By Nnamdi Ojiego

Media has been known from time immemorial, to inform, educate and entertain. It is also known as a powerful voice for the voiceless.

However, in carrying out this age-long responsibility, media handlers including media owners, content creators, and programme producers among others have neglected an important segment of the population – the youths.

It is believed that if there is anything the younger generation desires so much, it is a platform to speak their minds and be heard. Unfortunately, the media has failed over the years, to actually factor the youths in the scheme of things.

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Breakfast show
Until now, there was no regular television breakfast show dedicated wholly to the youths between the ages of 18 and 35 even when this age bracket constitutes about 25 per cent of the population.

The implications of this obvious neglect are that most youths became disillusioned and disinterested in media programmes, especially, television. They now found solace in social media platforms as enabled by the internet.

Worried by this development and in the realisation of the need to carry this important age group along and give them a voice, the management of PlusTV Africa, a pan African television station, introduced Tea Time, a news analysis programme deliberately created to promote the interest of the millennials.

The Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of PlusTV Africa, Mr. Kayode Akintemi, in a chat with Sunday Vanguard, said the television station is a vision of many years.

Young people
“The vision was to bring young people together to tell their stories from the African perspective. We are keen to develop and train young African broadcast journalists that will be at par with their counterparts from other parts of the world,” he said.

Akintemi explained that he conceived and birthed Tea Time programme to provide a platform that would carry the younger generation along and represent them.

“I know the millennials like entertainment and if you want to reach out to them, you will have to use what they consume which is entertainment and lifestyle. That is exactly what we are doing with Tea Time show, where millennials will get to sit and watch their favourite show whether it is on TV or online”, he remarked.

The show, designed to inform, educate, enlighten and entertain, encompasses conversations around the lifestyle youths live. It airs twice daily every weekday by 10:30 am and 4:30 pm respectively while there’s a weekend round-up of weekdays’ activities. The target audience is youth between the ages of 18 and 35 and it’s fashioned to have three anchors.

Youthful
During a visit to the studios of PlusTV Africa, Sunday Vanguard had a lively chat with the youthful Tea Time anchors.

It is not enough to create good media content or initiate good media programmes, equally important is to have a well-experienced team that will perfectly convey the message to the target audience in a language they understand.

This is what the anchors of Tea Time show represent. Elsie Godwin, the lead anchor, Ife Omai and Ifeoluwa Osunkeye are On-Air Personalities, OAPs, of note. They bring with them rich media experiences and have held the viewers spellbound with their scintillating performances.

And being youths themselves, they understand better what their peers truly desired.

Just like the popular saying that he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches, they are youthful and know exactly what they want and how they want to be communicated to.

News analysis
The youthful presenters, full of enthusiasm and excitement, in an interactive session with Sunday Vanguard, at their Lagos studios, described Tea Time as a voice to the younger generation and a platform where youth can speak up and be heard.

Leading the discussion was the Lead Anchor, Elsie Godwin, who led the Sunday Vanguard team into the world of PlusTV Africa Tea Time show.

She said: “Tea Time is a news analysis programme, centred around bringing viewers up to date on every information about entertainment, celebrity and their lifestyles. It was birthed to meet the needs of the millennials when it comes to television. The conversation depends on what is in the news most of the time.

“I think it got to a point when it looked like younger ones are no longer interested in watching television because there was nothing really for them to watch. That is why this programme was created, a show that will make them not feel left out. The youths have been left out for a long time especially when it comes to a news television platform in analysing the things they are interested in. This platform will give them that voice to speak and have themselves heard.

Lifestyle issues
“We have A-list guests from the entertainment industry such as musicians, actors and those that work behind the scenes to make these things possible, who come regularly to share their experiences. We also talk about policies when they come up in the news.

“However, when it comes to lifestyle issues, we get people in those areas to dissect the topics. Imagine we are having Ini Edo on the show, people will want to know what she is up to. So, we bring guests depending on what we are talking about or trending topics in the news.”

Primary focus
But why the focus on the youths, one would want to ask?

Here is is what one of the presenters, Ife Omai, has to say: “The truth is you can’t target everybody. When you create a programme, it is expected you know the people you are serving. When we are going through our thought process, having surveys to know what we should put into the show, who becomes our target audience is always our primary focus.

“Obviously, the first thing is who watches entertainment. You don’t see the older generation who are in the different spheres of life focusing on what Don Jazzy has to offer. So based on feedback, you know who watches entertainment and who doesn’t, just like how you would say that sports are probably more male-dominated than female. And they focus more on men.

“The truth is we can’t focus on everybody. And it’s not that we will not be able to entertain the older people but while we are considering decisions of how we want the show to flow, we will be thinking more about younger people and how they can be entertained.

“Sometimes, it happens that we do it so well that older people enjoy it as well. it is really for everyone. Interestingly, we have had a lot of older people that are even more interested in Tea Time than younger ones. We have seen those in their 50s and 60s telling us that they like our show.”

Wider audience
For Ifeoluwa Osunkeye, who is the only male among the crew, there are constant plans and deliberate efforts to reach a wider audience, cover more grounds and get more celebrities involved in the programme. It would be really nice for youths to see their favourite artists, either to perform or share a story.

Impacts
On gauging the impacts of the programme, the crew revealed many channels through which it monitors and receives feedback. “We share our telephone lines and we are very active on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channel where viewers can drop comments and we read them out on the shows.

“However, during special editions, the audience can participate. We always want to know what people are saying in respect to our programme.

“We don’t joke with being available online. We started with online, then, to the satellite. Today, we are on Startimes, DStv. We are also working on our mobile app, PlusTV Africa mobile app.

“That is another medium for anyone to watch from anywhere in the world. PlusTV Africa is showing on DStv, channel 408 and across 36 countries in Africa. If you have DStv anywhere in Africa, you can watch us,’’ Osunkeye said.

VANGUARD