Media and journalism in the legal industry

Good journalism can bring about changes in laws. And the law affects how well journalists can do their job. As professions, both require superior research and writing skills, critical thinking and knowledge of government and the legal system…  – Careers in Media Law and legal Journalism. Legal journalism as a genre of law is yet […]

Good journalism can bring about changes in laws. And the law affects how well journalists can do their job. As professions, both require superior research and writing skills, critical thinking and knowledge of government and the legal system… 

– Careers in Media Law and legal Journalism.

Legal journalism as a genre of law is yet to find its footing in the Nigerian legal industry, mainly because the idea of legal practice other than litigation is not perceived by fellow learned colleagues as proper legal practice. Majority have come to accept the traditional Nigerian way of practice as the only viable means to earning professional fees for legal services rendered, if you are not a lawyer that goes to the court room every other day, or not employed with a litigation based law firm, one is not considered as a practicing lawyer. 

According to ‘wiki how’, legal journalism is a specialization within journalism. Legal journalists, like journalists in general, research and collect information and report that information to the general public in a variety of media. However, legal journalists focus specifically on reporting matters pertaining to the law, in simple words, legal journalism is specialized reporting about all matters pertaining to the field of law. 

With the advent of technology and social media, some legal professionals have seen the need to create legal online platforms where Nigerian lawyers can go to for information concerning the legal industry, this has led to the coming of online web blogs, facebook page, whatsapp group, instagram account, and many more, with the aim to improve information dissemination between lawyers in the industry. 

In recent times, a day hardly goes by without one getting notification link from one site or the other, on happenings in the country, and beyond; though not all lawyers who get the link actually click it to read the full contents of the news, the headline is good enough. 

Sadly, there is something about our beloved country that makes us fall prey to mis-use of inventions, exploring more of the negative angle rather than the positive side of such inventions. A typical example is the way Nigerians make use of the social media. In other advanced societies with effective system, the social media is used as a meeting place for like minds to connect and forge great future together. In Nigeria, some years back, my secondary school classmate, Miss Cynthia (God rest her soul) was murdered in a hotel room in Lagos State, because she paid a visit to someone she met on Facebook.  

The same applies to the legal industry. Some legal professionals misuse the opportunity of these online legal platforms; some use it as medium to cast aspersions on the character of another lawyer, violating the rules of professional conduct for legal practitioners. Some use it to sponsor propaganda of any sort irrespective of its ripple effect on the general society, some upload posts and pictures unbecoming of a gentleman of the bar. Some also use it to spread hate speeches causing discord amongst Nigerians. 

To my mind, lawyers who venture into media and journalism have an important role in improving the image of the legal profession, developing legal practice, and bridging intellectual gap between jurisdictions in the country.

It is not enough to only report news already published on other online news blogs to legal media, we must go further to create original contents that capture legal practice as it is in the Nigerian legal industry, and provide constructive analysis on how to get it better, the quest for traffic and likes have put many under pressure to deliver thereby hampering content creation. 

However, lawyers and law students with flair for writing, research, good interpersonal skills, knowledge of the legal system, and nose for legal events, and news should play a role in contributing to the development of the legal industry by creating online media contents for legal professionals in Nigeria. Apart from the financial benefits attached to this form of career path in law, it also adds to the profile of the legal professional involved.

Godspeed!   

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