Book Review

Academic Book Review:

THE SECRETS OF

MULTIMEDIA

AND

ONLINE JOURNALISM

BY

MUDATHIR GANIYU & QASIM AKINRETI

This book was first published in 2010 and the revised edition in 2021.

Its a joint work of Mudathir Ganiyu, a veteran journalist who has spent more than three decades practicing and teaching journalism and Qasim Akinreti, an online journalist with the VOICE OF NIGERIA(VON) and also former chairman of Nigerian Union of journalists, Lagos state chapter

According to the authors, the secret of online journalism is an effort to meet the Nigerias set target for digitization of the broadcast industry in 2012, it was an ambitious target that could be realized if the necessary trainings and educational resources are available, this book is a private effort in form of manual to teach and explain online and multimedia journalism

The book covers the foundational areas of online journalism beginning with the conceptual issues of convergence and the ethics of online journalism. Most of the book is dedicated to answering basic questions of how to source news, researching and reporting news, tools required for successful online journalism, two chapters are dedicated to deal with writing for web in general, the editing of online stories and website creation and management

This 172 pages texts with 18 chapters made efforts to cover several topics like understanding media convergence, ethics of online journalism, writing for the web, guideline for fake news and fact checking, editing online stories, blogging, citizen journalism, using mobile phone for journalism, online journalism and media law, challenges of online and multimedia journalism in Nigeria etc.

This book is a relevant piece in the new media and online journalism as it strives to expound all that needs to be known and understood. In an era where everyone is a journalist many are not aware of the basic ethics of journalism, laws guiding journalism, use of the social media for journalism etc. the authors having background knowledge of how both the old media or the traditional media and the new media works has attempted to teach the laws guiding these two converged medias, and also to ensure people dont fall victims of libel and slander.

Three key argument of this text is online journalism practices, use of social media and citizen journalism. Citizen journalism gained prominence since the advent of social media and the advancement of digital technology where everyone has access to social media, they consume and produce news contents at will, the question how ever this book tried to ask and answer is, who is a journalist? Does access to communication devices and the basic capacity of citizens without professional journalism training and experience constitutes criteria to call the product news and the provider journalist?

The authors of this book have an analogy for these questions, suggesting that if a citizen were in need of first aid treatment and any passerby could render that treatment, does that necessarily qualify the aid provider as a medical doctor. All professions have a governing body, structure and leadership and before anyone can be regard as one of them, he or she must be a member of that body for regulatory purpose, training and protection.

WHAT IS THE RELEVANCE OF THIS TEXT?

This book was first published in 2010, but due to the dynamic nature of the online media and journalism, advent of more advanced technologies, the authors were promoted to revise it in 2021 to tackle the issues of social media usage, laws and regulations to online journalism practice where different ethical problems are already existing. There is no doubt if the authors have the credentials to tackle these issues, besides their impressive educational backgrounds, the authors have been in online journalism for several years. The book is intended for students who have interests in professional online journalism and also those who are already practicing citizen journalism, to equip them with the relevant knowledge, information, guidelines etc. its imperative to note that journalism in Nigeria has taken a nose dive, where everyone and anyone can write about anything without proper information or regulations thus bringing the issues of character defamation, false information etc. which could cause civil unrest and disturbances.

COST

The current market price of this book is N2000($4.5) and its available nationwide and online in pdf format.

CRITIQUE AND RECOMMENDATION

This text is a beautiful work, finely written in clear and concise words, self-explanatory and easy to comprehend.

Its no doubt the authors made extensive research before and after writing the book, research that span over years to gather the necessary and adequate information about the subject topic despite their years of experience and teaching this same topic

However, it should be noted that books of this nature are hardly read for the single fact that the reading culture and habits of most Nigerians and the black man as a whole. If you want to hide a knowledge from the black man, put it in a book.

The authors, despite their extensive works didnt carry out adequate awareness for the book, on social medias where the targeted audience are most prominent, the book lack the proper awareness and attention it deserve in order to ensure their arguments or purpose of the book is achieved

Similarly, a chapter in the book talked about web creation and management without adequate information like pictorial diagrams which could have aided faster learning and understanding.

Like we said, the book is an excellent one, expounding what journalism is, what makes one a journalist, how to write and edit social media news, the new media, the social media and its use to disseminate news, laws guiding such usage etc. the rating for this book using simplicity, conciseness, self-explanatory, unambiguous, facts and figures, wealth of information as a yardstick Is 8/10.