Lagos – A veteran entertainment photo journalist, Tam Fiofori, on Wednesday advised entertainment journalists to be hardworking, in order to make a meaningful impact in the industry.

Fiofori said in Lagos that entertainment journalists must strive to be versatile and passionate in their art, to succeed.

He noted that entertainment journalism was treated as the least important branch in the profession because of the way they see entertainers.

“But these days, entertainers in Nigeria earn lots of money and are the faces of different products, so the journalists also have to upgrade, in order to impact meaningfully in the industry.

“An entertainment journalist must research into the past and see how older music influenced the younger generation,’’ he said.

He wondered why some people regarded certain types of music above the others or unduly elevated a musician to an undeserved position.

“No music is old school and no musician is better than the other. There is nothing like a king of any music or the owner of any music.

“So when one artist crowns himself the king of any music, it is the job of the journalist to correct it and inform the public rightly,’’ he said.

Fiofori also said that music was a product of teamwork, but that journalists tended to focus on just the artist and ignored the team that worked with them to make the music.

“There are the producers; the back-up artistes; the arrangers; the band and so on; they should all be recognised in music reporting and writing.

“Also, there is a proliferation of musical genres in Nigeria now, and most of these genres are claimed by the artists, that should not be the case.

“A music journalist has to be well learned and informed enough, to help classify the genres of music and even tell the artist what he is singing; a journalist should help to define music,’’ he said.

Fiofori was a founding member of the Photographers Association of Nigeria (PAN) and a media consultant of repute.

He was a film consultant to the Rivers State Council for Arts and Culture, and Director, Rivers State Documentary Series.

Fiofori has also served as a consultant and scriptwriter to the Nigerian Television Authority on documentaries.