Founder of the award winning blog, Three Men on a Boat, Larry Kwirirayi has called out journalists for being lazy and having a lack of curiosity which has led to a drop in standards in mainstream media. He made these remarks appearing as a guest on Tonight with Zororo.
Speaking on the rise of copy and paste journalism Kwirirayi said, ‘ People today don’t want their work to be misconstrued. They aren’t willing to fall on the axe, and take pride in their work, so they just take someone else’s work and claim it as theirs’. ‘Journalists aren’t doing enough to check their correspondence or their facts on the ground’ he said.
He added that we have become an instant coffee generation that wants to consume news now and so less attention is being paid to quality content and this has contributed to the decrease in investigative journalism. On social media’s impact on reporting he said there has been a ‘high level of immaturity when it comes to new technology of any sort in Zimbabwe, never mind social media. News agencies look at it as an added thing as opposed to it being part of the tools that they can use for news gathering.’ Kwirirayi also shot down rumours that he doesn’t know the national anthem, claiming to have been sick on the day that he was called to sing it.
Makamba opened the show encouraging Africans to realise the benefits of telling their own story. He said that there are thousands of untold stories leaving future generations thinking their dreams are unachievable because the successes are not passed down to them. Episodes of Tonight with Zororo can be viewed online at www.twzshow.com.
