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Who Tells the Story?
Media, Power, and the Shaping of the World We Think We Know
What if you could learn how journalism works without feeling like you were studying a textbook?
Who Tells the Story? is a journey through the history of journalism, told through the people, conflicts, decisions, and consequences that have shaped the way we understand the world.
From the first newspapers of colonial Nigeria to the rise of mass media; from propaganda and wartime reporting to political censorship; from Biafra and Watergate to Dele Giwa and the journalists who kept writing; from tobacco companies manufacturing scientific doubt to governments shaping public narratives; from Nollywood and the power of telling your own story to social media, algorithms, disinformation, and artificial intelligence—the book brings journalism to life through stories.
At the heart of every chapter is a question: Who gets to tell the story?
Who decides what becomes news? Who controls the information? What do they want the public to believe? Whose voice is missing? And what happens when journalists challenge the powerful?
Written for journalism students, journalists, curious readers, and anyone who wants to understand the media they consume, Who Tells the Story? blends factual history with engaging narrative to make the ideas behind journalism accessible and memorable.
Its distinctive structure places global media history alongside the history of the Nigerian press, showing how questions of power, truth, representation, and accountability have shaped journalism across generations.
You will encounter the stories behind some of the world's most consequential media moments—and discover the people who reported them, manipulated them, resisted them, or were changed by them.
By the end, you won't simply know more about journalism.
You will read differently.
Because every story has a storyteller.
And the first question every reader should learn to ask is:
Who tells the story?
