Focus on  Balance Reportage, Varsity Don Tells Media

James Sowole in Abeokuta

A professor of English Stylistics at Olabisi Onabanjo Universiry, Ago Iwoye (OOU), Ogun State, Samson Dare,  has asked  the Nigerian media to always dwell more on balance reporting of issues and events instead of seeking objective reportage.

The English Stylistics expert who is the Dean, Faculty of Arts at OOU, said objective reportage of events and issues by media, is “unrealistic, unnecessary and unattainable.”

The don stated this while speaking with journalists after he delivered the institution’s 114th inaugural lecture entitled, ‘My Mouth, My Pen, My God!’

Dare said balance presentation of issue is possible and practicable, urging the media to always stick to it by reporting all sides concerned in a matter and leave the public to decide instead of pursuing objective reportage, which he deemed unnecessary.

Citing himself as an example, he said man is subjective and can never attain objectivity in life because of a concatenation of factors which often slipped into the mind to colour the  presentation of facts by an individual.

He said: “Objectivity (in media) is not even necessary. It is unnecessary and unattainable. From the earliest conception, what you talk about is balance, balance presentation. In other words, if you take an angle and report it, go to the other side and report the other side and leave the public to decide or make up their minds.

“You can never attain an objectivity in life because if you are a Yoruba for example, you are from a particular family, you attended a particular school, have a certain level of intelligence and you practice a particular religion, all of these will have an impact on your thinking, even the fact you are presenting. So, objectivity is not possible, it is not attainable. Balance presentation is possible and practicable.

While delivering the lecture, Dare revealed that he had studied “journalistic discourse” among other discourses and came to the “strong conviction” that exposure to literature enriches language and expression of it.

He noted that people have a tendency to “pontificate passionately” on the concept of reportorial objectivity whereas when these people’s opinions were subjected to critical scrutiny, they were “found to be vague, trivial and tangential.”

“Users of language generally express concern about the need for objectivity in discourse presentation, creating the illusion that there is a commonly held view point about, and a consensual framework for, the apprehension of the phenomenon in any form of discourse.

“People have a tendency to pontificate passionately on the concept of reportorial objectivity. Yet, this issue has been generally vaguely understood, even grossly misapprehended. When most people’s opinions on the issue are subjected to critical scrutiny, they are found to be vague, trivial and tangential.

“In point of fact, we are handling here, one of those concepts that look deceptively simple and on which everybody believe he is in a position to speak with authority. Not surprisingly, the conceptual confusion is worsened by the claim by almost everyone that he or she is always objective or at least more objective than the other person,” he said.