Entertainment Reporting is Boring Because Media People Want to Be Celebrities - Joy Bewaji

The reason entertainment journalism is super boring in Nigeria is because the practitioners are hustling to be celebrities themselves; and sadly, they are friends with the real celebrities- partying, taking duck face selfies, air-kissing on twitter, shopping and getting styled from the same stock.


You are never going to get any intelligent unbiased reporting from that crew. They will fluff over every matter with no depth because they need to keep their hustle fresh and endearing- they need to stay friends with celebrities (musicians, actors, comedians etc).

Toolz, for instance, has no opinion on anything. Not one! I think the reason I listen to her (during that10 minutes drive to my children’s school and back) is because I find her voice soothing. I don’t listen to what she has to say. She has nothing to say that could possibly interest me; all these celebrities are her friends. And it seems she’s generally too nice to have a 4-hour show with no strong opinions of her own.

It’s exhausting to say the least. And it makes me truly sad- these platforms that can be used for significant, persuasive and influential ideals are left barren and ailing like a sick child suffering from kwashiorkor…saccharine judgments and empty banter buttered with accents that bounced from Australia to Dubai and then to Europe with a loud thud.

I am tired. And I am bored.

Fade is on BeatFM now trying hard to have an opinion about Tiwa Savage’s Wanted video. I really don’t care if you are for or against it, but in the name of everyone that can pronounce “bourgeois”, state your reasons intelligently like a sound professional- objective and seasoned with depth.

What has Fade got to tell me about Tiwa? They are friends for Chrissake!

We need to grow a dispassionate media team with a love for the profession and not people hungry for a piece of red-carpet fame. Every industry has to blossom; entertainment media has not matured because its practitioners go to bed hoping to win as many celebrity friends as their studios can take.

And those who try to criticize, they come on air with their terribly flawed pronunciations and enunciations, you begin to cry.

When they write, they speak all their big big grammar and then head to twitter to start playing like cool kids with these celebrities. How are you going to maintain a respectable career as an entertainment journalist if all you care about is a RT from Davido, a free pass from P-square or a shout out from Ice Prince?

I just want to read ONE brilliant entertainment piece and find it deliciously wicked, frank, illuminating and free of all the ass-licking.

I am tired jor!

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Joy Bewaji is a writer, author and publicist. She shared the above article on Facebook, and you can also find her on TheMagazineClub