An Associate Professor and Head of Mass Communication Department, Bingham University, Samson Shaibu, has charged media owners as well as practitioners in the country to be guided by the ethics of their profession and not allow the influence of “narrow identity politics” ruin their ideals and what that stands for.
Professor Shaibu, a one-time Acting Director General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), stated that the media is an institution built on trust hence, the practitioners should not do anything to betray the trust reposed in them by the public who rely on them on truthful information at all times.
He gave the charge Tuesday in Abuja, at a press briefing for the unveiling of “The Trumpet Newspaper” and website, operated by Elomaz Communications Limited with headquarters in Abuja.
The university don, while acknowledging that the newspaper business is a rigorous and capital-intensive business, commended the publishers for the innovation they are bringing into the media, adding that The Trumpet is the first media outfit that is starting on five legs of digital technology.
“At Bingham University, excellence is our standard and watchword and I want to say Bingham identifies with you for this innovation you are bringing into journalism”.
Similarly. Dr Desmond Okocha, also of the Mass Communication Department and Coordinator of the Department’s Post Graduate programme, noted that the deployment of current digital apparatus by The Trumpet, will enhance the papers credibility and reliability for accurate, factual and timely reporting of news and events.
According to him, The Trumpet is set to carve a niche for itself by deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robot Journalism in its news gathering and dissemination activities.
Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of The Trumpet, Mr Endurance Edafewotu, stated that The Trumpet is hinged on the sanctity of a more balanced, factual, detailed and unbiased news on politics, business, entertainment, sports, religion, technology, culture, climate change and other emerging issues to millions of Nigerians both at home and in diaspora as well as the world at large.
The Trumpet, he noted is a holistic new news media that has Tabloid (Print copies) , Online Newspaper, Radio and Television.
“Today we are unveiling the tabloid and the online newspaper. We are opening ourselves to the reading public to critic our work”, he said.
Edafewotu, while stating that their desire is to present a news outfit that the reading public will relate to, trust and depend on, he explained that, “it became expedient for The Trumpet, an undiluted truth and patriotic voice reporting media outfit to wade into rescuing the nation from the dangers caused by the widespread of fake news and its resultant effects on the overall well-being of the society, especially with the advent of social media”.
As part of its determination to hold public office holders accountable, the CEO disclosed that The Trumpet will keep in its archives all statements, promises and actions of policy-makers and corporate bodies.
“We will use data to measure performance, gone is the era of just making political statements just to garner votes, words must be followed by actions”, he said.
