4th
August, 2015
By:
Amir Abdulazeez
O
|
ne profession that cannot afford quackery
and unethical conduct in whatever form and measure is journalism. This is
simply because the profession is the official mouthpiece and channel through
which the society informs and is been informed and in many cases through which
the values and aspirations of that society is being promoted. This is why the
profession must not be only entrusted in the hands of well-trained people, but
also those who are honest, unbiased, patriotic and trustworthy. The primary
consequence of quackery in journalism is public misinformation which can lead
to ignorance, hatred, division, conflicts, immorality and all other
unimaginable things among the society.
The Nigerian media has come of age
and over the years; it has been directly and indirectly partly responsible for
our national social, political and economic development. The growth and
development of the Nigerian media has been quite incredible just as it has been
unprecedentedly impactful.
The emergence of online media in
Nigeria over the last 10 to 15 years or so has no doubt enormously contributed
not only to the journalistic profession but to the overall development of
information dissemination and management as well as intellectual growth and
development. Despite these successes, the online media is however threatened
with problems that seriously endanger not only its credibility, but its
existence. Some of these problems have been in existence for quite a while
whereas others are manifesting recently and gradually in line with the shape of
events, mostly political.
One fundamental problem facing
online media is porosity, vulnerability and facelessness. The online media
industry is so porous that anyone with a laptop, access to the internet and
some information technology skills can just put up a news site, run it and
claim to be a journalist. This makes the online media very vulnerable to all
kinds of problems. Infact all other problems bedeviling the online media is
directly and indirectly derived from its little or no immunity to infiltrations.
Lack of a proper identity or a
confusing identity is another major problem facing the online media in Nigeria.
The massive presence of the online media organizations on the social media and
the very thin-or in the eyes of many, non-existent-boundary that exists between
the two has made many unsophisticated readers to be quite unable to
distinctively differentiate between news media and social media that are both
online. The online news media have succumbed to the dominant power of social
media so much so that the two now overlap. For example some people can’t simply
state a source of news for reference and verification purpose, except stating
that they read it on social media. Another identity crisis is being caused by
other websites other than the actual online news media sites. Every other
website now carries news items to attract traffic to the sites and blogs. Jobs,
fashion, religious, sports, education and other special websites do not strict
to their original purpose; many of them disseminate news as if they were
originally developed for such purpose. Another identity problem is being caused
by the conventional media that also have a well registered presence online. The
print and electronic media now operate actively online with many of them
outperforming some media that were established to only operate online. This to
some significant effect makes it difficult to differentiate between
conventional media that also operate online and online-based media only. These
identity issues have facilitated the easy and smooth entrance of quack and fake
journalists into the system, all in the name of online journalism. Some even
confuse online activism with online journalism.
So many online media websites now
exists with apparently no regulatory framework in place to either authenticate
them or to checkmate their activities. Many of the news websites are run by one
or two people merely depending on copy-edit-and-paste mode of plagiarism as the
major source of their contents. Under normal circumstances, some online news
media websites are not qualified enough to become personal blogs. All these
have facilitated the unchecked dissemination of propaganda, outright falsehood
as well as massive misinformation of the gullible public. Unfortunately, it
appears that the number of fake online websites far outweigh the number of
credible ones. This in turn has made the bulk of public misinformation and fake
news circulating at any given time to come from online sources. The
conventional media, despite its shortcomings have fought hard ethically to
collectively protect its reputation in this regard.
The main victims of the
misinformation coming from some online media are the youths-most of whose faculties
of learning and intuition are still under construction-who find it easy to
believe and assimilate what they are being fed with. This portends the
intellectual future of our youths in bad light and in serious danger along with
potential unpatriotism. The thinking of many youths is being poisoned by the
falsehood and hate contents published by such online media.
The perception of some people in
some sections of our society is that online media is largely for youths. This
may not be unconnected with the platform on which it operates which many old
people consider too modern as well the continuous
and inevitable integration of youth-dominated social media into the running of
the online news sites. This, with other aforementioned problems is gradually
contributing towards the detachment of some groups of people, mainly the old
and non-social from online media.
It is the conduct of these
non-credible online news media that have contributed to heated abusive debates
among Nigerians on social media. Many average Nigerians cannot simply discuss
political issues on social media without insulting each other. This makes the
sociability of the social media questionable in the Nigerian context. If we use
the so-called ‘social’ media to rain abuses upon each other mostly in reaction
to poisoned news content from unethical online news media, then how social is
that social media? In essence, these online media contribute a lot in making
the social media unsocial for Nigerians.
All these do not mean that we don’t
have other online media news sites that are credible, ethical and professional.
A handful of them exist, but their percentage when compared to the non-credible
and unprofessional ones is quite discouraging. If the current trend continues,
soon will the credible ones get drowned in the ocean of the non-credible ones
and if this happens, news online in Nigeria will no longer be regarded as
credible except if published or reported by the conventional media. If this is
allowed to happen, the contribution of the online media will be lost
completely.
Online media being the cheapest,
most interactive, most prompt and most popular news media need to be saved from
these problems, if we must continue enjoying the wide range of opportunities it
offers. First and foremost, the stakeholders of the online media must stop
operating in complete isolation and come together to find a way of getting rid
of hundreds of fake, divisive and propaganda news websites. Even if they can’t
take them out of existence, they must design a framework that will separate
authentic from fake news websites.
Secondly, the apparent and gradual
divorcing of online media from the conventional media should stop. With the
help of veteran professionals from the conventional media, the menace in the
online media can be arrested. Online media journalists need to align and
properly integrate themselves into the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).
They should make the NUJ leadership see online media as an important part of
the profession that they can’t do without. Journalists and stakeholders
nationwide must be made to understand that any damage done to online media is
as good as damages done to the whole media profession.
A regulatory framework for online media
has to be in place; if it exists, it has to be made very operational and
effective. Hate-promoting news sites and those spreading calumny campaigns,
false hood, half-truths and unverified cum unverifiable news must be shut down.
Websites with anonymous publishers and questionable promoters should also be
shut down from the cyber space. If this requires any legislative provision, let
the National Assembly act fast.
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