TABLOID JOURNALISM: YESTERDAY, TODAY AND THE FUTURE By Muyiwa Adetiba

*Lecture to mark 10th year anniversary of death of Dimgba Igwe.

BY MUYIWA ADETIBA

Some thirty-five years ago, in 1990 or thereabout, I was in the office of Dr Doyin Abiola at her invitation. Dr Abiola was then the Managing Director of Concord Newspapers. As I stood up to leave after our meeting, she asked me if I had seen their new look Weekend paper. ‘Please check it out. Its our joker’. She concluded with a smile.

I needed no further invitation. I was impressed but not surprised at what I saw when I eventually had a copy in my hands. Impressed because the paper fitted what I thought a weekend newspaper should be at that time. Not surprised because I knew the inclination and ability of Mike Awoyinfa, its Editor. I had known of Mike before I met him and in fact, unknown to him, I had thought of working with him on a project. Although he was the leading light, the paper was not all about Mike however. There were some very intriguing writers I was meeting for the first time on its pages. One of them was Dimgba Igwe, the man in whose honour, we are all gathered today.

In some ways, it would feel strange and surprising to many that I was chosen to present a professional paper on the 10th year of the passing of Dimgba, given that we never worked together. Although I had followed his career and writings since my introduction on the pages of the Weekend Concord, I can’t recollect meeting him let alone having a conversation with him at any time.  Yet, it is as if I knew him well. This is because we shared a kinship. We both believed in the same genre of journalism. This perhaps, was what decided the organisers of this outing on me. It was also part of what made me to accept.

When Mr Femi Adesina called to make the request, my immediate reaction was to decline. Those who know me well enough know that I am not much given to public outings let alone, public speaking. But Mr Adesina’s polite insistence, gave me an opportunity to rethink. My acceptance two days later, was based on three things; my respect for Dimgba Igwe as a person and what he had achieved in his relatively short but impactful life, the anguish we all shared at the manner of his passing and finally, the chosen topic for the lecture.

Like Igwe, I believe in liberal journalism. I believe in anchoring stories around people and humanizing what otherwise would have been abstract facts. I loathe long, tedious write-ups and tend to push for brevity. I love photographs that can tell their own stories. I look out for empathy in stories and I seek the uncommon in common everyday lifestyles. I love interviews and the vista they allow into people’s souls. Although I am not that much into labels, I think these are the essence of what is known as tabloid journalism, which is what I have been asked to speak on today.

A few decades ago, the country witnessed a rise in, and an acceptance of a class of weekly publications based in part, on the principles and ethos I had earlier mentioned. It was labelled Soft Sell Journalism by some and derisively but erroneously labelled Junk Journalism by others, including those I felt should know better. I dismissed this characterization at the time as envy and therefore a phase that would soon pass. I was wrong. It persisted and not only did it tarnish a genre of our profession, it tarnished the reputation of those who were involved in that genre. It also misguided younger journalists into believing Junk Journalism was another name for Tabloid Journalism. I will give an example. I wrote an article around the period of the June 12 annulment which was published by the Guardian. A young writer at the Guardian, one of those who had been fed on the bias of junk journalism and who obviously didn’t know I had existed before Prime People, expressed his surprise at my article. ‘Oh, he writes so well’ he told his boss. It was the turn of his boss who incidentally had worked with me at the Punch to be surprised ‘What were you expecting?’ asked the boss. That the young journalist thought so little of me – my intellect and my composition skills – meant the campaign of junk journalism against practitioners of a genre of journalism had scored a bull’s eye. They had succeeded in lowering the esteem of a certain class of journalists in the public eye and among fellow journalists. If this was not actionable, then I don’t know what defamation is.

So today, I will start my definition of Tabloid Journalism by stating what it is not.  First of all, it is definitely not Junk Journalism. Junk, by its very definition, is something of such a low quality that it is of no value or use – I am not sure anybody can honestly say that about Tabloid Journalism. Junk Journalism or Yellow Journalism, is therefore low quality journalism. It is a disrespect for facts and an aversion for accuracy. It panders to conspiracy theories and promotes primordial fears. These are shortcomings that can be found in many publications irrespective of the genre. It is therefore safe to say that Junk Journalism exists in all genres of journalism and indeed all channels of mass communication where practitioners allow their professional standards to be lowered.

Although it must be said that some tabloids tend to blur the lines in their quest for exciting, and often sensational news. Many of them cast headlines that have little relevance to the body of the story. I often remind my younger colleagues of the old dictum that a headline must tell the story no matter how creative you want it to be.

There are many definitions of a tabloid depending on who you are listening to and what that person seeks to highlight. To some, tabloid journalism is a form of journalism that focuses on pop culture, crime and society in a sensational way. To some others, a tabloid is a condensed newspaper with a long history of sensationalizing lives of celebrities – and stories, particularly of crime and society- that catch attention. Still some others see tabloid journalism as stylish and distinct with bold headlines and short, catchy articles with lots of photographs. But the definition I like and one which has influenced me the most, belongs to Alhaji Babatunde Jose, the doyen of Nigerian tabloid journalism. He simply described tabloid journalism as ‘a vivid presentation of news and views’. Note that there was nothing like distortion of news and views in his definition. Or of headlines not representing the body of the story.

It is interesting to note that tabloid came into existence as a medical word. Coined from tablet- alkaloid, it was trademarked in 1884 by an English pharmaceutical company to describe a pill containing compressed powder. Over time, it became a buzz word for anything that was compressed. Newspapers almost completely took the name over when at the turn of the century, the search for quick sales led publishers to compacted, easy to read articles. Broadsheet journals which typified serious reading were seen as cumbersome and tedious. Seen then as new journalism before the likes of Tom Wolfe redefined the phrase around 1975, this new trend was associated with, if not pioneered by Pullitzer, yes, of the Pullitzer Prize fame, and Hearst at the beginning of the century. The trend soon caught up throughout the world in different shapes and forms. The common feature being brevity in size and style. The common aim being commercialization of their products for higher profits through increase in sales. For them, newspapers had become products and their readers, consumers.

We must remind ourselves that journalism itself is the report of news of the day in an easy to digest manner designed to attract the attention of often impatient readers. So tabloid journalism didn’t necessarily re-invent the wheel in this aspect. And to be fair, many tabloids used the commercial success of their publications to advocate societal changes and speak truth to power. We all are aware of the role Nigerian tabloids played in the struggle for independence and fight against oppressive military rulers. We also remember that the battle for the actualization of June 12 was fought on the streets as well as in the newsrooms. Many in this room still carry the scars of that battle.

Some, like ‘The Mail’ in the UK, took on an ideological if not a political stance. It was by the side of Margaret Thatcher, a Conservative, in her battle to reduce the hold the British Unions had on the economy.

With the roaring success of tabloid newspapers – The Mirror reached its peak at 5.2 million sales per day in 1967 as a modern tabloid – came fierce, almost cut-throat competitions. The frontiers were extended to include sleaze, sex and the bizarre. We all remember ‘The Sun’ in the UK, not our own Sun, with the famous, or infamous Page 3 girls that almost became nude pin-ups. As competition increased, the frontiers continued to be extended and distended. And professional standards continued to be lowered. Investigative journalism became checkbook journalism; kiss and tell journalism and long-lenses journalism. The long cherished role of the tabloid as the true voice of the people had been overshadowed by consumerism. The death of Diana, the Princess of Wales in August 1997 at the hands of the paparazzi became a wake-up call of some sort as tabloid ethics came under discussion.

Although the era of tabloid newspapers is fading and their power waning due largely to digital pressure, the idea behind it is not. Now known as tabloidization, this idea has found its way into TV in the form of ‘Talk-shows’ ‘Reality TV’ and ‘Lifestyle’. Tabloidization is also strong online with what is sometimes called clickbait journalism where the success of a story is determined by its number of clicks. Besides, some tabloid newspapers have transited online fairly successfully. Mail-online which was launched in 2003 had 13 million daily browsers by 2019.

The future of tabloidization is secure for as long as there continues to be changes in social and demographic patterns in the world and human beings being human, continue to find storytelling and issues of morality appealing if not irresistible; and if tabloidization continues to serve the need to reach bigger audiences by evolving ideas around shifting priorities in journalism and the media landscape as a whole. Instagram and twitter now known as X are classic examples of how tabloidization has evolved in the present and possibly for the future.

Let me conclude by saying a few words about the man for whom we are all here. From all accounts, he was a quintessential, well rounded reporter, Editor, Columnist, Media Manager and Publisher. Many in this room today would still recollect where they were and what they were doing when they heard of his gruesome death. His death was second perhaps only to that of Dele Giwa in our world. Time heals. I pray that God -and time – have healed the wounds in the hearts of those he left behind. The quality of those here today shows that he is still remembered by many of his colleagues. More importantly, he lives on in his books, his devotion to his craft and devotion to God. I read the article Isaac Igwe wrote to his father last year and I smiled. What a chip off the old block. We definitely have not seen the last of the Igwes.