You practice churnalism, not journalism-Nigeria Media expert Ajibola Amzat knock Nigerian journalists
A media expert Ajibola Amzat has disclosed reasons why journalism practice is suffering in Nigeria and has failed to meet the modern trend across the globe.
Speaking at the day two retreat/ training workshop on investigative journalism organized by National Record with support from MacArthur foundation through Whole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism, Amzat who is the Africa Editor, Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism, (CCIJ) lamented that
practicing journalists in Nigeria have derailed from the conventional practice of getting evidence to back their reports, but rather focus on information given to them without any iota of journalistic truth.
Amzat, who spoke on the topic
Procedure and Techniques of Evidence Driven Reporting, described evidence as an important tools to remain relevant in the media realms.
While describing most practice among the conventional media in Nigeria as ‘churnalism and not journalism’ as it is prominently called, Amzat said it is a bad practices despites that, journalism is the best tool to sharpen Nigeria democracy.
“Most journalism practice today are public relations. They just give them information, package it to Nigerians without verifying them. All the things we package as news has no basis of fact checking.
“Journalists holds a powerful tool to correct wrong data that has been put out to the public. Always question authorities methodology to know if the data they are releasing contains falsehood. Journalists must have a questioning mind. Question everything. Doubt everything given until someone provide the truth. Never stop querying your data” he stated.
For practicing journalists in Nigeria to stop playing into the gallery of reporting information hookline and sinker without any proper evidence to back up their claims, Amzat suggested that, they must embark on consistent research, conduct interviews, observe, obtain verifiable documents, conduct survey and report their finding without bias.
