All through my life, especially in high school, I have been wont to change goal posts. One week I would dream of becoming an accountant while the next one I had a conviction that God meant me to draw and built better roads for Kenya. Clearly, I was headed somewhere. Or don’t they say the lost end up somewhere?
Well, I wandered enough in this valley of the undecided. Eventually, the love of the pen found me there, quite frustrated. Often, I scribbled hard feelings furiously. It turned into a habit and voilà! There was something I would wake up to at 4 a.m. and work on with an honest smile. I wrote for relief and have never given it up since.
However, don’t be tempted to think that I have masterpieces lying on my desk – that is a story for another day altogether.
Meanwhile, I joined University and discovered a student newspaper and my writing glands were whetted. Now, I wanted to join them, write, make a big difference on campus media and be happy! Well, let me say that in part I have achieved some of my aspirations. But I have reservations.
As a young sprightly reporter, I dashed from one corner to another, sniffing for hot stories – my editors were impressed by the crime stories i unearthed.
However, many by-lines later, I was at crossroads. I felt that writing news stories was not really giving me the satisfaction I yearned for. I wanted to answer more questions than 5W’s and 1H. I desired more than a rigid age-old hard news approach to stories.
But I still loved student journalism, no doubt. Okay, at least the sensational part of it.
While at it, I wanted to experiment with words, style, grace, themes and real art. Was creativity tagging at my cloak? Journalism didn’t seem to allow this. The search landed me at Literature’s throne.
Another battle was waging in my heart – what was the difference between them? Journalism, I thought to myself, is that which is read once whereas Literature continues to matter after being read.
Oscar Wilde, an Irish Playwright, would put it that the difference between the two is that Journalism is unreadable whereas Literature is unread.
As I am still a journalist at heart, I consider a fusion of the two a good idea. An article by one Egara Kebaji on ‘Literary Discourse’ in Sunday Standard (www.eastandard.net -Why Literature is core in Journalism) cemented my thoughts. In it, he stresses on the importance of Literature in Journalism and argues that through the former, one is able to understand the human nature.
This is a very important skill in journalism in that newspapers, magazines, radio stations and TV rely on human stories to survive.
Journalists therefore ought to appreciate literature because ‘literary training in essence makes one a cultured human being. A cultured human being is a balanced mind. It follows that a balanced mind allows for sensibilities that one needs in performing the duties of informing, educating and entertaining the public.’
So it would be true that literary knowledge in Journalism distinguishes a writer and a typist. Otherwise, it becomes a passionless activity of assembling 5Ws and 1H peppering it with a good dose of sources for that balanced news story.
Maybe Literature is that missing link I need for complete satisfaction in Journalism. For these reasons, I have immersed myself in literary works.
I have nothing against Journalism but I prefer it for information and entertainment rather for educational purposes. In fact, the three main functions of Journalism seem to be the last on their least.
Christopher Farley, a Time Magazine Pop Culture critic talks of journalistic writing being incredibly bad. Christopher has a novel on his life as a journalist, where I gleaned the title of my weblog from; ‘my favorite war. It chronicles his life as a journalist for a leading newspaper in his hometown and all through the text; I followed and identified with his experiences as a journalist.
There is need for Journalist to indulge in literature and its depth to appreciate their career more. Literature inspires, it provokes thinking and gives deeper meaning to life as well as understanding.
Furthermore, there are those young journalists who desire to brew their creative juices in the creative writing genre. Literature is the best avenue for that.
We frequently hear from him and its clear what side he represents – more so , the bad name he gives to the Kenyan PR Industry…why, does he, oh why, does he have to make a fool of this government and himself by telling us things that even the dumbest of us all can see through?
Mr. Lampat was my High School Technical Drawing and Design (TD&D) instructor. And that is not all about him. Besides being a self-proclaimed bachelor for life, Mr. Lampat had certain queer behavior that translated to daily entertainment for students – to the point he was branded ‘chizi‘.
) and 20 reporters.
