Fola Adekeye, formerly of the old Newswatch Magazine once recalled how he bought a desk top computer for use in the office when the company’s systems were not enough for him and his colleagues.
Some of his colleagues could not understand why he should buy a system to use, as they put it, “for the company’s work.”
Yes, the work is indeed that of the company, to the extent that it will be published in Newswatch, but the professional at work is Adekeye whose byline is on the story and who owes himself the obligation of having the necessary tool to boost his productivity if he can afford it.
Readers of your story expect you to have the tools you need for your work like any other professional or an artisan while performing his or her duties.
A true professional journalist should be properly equipped for work. If you are lucky to have the needed tools provided by your employers, make the best use of them, but if not, do your best to buy them yourself.
If artisans can buy their basic tools, why should it be difficult for a professional journalist to get what he needs to perform maximally?
No investment is too much for a career you have committed yourself to if your desire is to make a mark in it.
A photographer once told me how he missed an opportunity to get a photo shoot contract because he didn’t have a digital camera. Because he was one of the photographers for a top Church leader, a company hired to produce a calendar with pictures of major landmarks in the country assumed the photographer should have a very good digital camera to take the needed pictures.
When he owned up to not having a digital camera and said he would lend one from a colleague for the job, he was told the company prefers a photographer who has perfected the use of the camera.
In this age of multimedia journalism, get whatever tool you need, including a laptop, Ipad, telephones, camera, voice recorder and internet subscription. They don’t have to be the most expensive ones. What you need are tools with user friendly features.
Learn to use the tools efficiently and be the professional journalist you ought to be in and out of paid employment.
What you need to be professional journalist (2) (tools of for the job)
