Get Guardian on GoogleMedia professionals and communications scholars have described fake news as one of the biggest challenges confronting society, calling on students and youths to be wary of information they circulate through social media.
Speaking at the 2020 edition of the student-veteran interaction, organised by the Association of Mass Communication Students (AMCOS), University of Ilorin, the media professionals tasked students to positively use social media to develop their skills, rather than turning themselves into purveyors of fake news.
Speaking on the theme Challenges of New media in the communication Industry, a veteran journalist, Mr. Muritala Ayinla said fake news appears to be the fastest growing menace in the communication industry.
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He said purveyors of hoax news don’t seem perturbed by the level of damage or the implications of the report on the people involved and the society at large.
To tackle the scourge, Ayinla tasked trained journalists and students of communication to dominate the social media with timely and factual account of events, aside fact-checking information before publishing or spreading such information.
On his part, Head, Mass Communication Department, Dr. Lambe Kayode Mustapha urged students to uphold professionalism and not help spread fake news. He explained that the Students-Veteran Interaction, the first of its kind in any school of communication studies, was to sensitise the students on what obtains outside the classroom.
