The Department of Journalism of Lady Shri Ram College For Women organised a Guest Lecture on the 22nd of January and had the privilege of having Chike Frankie Edozien on board for the same. Mr. Edozien is a Journalism Professor at the NYU, a contributor to the 2016 Commonwealth Writers Anthology, a 2018 Lambda Literary Award Winner and the author of a ground-breaking book- “LIVES OF GREAT MEN”. His work has been featured in leading dailies including The New York Times, Quartz and Global Post.
The entire lecture aimed at covering and throwing light on the challenges and issues that one faces while writing stories and how can it be dealt with. Edozien talked about how it is the journalist’s responsibility of writing correct, reporting factually, verifying the facts and proofread the copy before sending it for publishing or printing. “Stories Matter” and “Journalism Is The First Draft Of The History” as quoted by the professor left impressionable marks on the minds of the listeners. He gave examples on how stories regarding death, disaster, disease, despair, destruction and corruption garner maximum readership and excites the most.
A real writer, according to him, must research, witness, ask, be active and not sloppy. A journalist must be affirmative towards new experiences, different viewpoints and should be biased at all times, i.e., he shouldn’t be an advocate of just the positive or the negative and should not just focus on the rich or the poor, but must cover both the aspects and write about everything that concerns the larger community.
Edozien encouraged the students to freelance or write on their own and get the stories published with the help of expanding internet because according to him “It’s The Writer Who Gets To Choose His Story And Nobody Else Can Tell The Story The Way You Want To”. The lecture ended with the speaker emphasising on “the diversity of voices” and how one should never stop writing a story that is full of truth and information.
It was an interesting and insightful lecture as the budding journalists and writers got to know more about the world of journalism from the professional itself.
Submitted by
Sanjana Chawla
Batch-2019
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