If you see the entries nominated for the 2007 Online News Association (ONA) Awards, you will weep for the pathetic state of Nigerian journalism.

Just visit the following news websites in the Outstanding Use of Digital Media "Large" Category:

http://secondlife.reuters.com/

http://www.thestar.com/immigration


It would have been a waste of time if I nominated any Nigerian news media.

Leading Nigerian newspapers must face the challenges of the global village in the 21st century or continue to grope in the fog of the last century.

We are all in the global village and we have no excuses for lagging behind in the information age. Because, digital media is not beyond our reach.

N.B:
The Online Journalism Awards are presented through a partnership between the Online News Association and the USC Annenberg School for Communication.

What's wrong with the website?

You want us to start journalising in "second life"? Please that is messed up. Let the early adopters go to second life and when we're certainly sure about it, we'll join them.

There are a lot of rubbish innovations that come up. You just don't go investing in all of them. You let them weed each other out and the ones that are time tested will get to us.

This is the kind of thing that saw hundreds of thousands of Nigerian families buy Laser Disc Machines at exorbitant rates and today, they don't use it for anything.

So let's wait and see where this second life goes then we'll follow.

Please, don't miss the point.

Visit the forums of the leading Nigerian newspapers online and compare them to Nairaland.
Then visit Uche Nworah's Nigerian Village Square and see how digital media can be used to enhance popular journalism.

On which of our newspapers online can you watch breaking news in Nigeria.

When a plane crashed near Abuja last year, the CNN borrowed the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)'s camera to record it and reported the breaking news before the NTA crew returned to their TV station.

Reuters, AP and the BBC break news on Nigeria before the NTA, AIT, Channels and others.

Nigerian bloggers are already using podcasts to report news and current affairs while the mainstream media in Nigeria cannot even show ordinary video news!