A communications strategist, Mr. Jide Johnson, has argued that for the war against fake news to be successful fought in the country, conventional media must be ready to give the reading public an alternative view.
Speaking on a television programme, tagged: ‘Proliferation of Fake News and Social Media Usage’, recently, Johnson attributed the proliferation of fake news, in Nigeria, to the advent of technology, especially the birth of social media, which had led to the surge in citizen journalism.
Describing fake news as an embarrassment to the media industry and its practitioners, the communications strategist noted that for the industry to survive, the onus is on practitioners, to rally round to provide an alternative channels where the reading public could always authenticate whatever was picked on the social media.
According to him, the advent of the social media had continued to change the media industry, with the social media, being gradually seen as belonging to the fifth estate of the realm, after the mainstream media.
While welcoming such democratization of the industry, he however called on practitioners in the mainstream media to bring their professionalism to bear, by providing alternative channels and views for the insatiable reading public, desirous of verifying any news items picked on the social media.
“The media itself is a product of the agitation of the people during their time to have a voice in governance. That is why the media is described as of the fourth estate realm.
“But the social media is changing all that now. It can be categorized as belonging to the fifth estate of realm, while the mainstream media belongs to the fourth estate. Social media has given everybody a voice. It has given power to the powerless, and taken power away from the powerful few.
“So, we have a lot of information out there. However, we have a responsibility as journalists. The responsibility is to give an accurate interpretation of events. Interestingly, the people are no fools. They know the mainstream media that would actually give them the basic interpretation.
“That is why you see somebody that had watched a 90-minute football match, the previous day, still going to back newspapers to read news item about the game. What he’s simply looking for is an interpretation of the event he had witnessed the previous day, and it is our responsibility as members of the mainstream journalism to give an accurate interpretation,” he stated.
The communication strategist also faulted the description of any news item as fake, adding that there was no way an item could be news, and be fake, at the same time.
“Once it is fake, it can never be news. It is even a wrong terminology to say fake news. Once it is modified by the word ‘fake’, it can never be news, because news is the accurate reportage of events that happen on the world stage,” he added.
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