Maduako Igbokwe l Friday, July 8, 2022
LAGOS, Nigeria -Senior Lecturer in the Department of General Studies , Nigerian Television Authority NTA College , Jos , Plateau state Dr. (Mrs) Chinelo Ude -Akpeh has given reasons why traditional media cannot die.
Ude -Akpeh stated this at a Bloggers summit with theme ” managing information Crisis in the Era of citizens Journalism organised by the Nigeria Union of journalist (NUJ) Anambra state council on Friday in Awka Anambra state capital.
According to her, traditional journalism will never go into extinction because citizen journalists lacks credibility. The don said the traditional media are handled by professional journalists, while the citizen are all comet affairs.
“When news are in circulation , what most people look into is the sources of the information which social media do not have. People no longer take social media serious because they do not verify information before publishing ” he said .
She said the citizen journalists are not trained to disseminate information and as such can not properly process credible information for public use.
Ude-Akpeh said that citizen journalists have biases in their reportage because they lacked necessary skills to process information.
“Citizens journalists are not trained to practice journalism. They are not trained to process and report news” she said
Also speaking, the Director, Department of State Service DSS, Anambra state David Enoch Pawa urged the bloggers to be conscious of what they are pushing out to the public. Pawa represented by Deputy Director, DSS ,Anambra state John Ibienu said the agency is concerned about the misinformation by the social media and bloggers in the society.
According to him, criminals are using the social media to unleash and promote their selfish agenda in the society. He cited dome examples where citizens journalists chose to profile tribe and religion with intention to create crisis in the society.
The DSS director called on journalists to avoid any story that they are sure and they have not verified. He, however said that what ever any person writes ,he must be held accountable for it.
Also speaking , the state Commissioner for Police , CP Echeng Echeng urged the bloggers to always get clearance from agency involve before publication, especial in crime. The CP represented by the command spokesman, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga said many activists hide under social media to push false information to public .
“Activists hide under social media to create problem in the society. When we are pushing out information of any crime , we must involve the agency in charge to have clearer information about the situation. There are very big difference between social media and social activism” he said.
According to him, blogging has come to stay and bloggers must verify every story before pushing to public. “We must try to manage information by verifying it before reporting.
We must use social media to communication information that will build the system rather than destroying the system . We must always try to verify and process every information at disposal before publishing” he said.
According to him ,most of the video on social media are fake and have no source .
