Beat association in a media industry is the coming together of journalists covering sections as segmented in a newspaper, in order to promote, protect and improve, through collective action, the news items of those segments that are being covered and the ‘social-economic interests’ of its members. The segmented sections are politics, business (oil and gas, information technology, banking & finance, maritime, brands & marketing, etc), aviation, entertainment, judiciary, crime, sports, among others.
In Nigeria: All newspapers are local in contents
This is a very good arrangement because it brings about professonalism that leads to specialization. Specialization in simple words means doing the same thing over and over until one becomes expert in doing that particular task. Each reporter specializes in reporting only one beat and by reporting the same beat over and over, such a reporter develops greater skill in it and becomes a specialist in the task. Reporting these specialized beats call for understanding and details. The main reason why specialization has gained prominent importance is that everything is scanned (by these reporters) so minutely that any error will not go unnoticed. However, it does not mean that these reporters won’t have appreciable understanding of what goes on in other beats.
Not minding that specialization has its disadvantages; its advantages outweigh. The biggest advantage of specialization is that it reduces the risk of error as the person who is a specialist is less likely to commit a mistake in reporting a particular beat than a non-specialist. Another advantage of specialization is that it saves time because if one keeps reporting or covering the same beat over and over again then he finds a better way to do the reporting which in turn results in a lot of saving of time. It also results in saving of money for the company because due to specialization, company does not have to incur so many expenses on training. It equally leads to increased productivity of the concerned journalists. Developing greater skills and becoming a specialist in reporting a certain beat increases the productivity of the concerned journalists.
However, despite the inherent advantages, some journalists have converted such beats into money making ventures because of their unethical behaviour. This is however giving the profession a bad name.
Emeka Izeze, Managing Director, the Guardian (1999 – 2019); Editor, the Guardian (1992 – 1999); Editor, the Guardian on Sunday (1988 – 1992) said that ‘Everybody wanted to belong to Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN). In the early days, it was because it granted access to vantage areas of sports facilities. Then, airport reporters association came along, and for a while functioned well, before it turned into a cartel too, and the reporters started fleecing those passing through airport for money, else their stories would not be published. The cartel did not see big stories passing them by at the airport, they simply started seeing their beat as a outpost for mercantilist and transactional activities. It killed initiative and professional conduct. Things worsened with the mushrooming of other cartels, like that for finance reporters, maritime reporters, and many others. This cartelization of news not only brought corruption to journalism, but brought journalism to its knees. Those who made corruption thrive were the bankers. They encouraged the formation of the associations, because the bulk of those who were serving as bank Corporate Affairs Managers had at one time or the other worked in the newsroom. They knew how we were operating, and when they got there, they said ‘You can’t get your way in these newspapers, except you manage what they publish’. So, they started managing what came to us as news from the banking sector in particular, and later energy and other sectors. Whether they intended it or not, they encouraged the reporters to start using their beats to make money’.
Femi Kusa, Editorial Director, the Comet (1999-2006), Director of Publications/Editor-in-Chief, the Guardian; Editor, the Guardian (1988-1992) said that ‘The downside is that these people formed themselves into associations, such that anything they didn’t want in the paper they blocked out. It led to corruption. It became difficult for editors to fight them. If you wanted to fight and break them, they would tell you it was part of development. There is a way they would put it and defeat your argument, but you knew what was actually happening. Then they would extort money in order to allow a story to pass, and if your reporter tries to get above them, the day he misses his stories, they will not help him. But if you are not an understanding editor to overlook any major miss because you know he has given you more gains, then you will frustrate that your reporter, then he would have no choice but to follow them. So, they became gatekeepers extraordinaire’.
Emeka Izeze further said that ‘If you’re looking for blame, we have enough to go round for all of us, purely because I think that we haven’t led well all the time. I think the industry should have been firmer in clamping down on such nefarious activities as beat associations, the cartelization of news and general corrupt practices. It started with the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) before others followed. I can’t recall any industry-wide action ever taken to correct this dangerous trend. Efforts made by a few individual newspapers proved too ineffective to draw a bandwagon effect from others. Everybody seems to have chosen the way to go, and that is bad for our industry’.
The concerned journalists have succeeded in conversion the media business to personal estate, use it to trade, negotiate and then leave the entire organization in a complete mess; they are not interrogating leaders and policies. It won’t be an overstatement to label this set of journalists as being complacent and lacking relevant initiatives because most of them are concerned about slanted contents meant to achieve predetermined position. It is not impossible to smuggle anything into the newspaper as some of these journalists smuggle in offensive stories.
They are concerned about looking for a platform to meet the right people to give them contracts or jobs and then they are off! Most of the corporate affairs managers in multinational companies are products of the media firms who leveraged on their relationship with those companies to secure these appointments. They would have succeeded in burning the boat that brought them.
Newspapers thrive on integrity, once lost, there may no longer be a business again as lack of integrity and commitment to principles is common in most of these beat associations. If the media lacks credibility and principles, what will they preach to the people in authority? Some of the journalists on various beats cannot even explain the sources of their sudden wealth.
Although, media is just a reflection of Nigeria as a country but the truth must be told, some of the beat associations promote franchise journalism instead of breeding professionalism. In fact, some media firms get their resources from the system that is corrupt through massaging the ego of their paymasters and promoters.
It is certain that these associations have come to stay but as a matter of urgency, individual media firms should come out with stringent rules and regulations that will guide their conducts. Equally, the umbrella bodies like Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) should intervene.
The politicians and captains of industry understand the financial status of the media firms; they are now using the instrumentality of public relations institutions to impose a sort of censorship and corruption in the media through these beat associations.
Finally, some beat associations are more or less trade unions as they are interested in improving their members’ quality of work life, protecting interest of members and fortification of members’ power, through defense against ‘aggressor’.
Abiola Ayankunbi is MD/CEO at AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy
0802 305 1315
abiolaayankunbi@yahoo.com
