The Media Is Not Your Right Until......

This is not good but true because I often watch some upcoming entertainers sulking because the media does not look their way unless they pay heavily. Their concern is that sometimes a simple outfit of a celebrity makes headline on the media while their achievements which are supposed to be more important are overlooked.

Although, it is really unfair to watch bloggers especially in their quest for traffic publish every top celebrity trash without looking the other way even when the materials are really news worthy. This has actually affected our online media because we often end up reading empty headlines every day and blogs who had entertainment on their names are now posting politics and sports just to have reasonable contents up there.

Because some upcoming entertainers lack the understanding of how things really work, they end up being news readers instead of news subjects. They sit at home and search online to read stories about themselves, not knows that the gods of the media are yet to receive their sacrifices.

They would cough out about Twenty thousand Naira for a ‘New Music’ headline on one of the top music blogs in the country, but will never spend five thousand naira on a news article. News, opinions and features help your fans to connect with you; know you and even live like you, but that will cost you money.

I remember when my friend Prince Noel Unegbu was alive, media houses in Imo State gave us outrageous bills for the promotion of Imo Got Talent, and while we were busy running around for the money, none of these media houses gave us any form special treatment.

Few weeks later, Prince Noel was assassinated and the same media houses had him standing tall on their cover pages, the same space they never gave us at 50% discount.

Artistes like DaGreen became stars at their death, songs by the Aluu 4 were played by radio stations who never met them and this is same for many other entertainers whose little achievements were maginified at their death by the media. Let them do it while you are still alive.

The media is usually crazy about the death of the smallest star and the crave for traffic; sympathy by the public often makes it irresistible for them and you can never blame them in any way.

My advice for young entertainers, entrepreneur and all others whom the media could change their lives or businesses is that they should walk up to a good media personnel to help them publicize their works. Don’t wait till you are dead before you find yourself on the cover pages of newspapers and blogs.

Someone will actually say they do not have the money for that, and my advice is usually that they should convert a huge part of their alcohol budget to media budget. Don’t sit down and think that because you have performed in a high profile event, your pictures will be the next on blogs; it doesn’t work like that.

Event managers are the first to be guilty of this; they often feel that the media needs stories and one blogger or journalist will eventually attend their events for the purpose of reporting it for free. The media no longer works like that so don’t ever feel it is your right. The news would simply be your right if there was a stampede; fights that led to multiple injuries or loss of lives.

In the media, bad news is free, good news is hype. Only the politicians understand this, which is why for every small event they are organizing, they invite the media. They pay for it, so don’t be carried away when you hear them on TV or Radio in one show that looks neutral, but is actually sponsored.

I think young entertainers should emulate young politicians, maybe not in their art of lying, but in the obsession for the media. This is why most newspapers will have twenty news pages and just two pages for entertainment news. It is not your right, but you can still have it.

I don’t wish to say that anyone is going to die at a tender age, but when death comes, your little significance will take you to newspaper cover pages but you can take that to the inside page for a start now that you are alive.

Media increases your relevance, fan base as well as your contents on the internet, for those who are using online media. It ensures that when your name is looked up on search engines, it will return results that will keep your fans busy. It is worth every fund you invest in it and is something every entertainer who is craving for national or global relevance should imbibe.  

I wish you all the best and pray that you make cover pages when you are still alive.

Chinedu Hardy Nwadike is an author of books, journalist, blogger and publicity strategist.

He writes from Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.

Hmmm!!!