NAWOJ’s National President charged Journalists to seek technological knowledge for self development.
By Gloria Abutu
President of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ, Ladi Bala has charged journalists to seek technological knowledge for self development and career advancement.
Bala made the call during a two day capacity building of broadcast journalists in Abuja, organized by the Institute for Media and Society, IMS with the aim of equipping journalists with requisite tools to debunk misinformation and disinformation around electoral activities.
Bala urged the participants to align themselves with emerging technological trends in the media space in order to remain relevant in the industry.
“We must align ourselves with the changing times, get acquainted with tools and add value to what we do”
She urged female journalists to embrace media entrepreneurship which according to her, is capable of turning around their economic fortunes.
”The media space is changing by the minute, and if you don’t enhance your capacity and your skills, you will soon be out of business” she said.
The NAWOJ President appreciated the Institute for its dedication towards building the capacity of female journalists and urged participants to commit to sanitizing the media space for peaceful coexistence in the country.
Executive Director of the Institute, Doctor Akin Akingbulu noted that misinformation and Disinformation constitute danger to the electoral process, saying that misleading information is capable of triggering violence during elections.
According to him, “We have a very important duty at this time as media professionals to understand misinformation and disinformation and deal with them during the 2023 electoral process and beyond”.
In their separate presentations, Facilitators at the programme, Doctor Suraj Adekunle of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, and an Editor at Dubawa, an independent fact-checking project Kemi Busari stressed the need for journalists to ensure professionalism by desisting from reporting unverified information and embrace technology for accurate reportage.
Earlier, IMS Programme Manager, Timothy Bamidele said the essence of the programme was to improve the professional capacity of media professionals to deal with information disorders, to improve the quality of the electoral process through fair and ethical coverage of the 2023 election as well as promote citizens’ participation, particularly that of women in the electoral process.
Participants at the workshop who were drawn from the North East, North West and North Central zones of the country, advocated funding of Media organisations and urged journalists to seek knowledge through consistent research to avoid the spread of Fake News for peaceful elections in 2023.
The two-day training is an activity under the Support-to-Media Component of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance, EU-SDGN being implemented by the Institute for Media and Society, IMS.
