Sharon Ogunleye, a Nigerian Journalist Working in Turkish Television
As part of our series on international storytelling, Richard Bednarski gets media tips from Sharon Ogunleye who has been an international journalist for almost five years and currently works with Turkey Radio Television.
Sharon Ogunleye began her career in advertising after graduating from college but soon realized journalism was her calling. She worked with the news agency Reuters for several years from Nigeria, covering stories about homelessness in Lagos, union strikes, and American football starting in Africa. She has since moved on to Turkey Radio Television and is the Deputy Program Editor residing in Istanbul.
Richie Bednarski: How long have you been a journalist?
Sharon Ogunleye: For close to 15 years now. I graduated with my first degree in 2005 and I didn’t start journalism immediately. I started with advertising. Then I started working for a magazine, an entertainment magazine. And I started by interviewing celebrities because it was like a celebrity magazine where we speak to entertainment personalities. Then I delved into television in 2010 with Reuters and I was with Reuters for seven years, and then I moved to Turkey in 2018.
Richie Bednarski: What made you transition from an advertising mindset to a journalism mindset?
Sharon Ogunleye: So what happened was in university, I was always interested in TV. I specialized in film as well, when I was in school. So it was something that always been an interest to me, but when I graduated there weren’t any jobs. But I just had to get a job to make ends meet. It’s like first love, I was starting to do it, while in school because I was interested in it. I wanted to contribute to society in a different way. I love field work very much, which is why I enjoyed being at Reuters because it gave me the opportunity to speak to people and to tell the stories that impact, you know so that’s what I love to do.
Richie Bednarski: What was it like working with Reuters in Nigeria as a TV journalist?
Sharon Ogunleye: It was everything for me. I was a multimedia journalist, it was not desk work, even though there were people that were reporting to me. Because I love field work. We’re trained to know how to edit videos, we’re trained to know how to handle cameras as well and we’re trained to do a lot of live reporting as well. It was everything combined into one and then we filed the stories from the field if it’s breaking news. My job entailed basically running the TV department, on behalf of the company. We also do feature stories as well. We have stringers, we call them stringers, across [Nigeria]. They send what they’ve done across to us, and then we feed it to the headquarters and the office in London.
Richie Bednarski: What’s journalism like in Turkey at this point in time?
Sharon Ogunleye: It is very different from what I used to do at Reuters. Because Reuters is a news agency, so we provide content for our clients and actually [Turkey Radio Television] is one of the clients. So it’s more like I am now inside. I wanted to experience TV from a different perspective. What I do here is, I’m a deputy program editor, so I do my desk work not field work. That involves everything from a feed from the field, it’s similar to CNN or BBC, or Al Jazeera, basically just output news and I check everything that the producers produce.
Richie Bednarski: What has been kind of one of your biggest challenges as a journalist working internationally?
Sharon Ogunleye: I think the fact that they don’t cover Africa enough. I would love to see them do more coverage on Africa, because you know that’s where I come from. So now we don’t really have a program that is like dedicated to just the African continent. I would love to see that, but for my own country, though, the media houses they’re just so controlled by the government. I would love to see more independent reporting so the journalist can be brave enough to tell the stories without being scared for their lives. To tell the truth of what’s going on within the society within government and within various companies.
Richie Bednarski: What has been your biggest success as a journalist so far in your career?
Sharon Ogunleye: When I was with Reuters, we had a relationship with one of the universities. So every year we will always have interns. So for me it’s when I see these people go on to do greater things, because I love training people, and then here [at Turkey Radio Television] I carried on the training so when we have new people join us, I train them. I don’t do that so much these days, because, when I joined, I was just an output producer, so I had a lot of time to train a lot of people. So for me, you know when they come back to tell me, ‘oh, thank you. You’ve made a difference.’ So just like putting it all out there, you know, giving everything you can to make sure these people know the job and then seeing how they grow in the job and then go on to bigger and better things with their lives. That for me is everything.
Richie Bednarski: You’ve produced tons of stories, so what has been your all time favorite story that you produced?
Sharon Ogunleye: My favorite actually, is the one I did, [was about] this floating slum in Lagos that was being demolished by the government. It was when this was happening, it was being able to tell their stories. I really love that, especially because you have to go on a boat into this community which it’s really dangerous because you don’t wear a life jacket, and the water is deep and it’s very smelly.
Richie Bednarski: What kind of hobbies do you have to take a break from journalism?
Sharon Ogunleye: Okay yeah I love reading and I love watching movies, as well, and then seeing a bit of the city, you know there’s lots to see here in Istanbul.
Richie Bednarski: What advice would you give to a journalist just starting out today?
Sharon Ogunleye: They need to learn all the tools, I think that’s what’s required. Things are always changing with the new tools that spring up every other day for journalists. I need to just keep abreast of all of these things so that you can always stay ahead. Then several companies, even if you don’t have experience, would see that you have the skills that are needed. Especially the writing skills, because you know every other skill, you know you can kind of learn, but the writing one is very important.
Richie Bednarski: Anything else you want to talk about in terms of international journalism and how you navigated the industry?
Sharon Ogunleye: It’s harder for people of color to dominate in a newsroom. So from the very first day I stepped into this company I’ve had to fight, when compared to other people. It’s a lot easier for them. I would also give advice to other people like myself, because I see a lot of people give up and just leave, but just to keep fighting and, one day, things will be much better.
