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URN News Digest Vol 14: So, what kind of story did we get? By Bro Sam Gummah

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Dear friends,
I’ve looked and looked at this story over and over again and have decided to write about it.

The story am referring to can be read here: http://ugandaradionetwork.com/a/story.php?s=40145 and the summary is: Uganda’s Ambassador to China Madibo Wagidoso, says Ugandan traders are to blame for the sub-standard Chinese products that have flooded the local market.
Wagidoso says Ugandan traders who go to China prefer buying cheap products in order to maximize profits back home. He explains that the Chinese manufacture products in different quality but that the Ugandan traders who go to China only buy the lowest quality because it’s cheap.
After reading the story I turned back to ask… What I have really learnt from it…and I found the answer… NIL, I then wanted to know whether there is something I could have wished to know from a man… who is in China… And I felt…Yes! My next question was, why didn’t I learn from him now that he was talking about a topic I wish to to hear about? And the answer is: Because I or the person representing me DID NOT ASK ANY QUESTION!

 

So, what kind of story did we get?
“A school Seminar Story!”
Less than a Workshop
A story without Head and Tail
A thoughtless Story
Without a context

A story with great potential
That becomes a stillbirth
Promising to inject knowledge in this dark world of business
And the Associated Impermeable China
From a man who sits there
Watching over the Interests of Uganda

Let to make a commoner’s statement
That I could make
Without ever travelling to China!

What a shame
What a disappointment
What a failure
what an nonperformance!

I look around and wonder
Are there no businesses in Mbale
selling Chinese products
No buyers and sellers?

Was it a deadline,
An important new discovery,
A statement from an ambassador
At the University
A rare occurance
Breaking News
He Said!!

With this degree of sloppiness (to borrow sister Mac’s word)
We are all doomed.

URN News Digest Vol No. 011: Over, Over and Over

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Over, Over, Over…

On a high note this was a busy news week, not the striking and enterprising stories but some crime, disagreements, political stunts, and traders’ disgruntlements.

One of my new Years resolutions is to gently tighten my diction if only it can add a spark to the way we communicate.

There are a set of words that we constantly misused over the last year, someone is accused OF and not accused for…and I hope that each of us can find some time to reflect on them and actually cast them away to clean our writing act.

One of the words we have misused is “over”

We are aware of such sentences “He was arrested over Murder, “MP grilled over UGX 29m” “Police arrested over UGX 60,000 bribe”

I may sound like a reformed criminal talking tough against the crimes that I once committed, but I must say that some of the misused words actually add humor to my day.

But slowly and with the resolve to tighten our writing we can always go above the glitches of grammar.

Grammatically, the word “Over” can be used as a preposition meaning:
In a position above;
• There was a pretty doormat spread over the door step
• I took a stroll over the highway
• She scanned over his son’s school report.
• Won’t tell you over the phone.
• The director presided over the meeting
• Shall have a chat over a cup of tea

It can be used as an adverb:
• The cost of the dam is over the country’s annual budget.
• The milk spilled over
• He invited us over for a party

As an adjective, the word “Over” can apply as in this example: The dirty relationship is over now

Over can also be used as a verb as in this example: I am over the sickle cell attack and I feel happy today.

The exclusion of the word over does not detract or distort the sentence. He was arrested for murder; MP grilled in connection with a UGX 29m bribe.

My explanation may not be exhaustive but be encouraged to grab your dictionary and look up the word over.

Its not all over until its over

The URN Web style guide encourages us to refer to it to make our writing right, just as a preacher would refer to a bible to make his sermon bright.

Story Tips of the Week

Following last year’s high inflation and the tough economic times, the opening of the new school year is around the corner
• Visit popular schools in your areas and find out the difficult decisions the schools are struggling with.
• Find out the enrollment trends in some of the popular schools whose fees were hiked. Someone has the figures to give you a proper assessment of the enrolment trends.
• Talk to the head teachers on some specific budgetary adjustments
• Parents too must be dealing with difficult choices, -withdraw children from boarding or ?

Quote of the Week
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life, don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking…” Steve Jobs

Where Do Story Ideas Come From?

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Santa Zongo, is  a young journalist on an independent paper in Landaba County.

One day, he received a phone call.The caller didn’t give his name, but simply said: “Meet me at the tea stall in the old-clothes market in an hour. I have a story that will make your career.” Zongo was intrigued. When he got to the place, no-one was there, but the stall-holder showed him an envelope and said “Are you John? A man in a white shirt said I should give you this.” The envelope contained a videotape.

It seemed to show the President sitting at a table in the presidential palace garden, accepting a suitcase full of banknotes from a well-known businessman, who had recently been acquitted in a big money-laundering case. Zongo was very excited. But when he discussed the videotape with his editors, they were divided.

One said: “This story will make the paper! It’s obvious this is a recent tape because of the weather and how the two men look. We can bring down the government with cast-iron proof that crooked businessman bought his acquittal. We’ll put stills from the video on the front page. Good work, Zongo!” But the other said: “I’m not so sure. We don’t know where this came from, it might be a fake, and there could be many reasons why money is changing hands. It could even be a donation to the President’s charity fund.”

Then the editors discussed how to proceed, and asked Zongo what he thought, since he’d brought in the tape.

If you were Zongo, what would you have contributed to the discussion? What should the paper do next?