About a week ago, there was a very odd story making the news, about a money eating snake. Apparently a snake swallowed an estimated 36million naira that was left in jamb office, somewhere in Benue state Nigeria. A lot of people have been complaining on social media about the news worthiness of the story, saying stories like that aren't real and shouldn't be making the news.
I beg to differ, don't get me wrong I understand the annoyance and the bitter emotions the general public feel about that particular story, but nevertheless to a journalist anything that's odd is news worthy.
I remember back in University, I took a course in print journalism. My lecturer gave a typical example of a news headline, he said 'dog bites man' isn't news worthy cos it's a normal thing that occurs, but saying 'man bites dog' is not normal, which makes it news worthy. I hope that makes sense to you guys.
Anyway, I guess what I'm just trying to say is that we shouldn't blame the media (which includes bloggers on social media) about the kind of news that's being circulated around. Obviously there are more important things that should maybe make the news, but if something odd happens it's not the media's fault that something odd happens, however it's their responsibility to report whatever happened to the public be it odd or anything at all.
The media should then push for a rapid investigation to be conducted so that the public can know the truth and nothing but the truth about what happened. Vital questions should be asked by the media;
- Was there really a huge amount of money at the jamb office?
- Why was that amount of money there?
- How did the snake get in there in the first place?
You guys can add your own questions in the comment section lol.
Finally, I agree that the media can actually do more than it's currently doing at the moment. The media has a major role to play in the present and future of this nation. If the media can flourish then we can finally begin to breath a sigh of relief that we're on the right path in this country.
