The article is late on this Friday. Well. I was in church attending a spiritual recollection for all choir members at St Pius Catholic church. Yes. I am a choir member, among other things.
The fact that I am a choir member now reminds me of how at some point I was the chairperson of the College of Medicine Catholic Students Choir. We had then just produced our album and we happened to be launching it at a local church in Chinyonga. Some journalist or student journalist came to me and asked if I had time for an interview. I can't remember the exact questions he asked but among other questions he asked me why we had chosen a church in the Middle of Chinyonga as opposed to a central location in town. Whatever central meant to him, I found the question disturbing. Having answered it with a dodgy answer, this fella who was clad in a suit kept asking questions. Reflecting upon that interview (Which was recorded, but probably didn't make some airplay) was not aimed at gathering information, but rather making me sound stupid and satisfying some journalistic ego. Someone was flexing his journalist muscles on me.
The whole thing reminds me of how the recent interview of Field Marshal Ken Nsonda by one Brian Banda sparked a lot of debate as to was in the wrong between the interviewer and the interviewed. I am always good at running away from giving direct opinions but this time I will be quick to agree with the DPP man. The interviewer's questions and tactics left a lot to be desired. I would say it was pretty much the same story as the Dausi vs Brian Banda issue where people end up having a quarrel (not argument, mind you) instead of an interview. Seems like our journalists are turning into copycats for some heavyweights who invented their own style of extracting info from politicians and people of that sort. The sort of copying that made our rapper pose on a toilet seat, if you are to ask me.
Talking of journalism, there is a great element of mediocrity lingering around our media. The examples cited above are just among the many blunders and they include but are not limited to radio. Our online news outlets, though famous have this vice of being too political while grossly assassinating the rules of the pen and the Queen's language.
The print media, which I thought was not a participant has recently joined the madness and we have recently seen a lot of blunders, the most scandalized of which was the issue of the "end of and error" which someone who calls himself an editor shamelessly defended. Not that it matters, though.
Some of you might remember that article that was written about the three guys who represented Malawi at an international conference. For some reason someone decided to write "swelling" as "wwelling" and the article was published without anybody raising an eyebrow. Of course readers readers just read without saying anything because they are used to the kind of mediocrity. That matters. Even Richie Online does better in such aspects, and one tends to wonder is issues like editing spellings should be the job of the reader as opposed to the editor, or the underperforming equivalent that these online publications have. Those of you that have an interest in journalism studies probably need to remind people that they need to have English and above all Chichewa lessons in these training schools because what is happening out here is utterly embarrassing. Yeah. Grammar Police in the house.
I will leave the point of politicizing public broadcasters alone. I will not even talk about how we do not have the best of programs on our national broadcasters and how people can parade religious and traditional leaders to praise some empty initiatives and all that, and how half the time of the day is spent watching some foreign station when we tune in to a local channel. Zimenezo sitinena. Za ma station a opposition aja sitinenanso.
All in all, ma journalist athu (achina Chikondi Sato) mudzitolere.
You can obviously do better.
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