Media executives frown at ‘citizen journalism’

Media executives in Nigeria have called on journalism practitioners to abide by the code of ethics of the profession and endeavor to acquire the basic training required for the job.

They made the call when they featured on the May 1 edition of the online interview programme 90MinutesAfrica hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah. Appearing on the show were the CEO of RadioNow 93.5FM, Kadaria Ahmed, senior vice president of The Leadership newspapers, Azu Ishiekwene, and the publisher of TheCable, Simon Kolawole.

To curb the spread of unverified news, especially on social media platforms, the media executives harped on the need for journalists to have basic training and to subscribe to a code of ethics.

“There is the assumption that anybody with a phone and can publish content is automatically a journalist. I do not subscribe to that,” Ishiekwene argued.

He outlined the minimum conditions to qualify a person to be a journalist. “A journalist should have a certain level of training and also subscribe to a code of conduct. These are the basic minimum to be a journalist,” he reiterated.

On his part Simon Kolawole described the idea of citizen journalism as an aberration.

“This idea of citizen journalist is an assault on journalism. Because you are somewhere and you see something happen, you have become a citizen journalist. I believe it is an aberration because you can see something, and you won’t be able to interpret it.

“Because you have a smartphone and can create a website does not make you a journalist. I think the training and subscribing to a code of ethics are important. Journalism is not a all-comers affair. There are rules guiding the profession,” he noted.

The guests also called on media practitioners to be more inclusive in their reportage so as to be fair to all strata of society.

Kadaria Ahmed argued that the issue of inclusion in media reportage should not only be about tribe and religion but should focus mainly on issues affecting the downtrodden in the society.

“I think the Nigerian media has a blind spot because when we think of inclusion, inevitably because of the way we have allowed politicians to shape the narrative, we often think that if the tribe is represented, if the region is represented, if the two major religions are represented we kind of give ourselves a pat on the back and think that we are doing well when in reality the people we are supposed to be servicing are the poorest of the poor.

“The seventy million Nigerians who are living in abject poverty at the moment and are predicted to be ninety-five million by the end of the year. Those are the people that the Nigeria media continues to fail, and I think we need to do better,” Ahmed stated.

The publisher of TheCable online, Simon Kolawole, on his part stated that availability of space is a major obstacle for traditional media to achieve inclusive reporting, something online publications do not worry about.

“If you pick a typical newspaper and look at the front page how many stories can go there?

“But for us [online publications] we can have one thousand stories on the homepage. You will just be scrolling and that has naturally helped us to be fair to all,” Kolawole noted.