Prof. Abdullahi Musa, Vice-Chancellor of Kaduna State University (KASU), has urged media professionals to adopt strategic information management to advance journalism across Africa.
Musa said this on Monday in Moscow, where he appeared as a panellist at the Russia-Africa forum with the theme, “New Generation of Media Professionals: The Experience of Russia and Africa”.
The panel was held on the sidelines of the third Russia-Africa Summit, scheduled for Oct. 28 and 29.
Musa said information has driven the advancement of civilisation and that its management was now key to sustaining that progress.
“We are either using information, distorting information, sharing information, avoiding information, rejecting or manipulating information,” he said.
“If this is what we do 24 hours a day, then capacity building on information management is indispensable, and that is what journalism is all about.”
He said fake news would be difficult to curb if journalists and media educators failed to improve their skills, adding that disinformation and information hygiene could not be addressed without prioritising media education.
Musa called for an innovative approach to information mismanagement and urged journalists to embrace continuous on-the-job training.
“It is time we adopt a paradigm shift through investing in quality training of journalists. The old ways of training media professionals must give way for solutions to modern challenges,” he said. (NAN)
