At book launch, experts eulogise Akinfeleye
Media stakeholders, at a book presentation recently, eulogised communication and journalism scholar, Prof. Ralph Afolabi Akinfeleye, describing him as a teacher of teachers.
Titled, ‘Journalism, Communication and Society, and written in his honour, the experts lauded Akinfeleye’s contributions to the field of Journalism.
Edited by a professor of media history and Vice-Chancellor of Federal University, Kashere, Umaru Pate, it was presented by the Secretary-General UN Nigeria National Commission for UNESCO, Olagunju Idowu.
Former governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba said Akinfeleye has achieved distinction as a mentor of budding journalists.
Represented by the Editor-in-Chief Vanguard Newspapers, Gbenga Adefaye, he said Akinfeleye, who was the first African elected into the World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC), is a standard torchbearer of excellence in matters of practice of journalism.
According to him, “Akinfeleye is, perhaps, the most prominent of his kind in recent times. He is not an armchair scholar. He has laurels to show for field and gown integration.
He said Akinfeleye was the mastermind of Community Concord, one of the newspapers in the media chain of MKO Abiola’s media legacy. “In addition to years of scholarship in the ivory tower. He has maintained a consistent foray in setting practice standards. Most of the weights for judging press practice came from his marking schemes designed to adjudged merit on the various platforms where he serves as chair of the panel of judges for rating journalists and journalism excellence: Nigerian Media Merit Awards (NMMA), Golden Pen Awards by Nigerian Breweries Plc., and so on.”
The former governor urged media practitioners to protect the integrity of the profession to tame the trend of fake news.
To him, the advice became necessary following disruption of the traditional journalism practice by the Internet and the new media, particularly, with the challenges of fake news.
“All hands must be on deck to protect the integrity of journalists while good and ethical journalism must remain the watchword,” he stated.
Acting Director-General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Armstrong Idachaba, said the event conveyed the true meaning of Akinfeleye’s selfless services rendered to his fatherland.
Idachaba, who was also the book reviewer, described it as reference material in the field of mass communication, especially, in the aspects of media literacy, media, and society and communication policy.
“Today, one can say without any fear of contradiction that, there is no state in Nigeria, where you cannot find either direct or indirect student of Prof. Akinfeleye. He either taught you or taught your teachers.
“It would immeasurably guide communication stakeholders and students pertaining current development in the mass communication field. The book contributors have provided detailed explanations in their bid to explain each phenomenon,” he said
Idachaba lamented that some Nigerians had misconstrued free speech to promoting hate speech, fake news, and other unethical practices.
“This habit has not only been a threat to our democracy but to the corporate existence of a united Nigeria.”
In his remark, Pate described Akinfeleye’s contribution to the field of journalism and communication as unmatched.
He said Akinfeleye’s story is one of tenacity, resilience, and dogged determination to succeed against all odds, noting that these attributes have served him well in both his personal and professional sojourn.
Speaking on the book written in his honour, Professor Akinfeleye, said the literary work is a compendium of three in one, adding that the authors have written excellently well to enlighten journalism practitioners and students about the need to know that information is the power to national development.
“It talks about how journalism should be practiced. It dealt with the areas of convergence: journalism training, health communication, and behavioural change communication as the title is journalism, communication, and Society, those are the three major concepts of this book, one part journalism, the other is communication, and another society.
“ A section also talks about press freedom to understand that for a meaningful democracy, you need a free press and in fact, the other name of democracy is a free press and if you try to gag the press, it cannot work,” he said.
On fake news, the don observed that menace, which he said has been in existence for over 120 years, can only be controlled, but not eliminated.
He said: “So, the other part of this book deals with fake news, misinformation and other ones to understand that fake news has been in existence for a long time, we cannot completely eliminate fake news but we can control it, as far as I’m concerned fake news came to almost 120 years ago, it can be controlled but cannot be eliminated.”
The Founder of DAAR Communication, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, launched the book.
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