Media Professionals Harp on Journalism Ethics as Safeguards from the Pandemic of Fake News
By Jude Nnadozie
A media expert has drawn public attention to the possible implications of Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections for the mainstream media. According to Dr. Obinna Chima, Editor of Thisday on Saturday, we need to reflect on what the future might hold with regard to information dissemination now that Donald Trump, who was banned by Twitter in 2021 for violations bordering on disinformation, has been elected the 47th President of the United States of America. At a time when the mainstream media’s trained, experienced, and objective voice ought to resonate over and above the loud, untrained, and unverified voice of social media, Trump’s victory may have flipped the script.
Dr. Chima was speaking on the panel session of a PR Conference organised by Masters students of the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos early in November. The conference, themed Crisis Communication in the Age of Misinformation and Disinformation, sought to put forward new, transparent and proactive approaches to countering the spread of harmful narratives for individuals, corporates, and governments through four sub-themes. It was organised in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master’s degree in Media and Communication by the Pan-Atlantic University.
Alongside three other panellists who addressed the other sub-themes, Dr. Chima’s interventions revolved around The Role of the Media in Curbing Disinformation. He pinned the media’s role down to three key areas: the promotion of responsible journalism, investment in media literacy, and commitment to editorial independence. With these, he said, tendencies to distort news reports for whatever reasons would be curtailed, the public will learn to filter news, and all who seek to wield untoward influence on the news and its agenda-setting function would be discouraged.
In a keynote address presented by Barrister Ime Asibong, Company Secretary of Ibom Power, crisis communication was described as the communication measures and approaches adopted by individuals and organisations to resolve crisis situations and emerge with their reputation and profitability intact or minimally impacted. According to Asibong, during crises, usual coping mechanisms and resources become insufficient, requiring the adoption of public relations strategies that are transparent and carry key audiences along.
In today’s increasingly competitive global economy, the need to anticipate and avert crisis situations promptly cannot be overemphasized. Moreover, with market exigencies driving competitors to the extremes in their bid to outdo each other, disinformation has become an ever-present danger in every industry. Add to that the advancements in information and computer technology, which have equipped villains and heroes alike with the tools and wiles to outmanoeuvre each other, and you get a cacophonous public domain in which the heroes must strive for a large, coherent, and consistent share of voice. A mastery of effective crisis communication strategies, therefore, holds the key to the survival and sustainability of, not just businesses, but also public figures and even nation states.
Mr. Solomon Nkwagu, the lead convener of the conference, while making introductory remarks, noted that the democratization of information in the world means that inaccurate and deliberately misleading information can go viral within minutes, forcing communication managers to scramble for mitigants before grave damage is done. He cited a study by the Ederman Trust Barometer which states that over 57% of people globally report difficulty in distinguishing between true and false information. Given this, the keynote speaker’s assertion that misinformation and disinformation can destroy democracy cannot be truer. After all, part of governments’ efforts to rein in fake news peddlers, especially in developing countries, is to censor social media and stifle free speech—pillars of democracy.
Barrister Asibong noted that though Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides for freedom of expression, that right is not absolute. The infringement of the rights or reputation of another person is not a legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of expression. On the regulatory frameworks that support crisis communication, Asibong noted that victims of defamation and libel have legal recourse for claiming damages. Meanwhile, sections 3, 4, and 7 of the Constitution spell out the roles of broadcasters in preventing the spread of false information, maintaining public trust, and the legal implications for individuals and organisations that facilitate the spread of fake news.
Weighing in on the discussions, Mr. Keni Akintoye and Mr. Oluwaseun Oyeniyi Adegoke, Media Entrepreneurs and Communication Experts, bemoaned the fact that non-journalists now possess the same tools, technologies, and audience as journalists, yet they do not have the training and pay no allegiance to any code of ethics as journalists do. The result is recklessness and, sometimes, actual mischief with information. However, they expressed relief that Nigeria’s fake news merchants can be countered by simple digital media literacy given that they are predominatly still leveraging social media and have not entered the realm of Artificial Intelligence and deepfakes.
