Are you the type who has no respect for journalists and reckon they have nothing else to do and so they run their mouth for a living? If you are, then I think you’ve yet to realize the influence they have over our thinking. Because you see, information is what we feed our brains/mind with. And that information is gotten from various media (the internet, news papers, TV, radio etc). And journalists run these various media. Thus we can safely say that journalists control our minds…our lives.

Journalists are constantly on the prowl for stuff they consider news worthy. They get this stuff, work on it and spoon feed it to us babies via the media. We eat it all up, digest it, form opinions in our mind and start talking about it like we’re wise and shit.

Take the case of the 22nd July 2005 killing of a Brazilian man by the London Metropolitan Police. There were a lot of eyewitness but everybody doesn’t run the media. So the very few roving journalists around, who missed the event themselves, get their ass on ground and quiz the witnesses. They harmonize the conflicting statements they get and pass it on to their colleagues who release the stuff as breaking news for the whole world to consume. Commoners, bloggers, and news analyst around the world then start talking and arguing among themselves on the issue. And doing so with some unreliable news statements as their guiding source. In future these inaccurate news statements becomes the reference point for the issue and is treated as truth. Future generations are fed with this info and the life goes on.

So much happens in life but the human mind can’t capture and preserve it all. What is then considered as fact in the future is what is recorded in the various media. But what is recorded is in fact just a tiny fraction of actual happenings. Check out the biography of Catholic Saints and famous people. The Saints are presented as being flawless while the famous are presented as having excelled in their various field of human endeavour. Thus we generations later have them in our minds as super human beings. While in actual fact the rough edges of their life history are sweetened to have nice public appeal. That’s how deep journalist can fuck with our intellect.

It’s plain for all to see they’re the kingmakers. They talk about you positively, we have positive notions of you; they talk about you negatively, we have negative notions of you. Let me come with examples.

The Nigeria you know is basically filled with info from Lagos and Abuja (with little bits and pieces from other famous places) because that’s where a large part of the media is based.

World soccer is centered on the European Champions League (CL) and the English Premier League (EPL) football because it’s what we see, read and hear in the media week in week out. Thus Players in the CL and EPL are the ones we talk about, the ones with the best chance to make their various national teams and the ones most likely to pick up awards. You can’t talk about, pick or give awards to people you don’t see, hear or read about.

The United States controls the world media and so movies, music and culture in all countries has heavy American content. You’ll realize this when you see teenage Nigerian girls discussing about Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s break up as if talking about it will put food on their family’s table.

What people in different countries know about other countries is what they get from the media. They thus form strong opinions in their minds from minute news feeds. Example: when we think of the Caribbean’s, we think of scantily dressed women and all day fun on the beach. When we think of Israel, Palestine and the Middle East; we think of suicide bombs and terrorism. When we think of Africa, we think of corrupt politicians, sit tight rulers and illiterate people.

Hence we now know the kind of power journalist (the mass media) possess, we’ll respect them a little more. On the other hand they should go about their business sensible because the mind is a delicate thing. That’s all folks.

Haven’t really read much of son’s work before but I’ve heard him talk on TV. Anyways was looking for a Nigerian journalist to grace my post and Reuben Abati comes highly recommended as a journalist who knows his onions.

Some months ago I read a “how to blog” post by Tony Pierce. The post incidentally helped him pick up a bloggie. Well now with the necessary experience I feel like writing my own for the benefit of my blogging people. I hope who ever reads this grabs a thing or two from it. Happy reading.

1) One of the secrets to blogging well is starting well. You don’t want to start a blog and then after making some posts, getting publicity and gathering a fan based suddenly realize that your blogging software package/blog hosting site sucks and you have to change. Do the necessary research before picking a blog software package/blog hosting site. Changing can be very tiring and at times lead to a change of URL. Blogger is a good software package/blog hosting site for a beginner, Xanga really isn’t. Cos on it commenting is restricted to Xanga members only. A blog post should be such that ANYBODY can read and if he/she so wishes leave a comment.

2) When blogging go for original posts. There’s no need of making a post about “SixApart buying LiveJournal” or “Yahoo increasing its e-mail storage to 1GB” when everybody know you copied it from the Wired or CNET News. You‘re not the fucking BBC or CNN, so you don’t have to pretend to be. It’s better if you give us your reaction in detail to such stories then making your post 95% the copied news and 5% your own view of it. 10% the news and 90% your view on it is far better.

3) As concerns making a blog post if you don’t know what to write shut up! Silence is far better than filling your blog with junk and making it crappy. In other words a small blog with very informative and entertaining posts is far better than a voluminous blog with stupid rants/boring stories of one’s everyday life. Example, a dumb post like “hi, I don’t know what to write today, bye”. Crap art is totally out of the question for blogging.

4) When writing your posts put links when necessary. For example you’re talking on an issue and you refer to something which half of the people don’t know about and will seriously hinder their understanding of the point you’re tying make, a simple link will solve the problem. Thank God for the inter-connectivity of the internet a simple link (the underlined/clickable words you often see) saves one the stress of going out to buy a book/make an inquiry as is done in the world of book/magazine-reading. Also respect other people’s work, when you use someone’s material be gracious enough to say so/put a link to the original…if need be.

5) Make generous use of pictures. A little imagery works wonders in putting a point across or at times it just adds a little humour. Don’t be all uptight and just fill your blog with text, text and more texts, you’re not writing a fucking constitution for Christ’s sake.

6) Let your readers get to know you. You could start with a catchy caption/title for your blog which really spells out the true you. Mine is “TRAE days” (I got that from “Dre day”, a favourite phrase of Hip hop artist Dr Dre). Also put a little text (something like a book’s abstract/synopsis) which in a few sentences summarizes what you and your blog is about so that prospective readers will decide if they want to read your blog or not, and put themselves in the right frame of mind to do so if they wish to read it. For example mine is “A diary of the days of…”. A little pic of yourself or an avatar is also welcomed to make your blog unique and more personal and not just some ranting by an anonymous. A link to an “about me page” is also good were readers can learn about you possibly in a paragraph or two. Leave your email for feedback. You never know what people will want to put across to you in private.

7) On your blog’s side bar leave links to your favourite sites or blogs. This will help your readers get more in tune with your world by checking out the stuff/sites you also dig. Also do get HTML and if possible CSS knowledgeable. You can only get a good looking blog if you know how to design one. And you know what they say: looks (and arrangement) is everything. Don’t be shy to ask for help at any point you get confused. We all make mistakes, nobody knows it all.

Get your archiving right, it’s the key to allowing people surf through your blog in and out and thus hear all what you have to say. If you post between of 1-10 times in a month archiving monthly is your best bet. If you post more frequently weekly archiving is preferable.

9) Publicity, publicity, publicity! Get people to checkout your blog. Paraphrasing the Bible “men do not light a candle and put it under a bed, they instead put it on a candlestick so that all might see the light”. They same thing with blogs, you don’t produce write-ups for yourself only to read. You do so for the world to read and learn from. Spread the word about your blog at every opportunity. Including your blog’s URL in your e-mail’s signature and that of your forum profile (if you’re part of any) is a good idea. Also add yourself to as many blog directories as possible. When commenting on other people’s blog or anywhere on the web leave your blog’s URL. When you write posts on particular issues and you feel the world necessarily needs to read them advertise them by sending e-mails, offline messages (via chat) and making posts about them in forums.

10) Get a site feed; you know the RSS and atom stuff. People who hyper-blog sure do find them necessary, so it’ll be good if you could spread the word that way.

11) Get a statistic counter. It’s an icon you place on your blog which tells you who and who is checking out your blog and from what source; be it from search engines or web pages. It helps as it tells you what people hitting your blog really want to know about so that you can work on that aspect. It also tells you what people feel about you online on the different web pages that link to you. statcounter has been a good choice for me.

So good luck to you as you implement what you’ve just learnt, comments/feedback is highly welcomed. Don’t forget to check back for more tips and cool posts. Peace!

I blog therefore I am!

Maybe now ain’t the very right time to blog on DAAR communication’s television station: AIT (Africa Independent Television) and radio station: Ray Power 100.5. Because they ain’t in the news right now nor am I feeling a 100% passion for the topic as I’m writing right now. But anyway what I’m about to talk about has been on my mind for a long time. So it’s best I spill the beans now or never.

If ever the history of radio and television is written in Nigeria…or specifically Abuja, AIT and Ray Power owned by the energetic entrepreneur: Raymond Dokpesi will certainly be mentioned. Because for real those two media outfits did lots to change the lives of Nigerians for the better information wise. From the recent launching of their new Abuja office, AIT and Ray Power have really come a long way. Ray Power came to Abuja sometime in early 1999 and AIT later in the year. Before then man, Abuja residents didn’t know the meaning of choice. Despite being the nation’s capital, Social life in Abuja was fucked. All we had media wise was a dumb old Radio Nigeria AM station specializing in boring Hausa programs and a socially lifeless NTA Channel 5 Abuja. But with the coming of Ray Power and AIT things changed man, big time…for the better. People now began to enjoy and feel the power of music and enjoy entertainment at a first class level. As a caller once said on a program on Ray Power it was like all of a sudden everyone felt proud owning a radio and wanted to blast his/her’s at the loudest level. With them Abuja residents felt more in touch with happenings in their surroundings. It might sound funny now but the concept of phoning in to a radio/TV program (one you’re really enjoying for that matter) and commenting was new then and turning heads all over. Really if truth be told Ray Power was life in 1999 and early 2000 (that’s before their closure). With the hardworking duo of Kenny (Keke) Ogungbe and Dayo (D1) Adeneye (now managing Kennismusic and PrimeTime Africa, formerly known as PrimeTime Jamz) and their wonderful presenters like Steve the sleek Kadiri, Dennis the Menace, Lola, Obiora Ilo – news department, Mitchell Obi and Ejiro Omonode – sports department, a certain presenter (on Ray Power) with a northern name who used to make we stay awake all Sunday nights to listen to his captivating voice etc Ray Power and AIT was going places. And the Ray Power slogan and boast then of being: “Africa’s numero uno” was truly worth it. Then Hip Hop and R&B in Nigeria was just experiencing a rebirth and Ray Power was at the peak of the progress march. Ask musicians like 2face of the Plantashun Boiz, Eedris Abdulkareem, Tony Tetuila etc and they’ll tell you that they owe a lot to Ray power for the start of their careers.

But now things done change. They went through a lot of difficulties. Difficulties like financial squabbles with the NTA (Nigerian Television Authority) over CAN 2000 broadcasting rights, which they lost and cost them a lot of money, closure for quite sometime in 2000 due to inability to pay up debts owned to banks (at a time they were about going international). Which marked the end of their wonderful era as when they came back they lost some of their best staff and couldn’t quite find their footing again. And the burning of their Abuja office in 2001. But despite all these short comings it’s still good to know they are on their feet today. And are still surviving in the present day choked up Abuja TV and radio environment. Life is a struggle and that of DAAR communication’s AIT and Ray Power has been a tough one. Kudos must be given to them for their strong determination and to their audience for supporting and sticking with them.

AIT’s logo