A Mass Communication lecturer, Olorede Jimoh has said media practitioners are central to the fight against corruption and other social vices.
Olorede stated this on Friday while delivering a public lecture during a seminar on “The Role of Media Practitioners in National Development.”
The lecture was organised by the National Association of Mass Communication Students (NAMACOS) of the Federal Polytechnic Offa, Kwara State.
The scholar said that the roles of the media in national development, and improvement of the political, economic and social lives of the people, cannot be overemphasized.
However, he stated that the kind of media system a nation adopted, the society in which the media operate and the type of audience it reached would determine the real influence of practitioners in their development of such a nation.
“Whatever the circumstances or the nature of the society in which the practitioners operate, certain factors are basic in the way they influence national development,” the scholar said.
According to him, the media from years immemorial are central to the enthronement of democracy and good governance, deepening transparency in government.
He said the media practitioners’ role in foreign policy and protection of human rights cannot be controverted.
Aside from being a critical stakeholder in the fight against corruption, the Don reiterated that media practitioners have a role in tackling communal conflicts, disasters, among others.
Olorede, who was a scholar at the Universities of Ilorin (Unilorin) and Lagos (Unilag), where he had worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant Scholar, further described media practitioners as public agenda setters.
