The Medium is the Message

On the 10th of July, 2021, I-AmVocal foundation had her maiden event; sub-themed ‘Storytelling in a fragmented society’. The first in the series of programs planned for the year. 

We had panelists discuss and share varied insights on the theme, to enable the audience grasp the importance of stories in building and shaping society. There were four panelists comprising of two females – Chioma Ezenwafor and Jennifer Eneanya and two males- Bruce Lucas and ThankGod Okorisha. The moderator – Chinedu Amah is a communications expert and he hosted the session. The insights shared by the panelists were based on their experiences.

In his introductory speech, a panelist ThankGod said ’ stories can hurt and heal’ and this brings to fore the issues that we have been facing as a nation and the stories that are been told, the mediums and channels and how it’s been told by both the media, individuals and organizations on their varied platforms because these stories are what we regurgitate over time.

We had Chioma- a media personality talk about the challenges been faced by the media in the country and the struggle to survive amidst government regulations, sanctions, operating costs and the rise of citizen journalists; this is because technology has democratized reporting and information sharing. 

She believes a collaboration between platform developers like Bruce Lucas (another panelist) and the media will enable them improve the media space and content sharing especially with the dilemma of many stories to be told and what the audience want to hear. 

For Bruce, collaboration and partnership is the key to improving the media space same way the tech-guys collaborated jointly to establish hubs and secure funds to enlarge the tech ecosystem in the country.

Finally, Jennifer – a storyteller believes that children should have special contents curated and developed for them because there are impressionable and are affected by the media they consume and watch which is beyond their pay grade and age grade unlike the adults; creating audience- specific content is her forte.

At the end of the conversation, we all agreed that stories have contributed to the way the society is framed; we ought to tell and document our stories for posterity’s sake and also inform members of the society because that’s the only way the uninformed will become enlightened as such, we can collectively bring about the change we seek.