Happy
New Year!
If you
made it through 2013 to now ,well you are among the elite. Very soon however
all the noise and festivities will die down and we will all settle into the
same familiar routine. Your editor calls you and assigns a story to you. You go
for the event with your camera/voice recorder and then you do the story. Sometimes
in a single day you may end up doing 3 or 4 stories.
Most of
us regularly generate a lot of stories that are never used. If only the public
knew that what they see in the newspapers or on tv/radio everyday is basically
a selection of the “best” stories. However because news is a perishable
commodity, on days when there are several great stories, good stories are
shoved aside. I hate waste. So what happens to the other stories, interviews
and pictures that the editor turns down. Do you simply delete them? You may be
deleting good money.
Do you
know that there are people who are willing to pay you for some of those
pictures occupying space on your external /flash drive? Go online now and
discover the opportunities that are available.
By the
way, I don’t want anybody to tell me that internet browsing is expensive and
they don’t have a laptop /computer. There are second hand laptops you can buy
for N30,000.00 and N5,000 will get you a
modem from any of the Network Providers. It is all about priorities. Many of us
easily spend about N20,000.00/$110.00 on food and drinks during a night out
with friends.
So look
at it this way. The world has changed. The opportunities are now out there. Online.
Remember:” Fortune befriends the bold”
“A
man’s gift will make a way for him. He will stand before Kings. He will not
stand before mean men.
Chima Nwankwo is a Freelance
Broadcast Journalist and member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations based
in Abuja ,Nigeria. He has reported for Reuters, China Central TV and A24 Media.
While he believes that the constitutional role of the media is to hold
government accountable, he believes that the journalist performs this task with
more ease when his bills are paid.
M: +234 806 668 6769
+234 809 464 7180
T:Chimsky1