BOOK REVIEW 📚 📖
Title of the Book: News Writing and Reporting for Africa: A Practical Approach
Genre: Academic
Author: Rasaq M. Adisa
Publisher: LAN LAMBERT Academic Publishing
Year of Publication: 2012
Number of Pages: 168 pages
Number of Chapters: 11 chapters
Price of the Book: $84
Book Source: Amazon
INTRODUCTION
This review looks at the book News Writing and Reporting for Africa: A Practical Approach written by Rasaq M. Adisa and published by LAN LAMBERT Academic Publishing. The book is made up of 168 pages of 11 chapters. It is sold for $84 and can be found online on Amazon. The book is designed to help students and beginner journalists understand the basic rules and practice of news writing and reporting in Africa. The author make use of his experience as both a journalist and a lecturer to explain news writing in a clear, simple and practical way.
SUMMARY OF THE BOOK
The book is made up of eleven chapters, and each chapter clearly talk about an important area of news writing and reporting. Chapter one explains what newspapers are, their types and how they are organized. It also describes the main departments in a newspaper organization, such as editorial, commercial, production and circulation.
Chapter two talks about newspaper content. It presents the different materials found in newspapers including straight news, features, editorials, columns, cartoons, advertisements and letters to the editor. The chapter shows the role each type of content plays in a newspaper.
Chapter three focuses on the meaning of news. The author defines what news is, why news can be different for different people and those factors that make events newsworthy such as nearness, importance of people involved, timeliness, size of the event etc. It also explains the key qualities of a good news story, like accuracy, clarity, objectivity, balance, fairness and brevity.
Chapter four discusses how journalists gather news. It explains different sources of news such as people, interviews, observation, the internet, research and public events.
The remaining chapters focus on modern news writing styles, how to write good leads, how to develop the body of a news story, different forms, materials of news stories, the use of research methods in journalism etc. These chapters practically guide students on how to write clear, correct and safe news
ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
One of the main strengths of the book is that it is easy to understand. The author make use of clear and simple wordings in his write-up that make it easy for student to follow and understand.
Another strength of the book is it practical aspect. The author not only talk about the theory but also describe how news writing and reporting are done in real life situation. The chapters are also well structured and arranged, which allows readers to understand simple topics before moving on to the complex ones.
However, one major flaw of the book is that it does not focus more on digital and online aspect of journalism. With the rise of social media and online news platforms, more discussion on it would have made the book better.
Nevertheless, the book achieve its goal of teaching student how to write and report news effectively and practically since the author writing style is clear, direct, simple and most of all easy to understand.
CONCLUSION
New Writing and Reporting for Africa: A Practical Approach by Rasaq M. Adisa is a useful textbook for journalism and Mass Communication students. The book explains news writing and reporting in a clear and simple way, with practical examples. Although it has a few small weaknesses, it is highly recommended for students, trainee journalists, and anyone who wants to learn the basics of journalism practice in Africa.
