A lecture at the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan has Dr Yinka Egbokhare has asserted that no one cannot claim to be a writer unless he or she writes.

 She made this assertion while delivering a lecture at an interactive workshop entitled ‘Fitting into the 21st Century Journalism’, organised by the Association of Faculty of Arts Students Press Organization on Saturday,  16th November, 2019, at the Small Lecture Theater (SLT), Room 32, Faculty of Arts a  t about 10a.m.

The workshop featured a seasoned Investigative Journalist and Editor at New Diplomat, Mr Dotun Akintomide, and Jennifer Uloma Igwe, an Award-Winning Environmental Journalist and Broadcaster.

 One of the main activities that took place during the workshop was a writing exercise, which conducted by Dr Yinka. Her first lecture was on ‘Language Usage and Common Errors in Journalism’. She highlighted the four cardinal C’s in writing, which are conception of ideas, collection of information, construction and correction.

“You are not a writer unless you write. A good conceives what he or she wants to write. He reads— not choosing the day and time to read; one is not a writer unless one writes, and proofreading a written piece for corrections”, said.

Dr Yinka identified wrong use of words, spelling and concord errors as the major challenges which writer’s battle with, especially emerging ones.    

Similarly , in  his lecture entitled ‘Fitting into the 21st Century Journalism: the ABC of the Dos and Don’ts , Mr Dotun acknowledged the fact that the advent of social media platforms such Blog, Twitter and so on have brought both positive and negative effects on the journalism profession. He highlighted some of the negative effects of the social media on the contemporary journalism, to include, misinformation— half-truth/half lies, hate speeches and so on.

Dotun called on campus journalists to always pursue ‘passion’ as the zeal in the field of journalism and summit themselves to good mentors.

The last lecture which was entitled ‘Carving a Niche in Environmental/Broadcast journalism was delivered by Jennifer.  She identified passion as the major key to a carving niche for oneself in journalism profession.

She then called on campus journalists to tell impactful stories using compelling visuals.