An expert has warned that “interlopers” with false identities will destroy the media industry through fake news and serial manipulation unless immediate action is taken.
The managing director of Abuja Broadcasting Corporation, Malam Ibrahim Damisa, bemoaned over the weekend how Nigeria’s media sector was bleeding heavily as a result of a flood of uneducated people using the Internet platform.
In his office in Abuja, Damisa hosted a small group of media professionals from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister’s Press Corps. He expressed regret over the irreparable harm that “interlopers” working as citizen journalists had done to the media sector.
He said that in order to reverse the current downward trend in journalism, trained professionals must step up.
He also urged all stakeholders to participate. He also called on all stakeholders in the industry to give adequate attention to in-the-job training, as a measure to keep professionals abreast with global trends, as well as put them in position where they can easily dictate and avoid fake news.
According to him, fake news being traded arbitrarily by the ” interlopers ” with the help of social media need to be addressed, because it is capable of destroying not just the media industry, but the society.
” The Internet has provided the convergence between the traditional and the new media. Citizens journalism is in place, and some people will just use their phones, without the sensibility of knowing if what they are dishing out to the public is right or wrong.
” Some of the things they dish out are fake, because in most cases, they do not verify, and verification is an important thing in journalism.
” Journalism is at crossroads because of the Citizens journalism that has come on stream, where people who are interlopers and not trained in the profession encroach our territory and cause havoc.
” There is nothing as good as on the job training for practitioners”.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the FCT Press Corps, Malam Hudu Yakubu commended the mentorship which the Managing Director has over the years provided to the young journalists.
Yakubu also noted that Aso Radio and Television have experienced tremendous transformation, following the unparalleled commitment which the management team of the corporation have shown.
