By Moses Okocha
Journalism in the 21st century has been viewed differently by individuals. While some see it as short writing or report, others have regarded it as one that has little or no element(s) of creativity in it.
Whichever way Journalism has been conceived, it is sacrosanct to note that there is a converging point between Journalism and creative writing; that is, Journalism goes beyond just short stories and report.
This school of thought expresses this as LONGFORM JOURNALISM.
At LightRay Media Training, the converging point between Longform Journalism and Creative writing was explored and discussed between the convener Ejiro Umukoro (Award-Winning Investigative journalist and Youth/Children Advocate) with over 100 participants at the event.
The Convener Ejiro Umukoro, began the session with an exposition of two sample writings (Samples 1&2) to explore and reveal the elements of Creative writing and Journalism.
Participants like Collins Odigie, Menoveg and Vee amongst others, having examined the two Samples gave their views about the Samples.
According to Collins, Sample 1 being a report, is straight to the point, with no form of imagery created in the mind of the reader. Sample 2 on the other hand – a creative writing piece, makes use of imagery with well structured literary devices that make everything look real.
Vee who also made some observations said Sample 1, just like a news report, makes use of inverted pyramid whereby the most important part of a story is played up while the body is built around other details.
“In the media parlance, especially in the broadcast industry, it is often said that content is king. However, from my experience as a broadcaster, journalist, speaker and writer, I have come to know that Context Is Queen” – (Lady E, 2005).
As such, there is no story without context; without a story, there is no creative writing and no Journalism. This simply means that there’s an interwoven relationship that exists between Creative writing and Journalism. This cobweb-like relationship helps to bring life to information, truths and facts which are used in Journalism. In other words, both creative writing and Journalism makes use of the art of storytelling to give life to a given point of view, facts and information.
The Convener Umukoro, also went further to state that a creative writer has the license to imagine, concoct, create and write stories, while a journalist on the other hand cannot do the same. This is where the Ethics of journalism which includes objectivity, accuracy, truthfulness, fairness amongst others comes to play – making it impossible for a journalist to imagine or make up a story. Journalism relies on facts, truths, anecdotes.
The meeting point between Journalism and creative writing is that both make use of the art of creativity in writing.
Umukoro also stressed that one (Journalism) is more factual than the other (Creative Writing).
She also examined the genres of Journalism that makes use of the Creative and literary tools
These includes :
-Creative non-fiction Longform
-Narrative Journalism
-Feature Journalism
-Documentary Journalism.
Umukoro concluded by advising the participants to choose a form or style before writing that will make a story matter and create the impact needed.
