Journalists must adopt current ICT trends - Varsity Don

The Head of Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, JMC, University of Buea, UB, Dr. Julius Che Tita, has reiterated the need for modern communication technologies in the practice of journalism in recent times.

According to the varsity don, journalism in modern times has become very competitive to the extent where practitioners are bound to be constantly alert and in tune with modern newsgathering innovations and trends.

He said, what was now in vogue was not just investigating and writing good stories, but also mastering related production lines and techniques and ensuring that the average trained journalist was way above the ordinary bloggers who now also constitute part of the news dissemination business.

To achieve this, he noted, journalists were best suited to employ modern trends and gadgets to enhance their work, adding that most JMC students should prioritize the acquisition of these working tools in their best interest. “You can afford it, and should, as a matter of fact, procure your own laptops and, or i-pads. In today’s world, you don’t expect to be offered these gadgets by those who employ or assign you. They have become such necessary appliances which you must acquire to survive in today’s competitive world of communication”, Che Tita added.

Che was addressing both journalism students who had come to the end of their internship programme and staffers of The Post, on Thursday, October 16. The occasion held in the newsroom of the newspaper. Also present at that evening’s event were UB JMC lecturers.

The occasion provided the opportunity for both parties (UB JMC and The Post) to air critical and frank views on how to practise and respect the canons of the profession. The issue of time consciousness was emphasised as it was agreed that journalism in particular and news in general is better delivered with strict respect for accuracy and deadlines.

“The best story in the world that was filed in late, could end up being rendered insignificant and useless, and even killed as a consequence, because it didn’t meet the prescribed deadline,” The Post Editor-in-Chief, Charly Ndi Chia, stated.

“In fact, failure to meet deadlines in journalism is criminal,” Defang Funge of UB JMC spurted.

Print media should have very interactive websites instead of static ones, because, dynamic websites will help reduce the issue of space which has traditionally been a serious problem. It will equally help the media house to gain more readerships which will yield both revenue and fame, Dr Tita was to latter on add.

Elated, Prof. Enoh Tanjong, the pioneer HOD, suggested that, media houses should create and make effective use of their own Style Books to enable new personnel understand the Do’s and Don’ts of the organization, insisting that, this would go a long way to help ease the job of both reporters and editors.

The lecturers were unanimous that The Post had, over the years, been at the forefront of training many Cameroonian journalists, especially those of them who came in from the JMC Department and who, today, hold their own in the media world in various spheres of the media industry the world over.