and advert revenues.
Journalism can do therefore with a continuous assessment of its place and role in society. How can today’s journalists take better advantage of the offering in the market? How can they show greater impact? How can they expand the frontiers of journalism that is responsible and rewarding?
This collection of essays addresses various challenges in contemporary journalism practice. From news management to feature writing, column writing to editorial cartooning, photography, women and business, VOICES FROM WITHIN gives a quick introduction into the strides Nigerian Journalism has taken over the years, and what it needs to do to reinvent itself
Employing various styles from different contributors, who are leading names in Nigerian journalism, VOICES FROM WITHIN reads like the rendition of a great choir, each mastering its part to give an overall harmonious performance. Each voice rings with a passion that wants the best for the profession.
It is a book dedicated to the immense contributions of Mr. Sam Amuka-Pemu, publisher of Vanguard Newspapers, on the occasion of his 70th birthday on June 13, 2005.
Left to Uncle Sam, as Mr. Amuka-Pemu is fondly addressed, such a work is best as an epitaph after he must have gone the way of flesh. But the contributors who put these essays together would have none of that modesty. It is not often that the media have something positive to celebrate about themselves. Uncle Sam is one journalist many of today’s practitioners easily relate to because of his simplicity and because he is truly one of them. In some ways, as Muyiwa Adetiba notes, it can be said of him “we are here today because you were there.”
Starting out as a reporter, later a columnist, he edited various publications before graduating into publishing as the founding editorial mind behind The Punch and Vanguard – two of Nigeria’s leading newspaper chains. As editor of the Sunday Times in the mid 60s, Uncle Sam ranks in the estimation of Alhaji Babatunde Jose, as one of three editors who fulfilled his dream of a paper “beefy with features, spicy with entertainment, biting with investigative reports, informative with news and compelling with power packed editorials.”
While VOICES FROM WITHIN is no biography, it is a timely commentary on journalism practice. While it is not an epitaph, it is a tribute by those who feel Journalism enriches itself when it acknowledges the contributions of the veterans.
All contributors are senior journalists who have paid their dues by practising the profession at various levels. All have legitimate interest in seeing journalism strengthened as a calling worthy of respect. Theirs are truly the VOICES FROM WITHIN.
Lanre Idowu
Contact: 0802 350 8533, 0802 778 8888, 0803 360 2887
Contact: +234-802 350 8533, +234-802 778 8888, +234-803 360 2887
OR +234-872-0238
Price $20 (N2,000)
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