HOUSE styles of television stations should be the supreme document that everyone follows to the letter.
Recently, ZNBC announced through then acting news and current affairs director, Osward Mutale who said the national broadcaster was seriously enforcing a rule that all stories and scripts would be done in British English.
Watching Mr Mutale talking about the style book that ZNBC recently revised, you could sense the station wants to progress in a certain fashion that even a person who joins today would be expected to tow the same line.
But surprisingly, despite the proclamation of Mr Mutale who belaboured the point of how a truck would now be called by its British name lorry, some news bulletins still say truck-loads of mukula tree have been impounded, for example.
The prescribed change is obviously inevitable but the implementation is rather too slow because some scripts still carry American ascents, if you like.
What sometimes causes people to pronounce words wrongly is the rush some newscasters get into when reading news.
Seasoned casters like Namakau Kapihya should rub off their calmness to the upcoming readers who have lots to learn from the veterans.
I presume that is why ZNBC adopted the dual casting system so that one can catch their breath, while the other is reading. In the same vein, the two newscasters could also plan their dressing for some matching of some sort.
I wonder if the new style book also has a guide on dressing and pronunciations because I have also observed that sometimes on the dual news casting, one anchor pronounces issue as ‘isyu’ or one calls it a schedule, while the other goes skedule.
It is little wonder the Zamspell It programme, also on ZNBC has had the poor pupils asking the presenter to repeatedly pronounce a word or put it in a sentence but without success because each person wants to pronounce words their way.
Last Wednesday, a pupil had difficulties getting the word disbursement from the presenter Nalukui Mufungulwa and the provided sentence and description did not help much forcing the pupil to instead spell displacement because thats what he heard.
The other week on the same Zamspell It, I saw a learner who could not spell the military rank Colonel. You can be forgiven for such a word given that its pronunciation is totally different from the spelling but it is a huge rarity that words come like that.
That just illustrates how important pronunciations are in broadcasting. Like I have said before on this platform, mispronouncing a name is just unforgivable to some people.
Where pronouncing a name correctly is so cardinal, writing it is even more vital.
The other day ZNBC morning live featured MISA board member Wilson Pondamali and while the gentlemen was busy answering questions, his name flashed on the screen in form of a caption as Pondamili.
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There are so many dynamics involved in televising captivating content that sits well with your audiences.
Last weekend, I had a loose chat with Muvi TV general manager Costa Mwansa who illustrated to me what is involved in bringing out good content.
The astronomical figures Costa was talking about for showing the telenovelas, local drama series and football are simply out of this world.
It seems to me television rights are the most happening business in the industry now and you got to feel for our local stations.
I still threw a challenge to Costa on why we cannot promote local content like the short films I keep seeing on Muvi TV,Banja, Pamudada and Konstable.
Apparently, the local productions are also just as expensive.
But for the sports content, I still feel Muvi TV which prides itself as a community television station could take up the televising of the unsponsored Division One matches. I am pretty sure the audience of Muvi TV resonates with Division One audiences.
After all, the station already has the state-of-the-art touch screen which Tim Zulu and others have only been using for in studio analyses.
I remember watching a news clip on Muvi Tv when the station signed some memorandum of understanding with FAZ. Kalusha Bwalya and Costa did the signing sometime in 2012 but we have largely seen nothing in so far as local league content is concerned.
With the big household names campaigning in Division One, it has the potential of becoming the next best thing in Zambian football.
In South Africa, the SABC already shows some National First Division matches and Supersport does so too. Imagine our Division becoming bigger than the premier Division then when major broadcasting houses come-calling, they have to buy rights from Muvi TV? Food for thought.
There was a time Mighty Mufulira Wanderers and Nkana were playing in Division One and their match was played at Nkoloma stadium. I might not have the correct statistics but the crowd ranked among the highest all season.
From the mailbag
Hi,
Your article in the Sunday Times 12/10/2014 though not centred on Macky 2 to me was well thought. I believe the boy will go a long way even wining BBA. He may not be fluent in English as many pretenders would want him to be.
In Zambia let’s learn to realise that English is not our mother language. And luckily, in BBA they don’t follow who speaks good language but the true person. His first diary session to me was marvelous .That’s the reason why he not even nominated among the evictions.
Even this week he will be among them as his group won the contest they had on Saturday (the waka waka ).
Mack 2 will surprise many and they will love him in the house and Africa as a whole.
Regards
Nyambe Kamitondo
For more comments manchishi@gmail.com