1. This morning, on a radio station broadcasting in Yoruba, I overheard a presenter painting a picture of how a king was kidnapped in Kwara State, her voice exhilarating as though she was announcing the result of a rip-roaring football match between Arsenal and Chelsea: “Ori Ade ti sun Igboro Aye bayi o…shebi won ni Ori Ade kii sun ta ni?” (The Crown has slept in the open, now… Didn’t the Yoruba say that the crown doesn’t sleep in the open/outside?).
That episode threw up an important concern in crisis reporting at a most delicate time like ours: apart from her problematic choice of words, the pitch of the presenter’s voice, the tone, the flow… they all betray the sobriety and restraint expected while broadcasting such sensitive news content.
2. Anyone with a faint understanding of radio broadcasting, in Yorubaland particularly, would perhaps admit that the newspaper review programmes are the most potent means of reaching the highest number of listeners. The newspaper review became popular in the middle of the noughties due principally to its fluidity: where newscaster delivering conventional news bulletins in the days of yore had a fidelity to strict professionalism in language usage and word flow, the newspaper review is quite flexible and presenters have the liberty to deploy sarcasm, exaggerations, humour and wit to drive home their point and attract more listeners. That accounted for the popularity of newspaper review programmes (and by extension, the presenters) and the need to brand such programmes with witty language and humour. Think Oookodoro Oro (Harmony FM); Eleti-Ofe (BCOS); Ogbenutan; Ajaabale…etc.
3. The popularity of the review show also opened the doors for the rat race among radio stations struggling to outdo one another and take the biggest share of the market. In that “competitive” market, especially in cities like Ibadan where there is a radio station on every street, professionalism is in thrall of sensationalism. That explains the near-total erasure of that good ol’ sense of restraint and responsibility in that hugely influential space of Yoruba broadcasting. And if there is any period in our chequered history when that lacuna has become quite noticeable, it is in recent months.
4. In recent weeks, I have listened to radio newspaper review presenters narrate the experiences of kidnapped victims, or communities paying ransoms, or annoying braggadocio of some recalcitrant kidnappers, and one could mistake the episodes for “Minijojo” or “Ko Ma Roll”. We need to sanitise that space.
5. I’d argue that there is an urgent need to conduct a professional clean-up exercise across radio stations in that space, given the sensitivity of crisis reporting at a most delicate time like now. Usually, folks tend to downplay the import of professional training in media practice, but when the chips are down, the deficit in training always show. The challenge, frankly, is professional, since the nature of the newspaper review places emphasis on creativity and language use, often at the expense of a presenter’s understanding of his/her professional responsibility.
6. Broadcasters should be trained on how best to report tragedy, and they should be guided primarily by journalistic ethics, professional protocols, and a focus on minimizing perpetrator’s notoriety and general harm to both victims and the audience… maintaining the all-important delicate balance between the public’s need for information with sensitivity and utmost responsibility.
BROADCASTING AND CRISIS REPORTING
BY OLAWOYIN OLADEINDE
