NAN-H-85
Media
By Yinka Olawale
Lagos, Oct. 20, 2016 (NAN) To remain relevant in the changing digital world order, media practitioners have been advised to put audience’s experience, ideas and knowledge into their operations to improve media products.
The Editor-In-Chief of The Guardian newspaper, Mr Debo Adesina, gave the advice at the 2nd Distinguished Lecture, organised by the University of Lagos Mass Communication Alumni Association (UMCAA) on Thursday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the lecture series is: “Building a New Generation of Media Professionals in a Changing World Order’’.
In his lecture titled: “Vessel in a storm’’, Adesina said that the level of access to information through the internet or the new digital revolution was unprecedented and that the volume was immeasurable.
He said that such unhindered access “is giving the people the power, hitherto reserved for media kings’’.
Adesina said that the internet or the new digital revolution offered some advantages to the traditional media, especially those members of the old media oligopoly that were smart enough to embrace it.
“Media organisations must find a way to get some of the audience’s experience, ideas and knowledge into their operations to improve their products.
“ Any organisation that ignores this may be choosing a prime location in the cemetery for its own entombment.
“A smart traditional media organisation must be conscious of what it generates, refine it for the best and make it irresistible for the audience to consume,’’ Adesina said.
According to him, the ability of a media practitioner to research, report, edit, analyse or interpret issues in ways that build a trustworthy brand, is unassailable.
“Our professional standards are a great selling point; yet, we must include our users in our operations, take in as much as possible.
“We must admit that our profession is not rocket science.
“A professional journalist knows how to get information, ask questions, tell stories and connect isolated facts.
“These are not esoteric or specialised skills, just heightened versions of things any smart citizen should be able to do,’’ he said.
In his welcome address, the President of UMCAA, Mr Vincent Oyo, said that the lecture series was one of the programmes lined up to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Mass Communication Department.
“The lecture is very apt in the era of new technology, placement of ideology with unusual fundamentalism, the arrival of social media and globalisation.
“We can hold our heads high because of the contributions of past and present lecturers of this department,’’ Oyo, who is the Managing Director of Image Consultants Ltd., said.
He urged old and new members of the association to work together to build a strong membership base so as to take the body to a greater height. (NAN)
OOG/AIB/AJA
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(Edited by Abdulfatah Babatunde/Adeleye Ajayi)
