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| Auteur / Author : | CARAMAZZA, Giuseppe | LIVRE / BOOK |
| Titre / Title : | News reporting and broadcasting | |
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| Editeur / Publisher : | New People Publications, Nairobi | EN |
| Année / Year : | 2002 | Nbr. Pages : 143 pages Taille / Size | ||
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| Evaluation / Book review. | ||||
| According to the author, Fr Giuseppe Caramazza, a Comboni Missionary, News reporting and broadcasting is an introductory text written for first year media students. In ten brief chapters the author takes his students through the varied demands of media writing, both print and electronic. Chapter 11 offers a useful glossary. Media students will hugely benefit from this 143-page text as the author introduces them step-by-step to the language and metaphor of media, the hard news formula, the essential research tools, various writing styles and skills, and interview technique. Chapter 10, Work Ethics, will enrich all readers, not merely media students. We are treated to a text that simplifies complex media issues as it moves forward. Abstract theory and global references and allusions are suddenly localised by a Kiddo cartoon and Kenyan students touch ground on Uhuru Avenue in an academic itinerary that could have included Cardinal Lustinger’s Paris, Teheran, Tolkien, or even Timbuktu! Jargon-free and direct, the prose flows in crisp, simple sentences. But readers could be mistaken by such simplicity. The form, the literary style may be simple; not so the content, the message. Students must learn to read between the lines to pick up the finer nuances as well as the warnings, and the numerous indirect appeals for excellence to those who aspire to work in ‘the consciousness industry.’ If throughout the book the author rightly insists on professional standards from journalists and broadcasters, he himself sets a fine example. In place of sloppy generalisations he goes for specifics and meticulous detail in all aspects of all topics. An outstanding example of such attention to detail is the sub-topic, Tools of the trade, Chapter 3. No textbook is perfect. So what are the shortcomings here? Would a diagram explaining the basic communicative act itself have helped this text - say, the early sender-message-receiver model? The bibliography is brief, but this is not necessarily a fault. Rather we get the impression that the author has internalised an encyclopaedia on communication, digested it, and now writes fluently from the heart - with a passion and conviction that captivates all readers. And perhaps a little more attention was needed in the final proofing. But let us not quibble: News reporting and broadcasting is a gem in its genre. Though it will benefit media students everywhere, it will likely find its real home in the social communications departments of the universities of Eastern Africa. How badly Africa needs right now more media texts like this one - and maybe, authors like Fr Caramazza with their feet firmly on the ground, and who can write from an Afro-global perspective! Finbarr Murphy (New People Magazine, March-April 2003) |
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