Professors of Mass Communication and seasoned lights in journalism came together in Port Harcourt to plot a path to a responsible media resurgence toward agenda-setting and power to mainstream journalism.
The stage was set by a new organization in the media to pursue media rights and education, De Gratia Centre for Media Rights and Education (DGC) with a seasoned journalist and former commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim.
Speaking as executive director, Nsirim called on the Media to cleanse itself and ensure that the ethics of the profession, which are truth, objectivity and fairness, were not compromised.
He underscored the agenda-setting role of the media, which according to him, is the traditional and constitutional role that the media must pay urgent attention to if it must remain relevant in the current times. He called on the media to cleanse itself and ensure that professional ethics such as truth, objectivity and fairness were not compromised in the practice of the profession.
Nsirim expressed concerns over recent developments that have made media practitioners a laughing stock due to the public opinion that paints them as tools to the highest bidder.
He observed that some media practitioners do not know anything about the defamation laws and frowned at the trend of non-professionals anchoring of radio programmes as on-air-personalities (AOPs).
“Today, we all watch helplessly as comments have become facts, especially in the electronic media. We now witness talk shows being anchored unprofessionally. In some cases, programme anchors suddenly assume the roles of prosecutors and judges at the same time.” This he noted is should not be so.
Nsirim therefore called on media regulatory bodies to ensure that standard qualifications and professional competences form the yardstick for recruitment in organisations in our country, because what he called all-comers game is belittling the noble profession.
He however, added that media practitioners are not entirely to be blamed for the rot in the society, as people have lost values of merit, honesty and hard work, which he said played a pivotal role in impacting posterity.
He enumerated some challenging questions that have bedeviled the nation, and assured participants at the workshop that DGC is set to bridge the gap and help the media proffer answers to the questions.
The chairman of the event, Vincent Ake, revealed that a new baby (DGC) has just been born into the media family in Nigeria, saying this would influence how journalists should practise and comport themselves.
He hinted that lectures and syndicate sessions that will promote the ability of media practitioners to perform better in their duties are part of the programmes lined up for the event.
A Professor of Mass Communication in the Rivers State University, Godwin Okon, in his keynote presentation, said the media was an integral part of the society, as whatsoever we learn from the mass media will enable us adapt intelligently to the environment and knowledgeably to the society.
He talked about the information role of the mass media. According to him, the society is mostly bombarded by what happens. “If we should take a look at the role of the mass media in informing, educating and entertaining, it will be discovered that there is a tilt in the metrics that is often overlooked, and that is the information tilt. The information tilt gives expression in the surveillance function of the press,” Okon said.
He observed that the media mostly bombards the people with what happens, and therefore, stressed that the media should not only settle for what happened, but should also try to find out why and how it happened.
He noted that the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of an event can only come from deep knowledge and that the media belongs to the intelligential.
Okon called on journalists to use advocacy and go beyond the news to features and tracking the guilty.
He urged journalists to know a bit of everything, in order to set the agenda in the society, while stating the growing need for solution journalism, which he said deals with news stories incorporating discussions on solution, that will metamorphose into the agenda.
In her remarks, former Information commissioner in Rivers State, Ibim Semenitari, led the conversation on the topics ‘Animating the Public Sphere Matrix’ and ‘Journalism Beyond Watchdog: The Emerging Framework’, where she interrogated the concept of public sphere.
Ibim took a cursory look at the discussions that take place in the public sphere and raised safety and trust issues, which were discussed with life experiences. She said the public sphere seemed to have been poisoned by false information and damage to reputations built over the years. She wondered how sane humans would publish that a president of over 70 years was dead and had been cloned, yet, multitudes believed without question.
She also rocked the audience when she disclosed that she was published not to be her father’s child despite striking resemblance. She further rocked the hall when she said that many papers published that the present governor was a grandson of an Ikwerre family close to ex-governor Nyesom Wike.
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In her final conversation, she noted that the media not just plays an agenda-setting role, but also an advisory role in society. She therefore, called on media practitioners to be very professional in the discharge of their duties so they can stay relevant and competitive with social media bloggers who are gradually taking over their jobs.
In his presentation, a Professor in Development Communication, Walter Ihejirika, led participants on ‘Mapping the Media Landscape and the Dynamics for Agenda Setting’.
He said that it was necessary to do media landscaping which entails detailed research, and that regulation is a key element in media landscaping.
He discussed the media regulatory bodies in Nigeria, highlighting their strengths and shortcomings.
He urged media practitioners to look out for ethical Journalism to heal the fractions that are prevalent in society today. He further urged that they should be more involved in the digital space and be consistent with the ethics that protect the profession.
Another presenter, Sunny Mbazie, who noted that the previous speakers drove the conversation around content, which is driven by knowledge, and knowledge is gained through trainings, which is the core aim of De Gratia Media Centre.
According to him, to do the work of journalism requires content. “Everything in itself is not news, but the information gathered is the news.”
He emphasized that for one to gather news, you must have nose for news. He however frowned at the fact that the media have relegated their surveillance function by not hammering on those things marring our elections.
He advised journalists to ignore aspects of hate speech when reporting, and promote their reports on originality with a sense of responsibility to the society.
Participants at the workshop interacted with the resource experts in proffering solutions to the issues raised in the syndicate session. He gave the challenges facing journalists and listed actions journalists can take to move forward.
He also called for an insurance policy for newsmen to spur to do more as well as a welfare fund for journalists.
On the sideline, a poem encapsulating the primary goal of De Gratia Media Centre was rendered by Chinenye Nsirim, who happens to be the daughter in-law of the Executive Director of the media centre.
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