Despite the plethora of socio-economic and cultural challenges confronting the country, it is very important that the Nigerian journalists are driven by the concepts of “Social Responsibility and Developmental Journalism” to impact positively on the society.
The spirit under the two concepts is to ensure that the journalism trade and the practitioners, apart from the fundamental objective of profit making, must be able to position themselves to be very vigilant, critical and imbued with the inclination for the country to run a strong and viable economy, which becomes a foundation for huge infrastructural, institutional and cultural development and values.
Nigeria, despite being the largest oil producing country in Africa and ranked 13 in the world, unfortunately is still buckled down by huge debts, presently put at N7.7 trillion, worsened by high level of poverty, poor live expectancy, high rate of unemployment and poverty.
Still, journalists, according to Dr Akin Olaniyan have roles to play in putting to task, the country’s economy policy makers, especially in the areas of playing the roles of checks and balances on implementation and monitoring.
Dr Olaniyan, a former Business Editor of The Punch Newspaper, while speaking on “Reporting Finance in a Depressed Economy” at the capacity building training for financial journalists and online publishers, in Lagos, organized by Polaris Bank Limited, certified Developmental Journalism as one of the best approaches for a strong and prosperous society.
In achieving this, Olaniyan urged journalists to take much interest in what happens to the common man – which in other words is “bottom -top” approach – style of reporting.
While rating investigative journalism low in Nigeria, Dr Olaniyan identified economy, politics, technology and culture as factors which determine and shape news value.
Similarly, the former News Editor of The Punch spoke on Media Capture and its influence on media organisations and quality of journalism practice.
The factor, he listed includes: Capture by ownership;
Capture through financial incentives; Regulatory censorship and Cognitive Capture.
The most precarious of all, Olaniyan stressed is the Cognitive Capture. He explained that the menace is related to the journalist’s sense of reasoning – which is blind to the reality, the wrongs being perpetrated in a system and the need to stand for fairness and justice, all of which are the hallmarks of Social Responsibility and Developmental Journalism. Olaniyan reiterated that the Cognitive Capture has inflicted a serious intellectual damage to practising journalists in the country.
He however admitted that journalists in Nigeria are limited to deliver optimally by a number of crucial factors including: Ownership structure; Self Regulation; Poor or Non-existent Budget and Poor Remuneration and lack of Insurance.
For the mass media to survive the challenges, Olaniyan suggested the redesign of journalism curriculum to include training on investigative and news trends; Protection of Reporters through the payment of living wages and insurance policy; Continuity of on the job training and being contextually to-date with the obligations and responsibility that comes with being a reporter in the practitioner’s area of specialization.
Similarly, while acknowledging the proliferation of the online news platforms, the veteran financial journalist advised that the first objective to go into the new media practice must be business and penchant to be reputed for a particular interest, warning that if these were not seriously considered, such title would fail to earn a deserving reputation and its lifespan is deemed to be short-lived.
The training session was further thrilled by a vibrant Brand, Marketing and Communications Strategy expert, Sheriff Adekoya.
Adekoya who is the Chief Executive Officer CEO, Edgeforth Business Solutions, spoke on the topic:
“Strategic Media Intelligence” took the participants through the digital revolution, with respect to mass media packaging, content creation and target audience.
The Brand management Executive declared that the world now lives in era of “Pseudo-Realism” – ‘artificiality to originality’.
He reiterated that the digitization is the new normal, while Artificial Intelligence AI has come to stay, no matter the disruptions that come with it.
Adekoya affirmed that the stage now set by digitization and AI is “Noise vs Signal” and “Loud vs Impactful”. He explained that the digital generation of professionals and audience prefer noise to signal and didn’t care about being impactful, but very keen to be heard.
Following this, he advised that in branding, packaging and content creation, journalists must be very careful and must be conscious of the paradigm shift, stressing that the new reality was beyond ability to write eloquently, but majorly, is about making the writing to be appealing and relevant to the specifications and uniqueness of each brand that is involved in marketing communications.
In other words, Adekoya said journalists must be able to write in language relevant to the target audience to make them stay or be loyal to a particular brand.
He stated that the four pillars that journalists could deploy to make a brand speak are: to ensure it has capacity, stability and must be aspirational and purpose-driven.
Adekoya while responding to questions said there was no need for panic about the AI and its disruption. Instead, what the parents, professionals and business owners needed to do is to exit their comfort zone and brace up with the digital revolution which he emphasized has come to stay.
Speaking at the training, the Group Head, Strategic Brand Management and Communication, Polaris Bank Limited, Nduneche Ezurike said the financial institution wanted feedback from journalists on the areas needed to be designed and impact on the industry.
Ezurike affirmed that the training was the Bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility CSR, having realized many economic challenges facing journalists in discharge of their professional responsibility.
He urged journalists to always give the Bank the benefit of doubt and exercise caution in their reportage.
Going forward, Ezurike expressed hope that Polaris would be able to sustain a better relationship with the media, pledging more support to the industry, as well as organize additional capacity building sessions in the future.
The training was attended by the Head, Corporate Communication, Polaris Bank, Rasheed Bolarinwa, financial Editors and online publishers.
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