Campus Journalism: A Lifetime Opportunity

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             Faith Alofe

Campus journalism, as described in Adejumo Kabir’s handbook on campus journalism, refers to the act of collecting, writing, and editing news stories for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio within the institutional community. The practice of campus journalism serves as a foundation for anyone pursuing a career in journalism.

It is a platform that reports, writes content, conducts interviews, and investigates happenings within universities, and it is typically carried out by students of such institutions. The main purpose of campus journalism is to serve as a watchdog of the institution. Therefore, becoming a campus journalist helps foster and strengthen one’s ability to amplify the voices of students against unfavourable school policies and actions.

Nevertheless, campus journalism may appear to be a one-way traffic, but it goes beyond just writing campus reports. It is a training ground for learning how to lend a voice to happenings within one’s community, serve as an agent of change, and influence public opinion and decision-making.

A large number of activists and investigative reporters you see today started out as campus reporters. Take, for example, Adejumo Kabir, who was one of the foremost campus journalists while on campus. He used his writings to challenge the university management, investigate internal issues and occurrences on campus, especially his report on a sexual scandal case involving a lecturer, which ultimately led to the lecturer’s imprisonment in 2018.

His experience as a campus journalist opened opportunities for him to write for top national newspapers such as Premium Times, among others. He also won several campus journalism awards during his time on OAU campus.

Proper training and grooming can best be achieved through involvement in campus journalism. Therefore, to excel in the field of journalism, one needs to leverage such platforms as a guide to a chosen career path.



DISCLAIMER!

Note that this report was republished from the previous unpublished reports of Faith Alofe, the erstwhile President, Association of Campus Journalists, OAU (2021/22 session), now a Correspondent at The Punch Newspaper. 

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