Many people enter the media industry, driven largely by passion but without due preparation – Obiaya, Dean SMC of PAU

Ikechukwu Obiaya is the dean of the School of Media and Communication (SMC) of Pan-Atlantic University. Obiaya holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Navarra, Spain. In this interview, BusinessDay engaged him on a number of media issues including the role of media in shaping societal values, unbundling of mass communication, how schools such as SMC can improve town and gown linkage, the state of Nollywood and more. Daniel Obi, editor, Marketing and Brands, brings the excerpts…

The School of Media and Communication, PAU, was established in recognition of the critical role of the media in shaping societal values. How have you been performing this function, especially in the face of a rapidly evolving media landscape?

The mission of PAU’s School of Media and Communication is to form media and communication professionals, enabling them to pursue their calling of service to human cultures with a sense of creativity, skill, knowledge, and values with the goal of improving society. We strive to carry out this mission by designing programmes to meet the needs of the industry. In this regard, we work closely with industry so that we avoid the divide that oftentimes exists between industry and academia. One of the core values of PAU is professionalism, and we endeavour to transmit this to those who take part in our programmes. We do this by making sure that we ourselves are duly prepared. After all, how can we prepare our students to be on top of their game if we ourselves are not in tune with changes taking place in the media landscape? In addition, we take very seriously the goal of shaping societal values, so it is of great importance for us to ensure that all our courses have an ethics component. And I must confess that it is truly gratifying to witness our alumni actually exemplifying in society not just the professional skills they have acquired in our classrooms but also the ethical component.

“ If we truly want to live out our function of training media persons that will then go on to shape society, we must ensure that we do it well and offer good quality training.”

How would you evaluate that function vis-à-vis your cost of training media practitioners?

Education is not cheap, or, better put, good quality education is not cheap. It is important to realise this. If we truly want to live out our function of training media persons that will then go on to shape society, we must ensure that we do it well and offer good quality training. This involves, among other things, being able to bring top facilitators into the classroom and to create a conducive environment for learning. These things do not come cheap. At the same time, we realise that many of those in our targeted audience will not be able to afford to pay for our programmes. This is why, over the years, we have sought to partner with different organisations that either cover the cost of those programmes or subsidise them substantially. An ongoing collaboration of this sort, for instance, is involved in the Media Innovation Programme, which is being sponsored by MTN. Numerous other companies have played similar roles in sponsoring or supporting our programmes for the media industry.

Read also: How Africa’s disruptive media industry can help to spur economic growth

What is your assessment of the Nigerian media today, especially with the fragmentation of the industry? And do you think social media should be regulated?

I wouldn’t want to give a generalised assessment of the Nigerian media. Like every other reality, there are both lights and shadows. There are people and organisations that are doing a fantastic job, but there are also others that are rather mediocre. A key part of the challenge in the media space is that many people enter the industry driven largely by passion but without the due preparation. It is therefore inevitable that a lowering of standards will occur. Add to this the fact that there are now many more platforms and that a democratisation of media platforms has taken place; also, media content does not necessarily have to go through the gatekeepers of yesteryears before coming to the public. All these things have had their impact. But I hasten to say that this is not solely in the negative sense. We have seen, in certain quarters of the media, a greater boldness in openly confronting societal ills thanks to the loosening of the strictures of previous gatekeeping.

As for your other question, one does see advantages in regulating social media when it comes to issues of real abuse. However, the problem is, where does such regulation stop? How far should it go? Who determines what constitutes abuse? We have seen how much is being done in today’s world to stifle people’s voices largely on the basis of preferred ideologies. The regulation of social media, despite all the goodwill in the world, will always leave room for violations given that the persons applying it will be flawed human beings and not angels. Besides, people will always find ways to bypass such regulation. Rather than trying to control social media, perhaps more effort should be given to educating people on how to use it. People should be equipped with the right critical thinking skills such that they are able to adequately evaluate whatever content they encounter online.

The NUC declared the commencement of a new syllabus and system in mass communication, breaking it into disciplines. What are the benefits and disadvantages of this unbundling?

The primary benefit of unbundling is that it gives room for greater specialisation and depth. It takes into consideration the changes of today’s world and the need to better prepare students for industry practice. A previous advantage of the Mass Communication programme is that it exposed students to all the different facets of the field of communication, but the exposure to such a wide range of things meant that it was not possible to go deep into each one. The new structure still makes provision for this exposure somehow, in that some general courses remain common to all the students regardless of whatever specialisations they choose to go into.

The main challenge for universities, which is not necessarily a disadvantage, is staffing. With the increased number of courses, more departments will have to be created, and more lecturers will be required to handle the courses. So, we have the question of who is going to be teaching all the new courses. But, like I say, it is a challenge for universities and not a disadvantage of the programmes per se.

Is the Nigerian university system equipped to handle the unbundling of mass communication?

It would be presumptuous of me to claim to have an answer to the ability of the entire Nigerian university system in this regard. But what I will point to is the challenge that we are all facing with regard to the emigration of professionals, the so-called Japa syndrome. Many university lecturers have left or are planning to leave the country. This could make it difficult to find sufficient hands to handle courses. As it is, although the number of universities is increasing, the pool from which we are all poaching lecturers is reducing in size. Adequate staffing could therefore be an obstacle for the successful unbundling of mass communication.

Read also: Nigeria’s media industry takes a major step with new Complaints Commission

When will SMC commence the program, and what programmes will you offer when you unbundle?

At SMC, given the increased resources that the unbundling will require, what we have planned is phased unbundling. Prior to the unbundling, the programmes we had on offer at SMC were Mass Communication, Information Science, and Media Studies. The unbundling made provision for the following seven courses: journalism and media studies; public relations; advertising; broadcasting; film and multimedia studies; development communication studies; and information and media studies. However, the final Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards document of the National Universities Commission (NUC) made provision for nine courses, including Strategic Communication and Mass Communication, which still feature, albeit with a modified structure.

So, what we have done at SMC is to retain mass communication, information science, and media studies while modifying the structures in line with the new guidelines from the NUC. We have also introduced Film and Multimedia Studies, which is now entering its second year. We plan to begin the BSc in Strategic Communication in 2025.

How can schools such as SMC improve town and gown linkage with unbundling?

One of the reasons offered for the unbundling was the need to produce graduates that can better meet the needs of industry and face the challenges of a developing economy. In this way, one way of improving the town and gown linkage is to bring more industry practitioners into the classroom to share their experience with the students. University lecturers could also spend some time in industry carrying out consultancy and finding out more about industry needs. As I have earlier pointed out, these are things that we at the Pan-Atlantic University have always done, and it is very enriching for our students.

Many people get to know SMC through the professional development programmes. How many courses do you now offer through professional development? And how many of them lack industry support and sponsors?

The number of courses that we offer through our professional development unit is not a fixed one. We offer a series of certificate programmes, workshops, and seminars, and many of these are bespoke programmes. Programmes are often developed based on an identified need in the market or based on requests, and some programmes may run just once. As such, the stable of offerings is not a fixed one but is flexible and adapts to the gaps or needs of industry.

I am not quite sure what you mean by industry support. If by that you mean whether or not our programmes are accepted by industry, I would say that there is no programme of ours that lacks industry support. I believe that I can say that industry sees the school as a partner in the development of its human resources. However, if by support of industry you refer to financial sponsorship, certainly we do enjoy such financial support from industry in various of our programmes. Unfortunately, the media industry is not the richest of the lot, and self-sponsorship is quite challenging for many people. This is why, as I have already indicated, we actively seek sponsorship from different companies to provide the needed support.

You are a film scholar. Tell us about the school’s MSc Film Production programme.

The MSc in Film Production is a relatively recent programme and speaks to the great interest that we at PAU have in our film industry. It is our goal to form filmmakers that will not only know the craft of filmmaking but will also understand the principles behind it and be able to apply them. Our goal through this programme is not only to provide formation for filmmakers. There is a need for academics that will staff the growing number of institutions that teach film, and our programme aims to contribute to the preparation of people that will fulfil this role.

And what is your candid assessment of the state of Nollywood against the background of more streaming platforms?

I am very proud of what the practitioners of Nollywood have been able to achieve through sheer grit and determination. It’s very easy to sit back and criticise the industry negatively, but if one takes a step back to consider that this is an industry that has not enjoyed any handouts, an industry that has found creative ways of overcoming obstacles and in the process gained global renown, one cannot but doff one’s cap in admiration. Certainly, there is a lot of room for improvement on many points, but that should not be surprising as it is an industry in development. Remember that this is still a very young industry. At the same time, we must acknowledge the tremendous strides that the industry has taken since its early days.

But growth is largely tied to financial capital, and Nollywood has very little of this. Due to the paucity of means, the practitioners of Nollywood have learnt to do great things with little means. But for real growth to take place, a greater financial investment is required. We still need to put in place a distribution and exhibition structure that will adequately capture the local audience. We need to find a means of strengthening the local market so that the filmmakers have a solid home base on which to build. While it is true that the streaming platforms have an important role to play here, the reality is that there are huge sections of the population in this country that do not have or cannot afford access to these platforms. Are there other alternatives that we could be considering? Certainly! Film industries in other countries depend primarily on their homebase, but what we have here is a relatively untapped audience base.

You stopped your diploma in mass communication? Why? You are now running MSc and PhD programmes, tell us more about this and how many students you have graduated from in the later programmes?

We have never had a diploma in mass communication. The diploma programmes that we have run in the past were the Post Graduate Diplomas in Digital Media, Community Relations, and Journalism. Our programmes are usually planned to meet the needs that we observe, and we decided to run the diploma programmes precisely because we saw that they were needed. Our reading of that need was verified in the number of persons that applied for admission. This was especially so with the PGD in Community Relations, which was particularly useful for those that were involved in handling the relations between oil companies and their host communities. However, with the passage of time, the number of applications to these programmes dwindled, and it became clear that the need was no longer so great. Hence, we decided to suspend the running of the programmes. But we remain open to resuming them if we see that there is once more a need for them.

As for the MSc programmes, we have two of them: the MSc in Media and Communication and the MSc in Film Production. We also have a PhD in Media and Communication programme. The goal, as with all our programmes, is to provide for observed gaps. The media and communication space is such an important one given the tremendous influence that people in this space have. We believe that it is important for those that play in this space to be well-formed professionals, and this is what our programmes aim to achieve. We currently have alumni of these programmes in key positions in different organisations, and we are very proud of the positive feedback that reaches us about the work of these alumni.

As I already indicated, the MSc in Film Production is a more recent programme, but quite a number of people have passed through the MSc in Media and Communication programme. We are currently with the 17th set of our full-time MSc in Media and Communication, and, prior to when we put a halt to the part-time version, we had graduated 12 sets from it.

What are the most successful alumni stories from the school, and how do they reflect the school’s mission?

I would like to be able to brag here and mention names, but I feel it is important to respect people’s privacy. Suffice it to say that there are many of our alumni that are making us very proud indeed. One of the best feedback that we receive is that of new students who tell us that they decided to come because they observed a difference in the alumni of the school that they had met.