Osadolor, Onuorah lament effects of recession on media industry, others

Some media professionals have expressed concerns over the negative impact of the economic recession on the media industry in the country. They also warned core journalists on the negative impact of social media and their quack handlers and the need to maintain professionalism and journalism ethics.

The Managing Director of Authority newspaper, Mr. Madu Onuorah, lamented the effects of economic recession while speaking recently at a roundtable workshop organised by Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) for journalists covering the National Assembly. He explained that the situation has forced several media outfits to shut down completely.

Onuorah, a former Abuja Bureau Chief of The Guardian, remarked that some of the media outfits that manage to remain afloat are unable to pay their workers for several months and argued that the situation could make journalists susceptible to compromises and unethical practices in their line of duty.

Onuorah observed that the advent of information technology and social media have changed the media landscape, adding that the development has paved the way for a deluge of unethical practices by persons, who rely only on laptops, smart phones to serve as purveyors of falsehood on various social media platforms in the name of news dissemination.

Onuorah enjoined journalists to brace up to meet the challenges posed by the new media, which he said have the potential to render them jobless in no distant time.

He added: “If you don’t combine the essence of newness and creativity to the way you report your beats, you would soon be out of business. This is why today the newspapers have website and they keep updating it on a regular basis. We must not deviate from ethical practices and the code of conduct of journalism practice.”

Meanwhile, veteran journalist, Otunba Gbenga Onayiga, also counseled journalists not to leave social media to quacks, adding that it behooved on them to embark on training and retraining exercises to dictate the pace of journalism practice.

The former Deputy Managing Director of The Guardian, Mr. Kingsley Osadolor, went down memory lane on the history of the legislature in Nigeria, adding that it was incumbent on participant journalists to be meticulous since the legislature remains the most integral part of democratic governance across the world. Referring to section 39 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, Osadolor reminded journalists on the need to remain focused on their beats by playing the watchdog role as against the lapdog role.