Lecture by Lekan Otufodunrin at the anniversary 13th Sparklight Award and Media Lecture, held in Abeokuta, Ogun State. July 17, 2016
In 1987, a 22 year old journalism graduate sneaked into Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital to resume work as the correspondent of a national newspaper. He joined the league of the Ogun State Correspondents whose offices were mainly in Ijemo and for about four years he was among the powerful clique of reporters who determined what was worth reporting and publishing about Ogun State in national newspapers.
If you wanted anything known about Ogun State beyond what the state and federal broadcast stations aired, you have to deal with the Ijemo gatekeepers. What the world got to read about the the government, the people of the state and other events in the states were based on the correspondents preferences.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, one of the powerful journalists I am talking about is my humble self while I was the Ogun State correspondent (Editor) of The Punch Newspapers.
I remember being invited by a former military governor along with one other reporter of an another newspaper who pleaded in the name of his mother ( loruko mami) with us not to publish some developments in the state.
I remember a commissioner who had to rush to our offices in Ijemo to plead that we should not report about some renovation in the commissioners quarters.
Today’s lecture is not about me and how I and my powerful colleagues then were, but I have deliberately told the story to illustrate how the social media, which is part of the new media platforms has demystified the traditional media.
My brief is to speak about how social media has provided alternative means of information dissemination for everyone, “voicefull” and the “voiceless”. The government and the ordinary citizens.
The state correspondents of today still probably retain some of those powers we wielded then, but without doubt social media has removed the gates journalists used to solely keep.
Thanks to social media, the task of sharing information is no longer the exclusive preserve of professional journalists but everyone who has an Internet connected telephone, tablet or computer.
The majority whose voices have been muffled in time past, who have been denied the opportunity to speak the truth to power, who are denied access to government and private media now have the platform to speak up.
A public relations manager noted in a lecture that it used to be that if you don’t want any story published in major national newspapers, all you have to do was call some editors of the paper, ‘talk’ to them and you can go to sleep. Nowadays, he says you will do that at your own peril.
As he puts it, before you finish calling the editors, the story is already on Saharareporters.com and other web only websites and blogs. The story is also already on social media long before the editors gets the stories from their reporters.
So what is social media?
Wikipedia defines Social media as computer-mediated tools that allow people, companies and other organizations to create, share, or exchange information, career interests,ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks.
” Social media differ from traditional paper-based or industrial media in many ways, including quality,reach, frequency, usability, immediacy, and permanence. Social media operate in a dialogic transmission system (many sources to many receivers). This is in contrast to traditional media that operates under a monologic transmission model (one source to many receivers). Some of the most popular social media websites are Facebook (and its associated Facebook Messenger), WhatsApp, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, Baidu Tieba and Snapchat.
” There are many effects that stem from Internet usage. According to Nielsen, Internet users continue to spend more time with social media sites than any other type of site. At the same time, the total time spent on social media in the U.S. across PC and mobile devices increased by 99 percent to 121 billion minutes in July 2012 compared to 66 billion minutes in July 2011.For content contributors, the benefits of participating in social media have gone beyond simply social sharing to building reputation and bringing in career opportunities and monetary income, as discussed”
Although we don’t have up-to-date statistics of social media users in Nigeria, use of social media is as high in the country as in other parts of the world.
Undoubtedly the opportunity offered by social media platforms for for campaigns of any kind, protests, alternative, dissenting, minority and many other voices are enormous.
At the global level, the Arab spring that swept some dictators out of power in countries like Egypt and Tunisia readily comes to mind as a good example of how the hitherto voices of the silent majority can become loud enough through the social media.
According to the Arab Social Media Report conducted by the Dubai School of Government, social media played a significant role during the Arab Spring.
” From this perspective, the Arab Spring may refer to Twitter Revolution or Facebook Revolution as the use of modern technologies facilitated the communication and interaction between participants of political protests.
According to the research made by the project on Information Technology and Political Islam, social media played a central role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring, helped spread awareness about ongoing events all over the world, and, finally, online revolutionary conversations often preceded mass protests on the ground.
” Overall, the influence of social media was critical for protesters to organize demonstrations (both pro- and anti-governmental), disseminate information about their activities, and raise awareness of ongoing events locally and globally.[5] This impact was also crucial for governments to engage with citizens and encourage their participation in government processes, on the one hand, and to block access to websites and Internet, monitor traffic, on the other,” the report research findings stated.
While governments can continue to hold on to traditional media through ownership and lincensing, total regulation of the social media is almost impossible, making it a veritable tool for campaigns is support of any cause, even when the traditional media choose to ignore them.
#Occupy Nigeria was a socio-political protest movement that began in Nigeria on Monday, 2 January 2012 in response to the fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government of former President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday, 1 January 2012. The protest that took place across the country, including in the cities of Kano, Ojota ( -part of metropolitan Lagos ), Abuja, and at the Nigerian High Commission in London, according to Wikipedia was characterised by civil disobedience, civil resistance, strike actions, demonstrations and online activism. The use of social media services such as Twitter and Facebook was a prominent feature.
Following the continued closure of the Obafemi Awolowo University for months, students of the institution led by the the Association of Campus Journalists recently launched a social media campaign titled #ReopenOAU. By and large the campaign has helped in drawing more attention to disturbing closure with more pressure on the federal government to take necessary steps to reopen the institution.
I wish also to note that a number of incidents like the killing of hip the Alu four, students of Rivers State University did not receive the required national attention but for the massive social media campaign and exposure about the killing of the innocent students.
Just like any other good thing, the social media has been subjected to abuse by users who have no inhibition about what to publish on the various platforms. There have been justifiable concerns in some cases about disregard for facts and truth.
There are cases where aggrieved voiceless persons and groups have used the social media to promote half truths and deliberate falsehood in support of whatever campaign they are championing.
How can some supposedly voiceless persons justify engaging in all manners of name calling and abuses that characterized various campaign on social media?
Notwithstanding the abuse which has necessitated the call for regulation or shut down as it is in some countries, the social media needs to be appreciated for the opportunities it has afforded everyone that has anything or something to say or campaign for.
As we continue to advocate for informed and responsible use of the social media, the voiceless should be encouraged to use the social media to speak up instead of dying in silence and bottling up their emotions resulting sometimes in violent agitation and vices.
Instead of throwing away the baby and birth water and ignoring the voices of the voiceless because of the abuses of the social media platforms, government, authorities and whoever is concerned should learn to engage in multi- responses with the voiceless.
The government particularly need to appreciate that we now live in a multimedia world where information dissemination should be dynamic with regular need to be accountable to the voiceless.
Social media should be monitored by well trained government officials who must always be ready to respond to enquiries and complaints from the voiceless.
Social media campaign don’t necessarily have to be negative. They should also be platform for highlighting positive developments and causes for the overall development of the country.
Beyond being platforms for campaigns, the voiceless and others need to use the social media to empower themselves. More than being for social interaction, the social media is now a global professional tool to learn, share and showcase individual competences, products and services.
Instead of wasting precious time online, I urge everyone who uses social media to spend quality time on the platforms and effectively utilize them. Use of social media for anyone who wants to remain relevant in whatever he or she does nowadays is not a matter of option. The question is which one works for you that you you should master.
Who are you friends on Facebook? What do you share? and reshape ? What comments do you make on posts.
Who are you following and who is following you on Twitter? What do you tweet and retweet?
Do you have an Instagram account? How about Googleplus? Skype? , Whatsapp?
Your answers to the above questions will determine if anyone will be able to use the social media for campaigns or any other purpose which I have enumerated.
We live in interesting times, constantly changing technology-driven day far different from when I was a reporter in Abeokuta in the late eighties when I had a desk telephone that was locked with padlock and not password, when I dictated every word of my story on phone or radio phone to a staff in Lagos.
If the lines are not clear enough, I had to resort to using radio language for every letter. For LAWAL which was the name of the military governor then, I would have to call L for Lima, A for Alfa, W for Whiskey, A for Alfa and L for Lima.
We later had telex and fax machines which are in no way compared with the emails, text messages and social media for reporters to send their stories.
When all else fail in those dark days, I have to jump into a bus heading to Lagos to submit my hand written story.
We have come a long way in reporting stories of happenings in our day to day life, with the rate at which technology keeps changing the face do social media and other new media tools will keep changing. The task for all of us it to keep updating our skills to be able to communicate and advocate whatever cause we want to champion.
Thank you all for coming and listening, thanks to the organisers for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts on the issue. God bless you all.
