…says media capacity building will be continuous
One of Nigeria’s leading commercial banks, Polaris Bank on Thursday organised a one day special media training workshop to curb the effect of fake news in the country’s media landscape.
The event which held at Jevinik Restaurant GRA, Ikeja was themed ‘Online Journalism in the Era of Fake News’ and featured journalist from both the print and online media.
Speaking at the workshop, Taiwo Obe, a veteran journalist and media expert admonished reporters to always check and double check facts before publishing their news story. Obe noted that some people within the society are bent on spreading propaganda to mislead the public. These people, Obe noted rely heavily on unsuspecting and greedy journalists to spread the propaganda messages which in most cases can leads to national chaos.
He urged journalists especially of the online extraction not to jettison ethics of the profession all in a rush to break news or chase traffic to their sites.
In his words: ‘Because of fake news, fact check became an industry to regulate information. Journalism is providing answers to questions. He said it, She said it, What’s the fact?
The veteran journalist also tutored participants on how to detect fake news, pictures and videos using different applications on mobile gadgets and smartphones.
Speaking on the essence of the workshop, the Head, Strategic Management of the bank, Nduneche Ezurike said the workshop was put in place to uphold professionalism in the journalism profession. He reiterated the bank’s commitment to regularly hold such workshops as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in getting rid of quacks in the journalism profession.
Participants at the workshop thanked Polaris Bank for putting up such an eye opening workshop especially now that social media is making it difficult to differentiate real and fake journalist.
Polaris Bank was established by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on September 21, 2018 to offer commercial banking services to the Nigerian public. The bank commenced services on the same day, having purchased the assets and assumed certain liabilities of the defunct Skye Bank.
With a footprint of over 350 branches across the country, Polaris Bank prides itself in delivering exceptional customer experience, leveraging best in class/state of the art Information Communication Technology (ICT). By focusing on ICT solutions across multiple service delivery channels (mobile banking, ATMs, POS and online platforms) Polaris Bank maintains a pivotal role in the Nigerian banking industry, providing customers with simple, convenient and secured banking services.
