Ghanaian Times Editor David Agbenu educates student journalists on news writing

The Managing Editor of the Ghanaian Times newspaper, David Agbenu, has called on student journalists to be observant in their society in order to identify news story ideas.

The renowned media practitioner was speaking as the guest lecturer to the L200 Print News Writing class taught by Dr. Etse Sikanku, at the Osu campus of the University of Media Arts and Communication (UniMAC)-Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), on Wednesday, July 12, 2023.

According to Mr. Agbenu, the world would be in darkness without the presence of journalists and the media.

In an experiment to emphasize the critical role observation plays in news writing, Mr. Agbenu asked the students to close their eyes for a minute and then asked if any of them could write a news story based on what they saw.

“You won’t be able to write because you haven’t observed anything, and in news writing, it’s what you observe and what you hear,” he said. “Without the medium or the media, the world would have been the way you saw it because it is the media that inform the public.”

The alumnus of GIJ also urged the students to give out information that the ordinary person can understand.

“And in giving out information, you must give it out in a manner that the ordinary person on the street will understand. It’s not about the words you use, but it’s about how to present it in a manner that the ordinary person will understand,” Mr. Agbenu explained.

House style

Mr. Agbenu indicated that every newsroom around the world has what is called a house style, which dictates how the media house goes about its news writing and trains new staff to abide by them.

The house style, according to Mr. Agbenu, also differentiates one media house from another.

“…there is newsroom writing which you will be taught when you come to the newsroom. Every newsroom under this sun has a house style…and it varies from newsroom to newsroom,” he said, citing, for example, the structure of news writing in the Ghanaian Times newspaper.

“When you come to Ghanaian Times, you are taught to write in the past tense. We report in the past tense. There are few newspapers that report in the present tense, but our cardinal principle is to write in the past. So we write in the reported speech,” he added.

Mr. Agbenu revealed that the Ghanaian Times newspaper strictly does news with a minimum of 500 words, as part of their house style, as compared to the Daily Graphic, which sometimes does news features with detailed background information. This, he said, makes them different from others.

He stated that three structures—observation, listening, and reporting—guide the news writing process.

Background

Mr. David Agbenu honored a courtesy call by the course lecturer, Dr. Etse Sikanku, a senior lecturer and director of research at UniMAC-GIJ, to share his decades of experience with his Level 200 Print News Writing class.

Speaking after the lecture, Mr. Agbenu revealed that the purpose of his visit was largely based on the need to bridge the gap between the industry and the institute.

“Some of us have a feeling that there is a detachment and students learn something different in school and out there in the industry is quite different so when they come, they struggle to find their feet,” he said. “We thought of bridging that gap by bringing industry players to explain some of the things to the students.”

He assured that similar engagements are in the offing, with some measures being put in place for the Ghanaian Times newspaper to recruit students who are passionate about reporting to work with them even while they are in school.