Attention! Attacking a leading news site is not saving journalism

Oris Aigbokhaevbolo's emphasis on a need for improved journalism is not relatable if M.I Abaga's comment about a Pulse News writer is the subject.

The question of quality journalism has been the latest focus of writers who consider themselves better in the field.

There have been some attention on syntactic incompetence and the failure of journalists in respect to gathering facts which should serve as valuable information to those who seek to be acquainted with happenings in their environment especially juicy stories that relates to their areas of interest.

It is important to take a brief look at the history of the print media in Nigeria and how technological advancement introduced fresh innovation such as online news. The new media has changed the way news are appreciated based on the insertion of digital news reporting which has managed to capture more youths.

 

In the olden days (not by any particular statistics), the act of actively seeking the news was strictly limited to adults from 30 years of age and greater. But digital news which can be accessed via browsers on smart phones, computers and related devices has changed all that. It brought with it an impressive user experience made possible through comments section of a news site and on social media which allows for interaction.

Most fascinated about this development are the youths who are always raring to go, with their bunch of interests in sports, new findings and entertainment. Music is the most patronized offering of the latter. Young people who make up the highest percentage of the users of the new media are the ones directing its course like sailors on a ship and that is interesting.

The conversation about music which has seen an exponential growth in the country in recent times has grown into a large scale affair. The last two decades in particular has seen an influx of talents who have attained the position of being more than national or continental stars. Music has transitioned from a stage of offering only temporary satisfaction to becoming a culture. The frenzy is promoted by fans who invest much more than their ears to an artiste they fancy.

 

This has created a pop culture facilitated by shared ideology and perception that has encouraged the idolization and criticism of those who have taken music as a profession. Popular opinion which are mostly facts driven become the metric for performance or failure. It is just the way one needs to score the highest score in a test to be considered the best.

Along as baggage are critics who based on their in depth understanding of music make submissions that are accepted by the public as containing a large amount of facts. The people occupying this role are mostly VJs and journalists who make their thoughts known in video reviews and articles. But there appear to be a grudge that is hard to fathom among writers who also call themselves culture critics.

Readers might consider a list of disparaging comments directed at a journalist, Ayomide O. Tayo by a writer, Oris Aigbokhaevbolo in an article published on a digital magazine This is Africa based in the United Kingdom an example.

 

Aigbokhaevbolo made a fuzz about rapper, M.I Abaga's opinion that the columnist had a poor understanding of the syntactic rules guiding the correct use of English. The music star who invited himself to the Loose Talk Podcast to iron out what he viewed as false statements about him employed tricky tactics to rile his hosts and his comment that Tayo was bad at writing was one.

The MC was out to the point out to the journalist that it hits close to home when wrong assertions are made about a person. He expressed that the accusation he made about Tayo's inferior sentence construction skills was an example of how it felt  to be assessed without facts. The basis of Aigbokhaevbolo's article has been therefore defeated.

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M.I, who claimed to possess some of the journalist's error laden articles did not read out any. His frequent reference to it in the discussion was aimed at stirring reactions from the hosts, a well executed plan it turned out in the end.

"How does it feel to you when my critic of you doesn't cover the expanse of everything you are doing? You didn't like it right?," he asked.

 

Film critic Aigbokhaevbolo managed to link M.I's criticism of Tayo to the entire Pulse News website based on claims that the Editor-in-Chief, Osagie Alonge, was promoting mediocrity on the platform, was he? His opinion piece which appeared to be lacking in truth seem a product of badly construed analysis which failed to capture the true events.

"Osagie let me explain to you  why you are responding. Because I keep saying things about you that are not true. Why is it then that you  are shocked  when you say  something about me that is not true and I respond?," M.I said on the podcast. Loose Kaynon, who was his company during the discussion admitted that lies were invented in a bid to prove the point of the rapper.

The future of journalism in Nigeria can never be considered threatened if the quality of Pulse News writers is the only parameter. In fact, it has encouraged competitiveness in that line of work. Personal opinion must not be equated to mean culture critiquing as the latter is expected to be in agreement with popular opinion. Perhaps, a film critic should stick to his Marvel and steer clear speculative reasoning.