Some of the participants
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Senior media practitioners and scholars have spoken of the need to re-orientate and update practising journalists in order to properly report the nation and its conflicts.
Speaking at the opening of the 6th National Conference of Association of communication scholars and professionals of Nigeria in Abeokuta,the Ogun state capital ,they were unanimous that media practitioners need a new understanding of the complexities of Nigeria and its challenges.
Speaking at the occasion,foremost columnist,Tola Adeniyi,identify lack of clear ideology as the bane of Nigeria and its inability to develop.
“All the political parties that drive the polity lack a clear sense of ideology and inability for citizens to embrace a comprehensive national interest adding,” as things stand today the national interest is determined from tine to time by the emergent leadership and hence the lack of a cohesive foreign policy in the country .
In his speech, Taiwo Alimi,former Director of Voice of Nigeria(VON), he said that media houses and practitioners must stand for a cause and pursue it to its logical conclusion to sage the society and country in particular from it’s numerous problems.
“You can’t have information without development but you can’t develop without information” he said adding that practitioners need to be more far sighted rather than been short sighted,a situation which he identified as the bane of practitioners in the country.
Speaking in the sane vein,Kabiyesi Femi Ogunleye, the Towulade of Akinale, canvassed the need for continuous training of journalists in order for the country to succeed.
He also challenged the association to embark on the documentation of the experience if veteran journalists to serve as a repository of knowledge to young practitioners.
In his own contribution, to a paper on media sustainability, Eddy Aina, a former of Nigeria Broadcasting commission,said for now social media has come to stay but cautioned that practitioners must maintain the ethical standard and cross check their stories before publishing adding that, all over the world,the social media has become a force occasioned by new technology.
