The evolution of journalism is a complex thing. The first form of journalism was the newspaper. It progressed over time and became more digital. There have been key players in the first signs of journalism, like Nelly Bly and Johannes Gutenberg. Over the years, journalism has changed a lot. Now a lot of journalism is digital. There’s television, radio, computers and phones, and there is social media. With people nowadays, it’s important to know everything that is happening. And it has come to the point that basically everyone is a journalist nowadays. Journalism is important now because there’s so many more people and so much more happening, so you need it to spread more news to people. Now, Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on current events based on facts and supported with proof or evidence. The word journalism applies to the occupation, as well as citizen journalists who gather and publish information based on facts and supported with proof or evidence. The question is CAN JOURNALISM HELP A SICK COUNTRY?
Many developing countries, can't overemphasized the work of journalist in their history of development. Nigeria as a country gain its independent with the help of journalists and their contributions, help the country to survive till date. Journalism is the number one medicine to nurse a sick country for the country to gain its strength. The following are the platform in which journalism can be antidote to social menace.
Journalism cures country through verified information. Journalism is not a child work but a man work which comes with a lot of stress and sweetness, a trained journalist must possessed the skill of nosing for verified information. There is a popular sentence among journalist that they are the eye for the blind, ear for the deaf and the light for dark.The utmost need of a country is verified information that will inform every citizen on what is going on around them. When proofed information floats around the country, there will be total compliance towards the message the information intended to pass to the masses.
Unemployment and poverty, the rate at which media house are built in the Nigeria will protect the country from the ambiguous rate of unemployment and poverty, unemployment has been the devil behind every evil deed happening in Nigeria, You will find a youth narrating that they are graduate yet they hardly survive from hand to mouth, that is why they ventured into illegal job. Journalism is very broad and vast that the students of journalism cannot devour it enough but due to the Nigeria act which stated No press freedom, many citizens are scared of sending their children or ward into school of journalism.
To crub corruption, Journalism can be used to sensitize the mass about the menace called corruption, which is a big problem in Nigeria. The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2020 report published by Transparency International indicates that Nigeria occupies the 149th position out of the 180 countries surveyed as well scored 25 out of 100 points. With the current ranking, Nigeria is now the second most corrupt country in West Africa with Guinea-Bissau the only country more corrupt than Nigeria in the sub-region. The issue of corruption cannot be ignored in Nigeria, but with effective and investigative journalists which they serve as watch dog in the country's system, they can fish out corrupted politician, citizen or workers through their professional skill of nosing for news.
It is the panacea for Tribal conflicts, Tribal conflicts are natural for Nigeria, as this country has never existed before. There are several major tribes, such as Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. All the tribes have their own religion, culture, languages. It is not surprising that they engage in conflicts and fight over the power in the newly shaped country. Even 50+ years is not enough to bring those tribes to unity and shape their national identity but with the help of free journalists, tribal different will be history in Nigeria because the journalists will connect them to know they are one and one part in the race of getting the country to a noticeable development. Religion differences can be easily dealt with by the journalist, the most sensitive war is religion crisis, even unknown hand will join the war and it will drive the country into early grave but a trained journalist can help to reduced it with the way they disseminate news to the masses.
Our journalist are known to be as brave as the soldier facing gunfire, the journalist are no different from them when tackling with terrorism in Nigeria. Many journalist have lost their life for them to cover the war between the army and the boko haram combat in northern part of Nigeria. Journalists serve as spy when covering the enemy's camp and they disseminate adequate information to the army for them to operate fully on the enemy.
To strength the educational system; journalism/mass media bring the educational system into lime light in Nigeria on the 1959, 100 years after print media was introduced to Nigeria, Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo brought television into Nigeria to reply the governor-general then but the television was used to educate the student basically on science subjects. Journalist helps to educate the masses on ravaging phenomena in the society and how to deal with such phenomena.
In the long run, Journalism is basically a document, so you can see what happened in the past and know how to prevent certain things from happening again, not what happened in the past alone but what is happening presently and know how to go about it. To crub social menace, there is a need to have an Independent journalism that will serve as watch dog for the country, a warrior said, "To win the battle, we must have a spy", in order to overcome all kinds of sickness weakening Nigeria, journalists should be given the greenlight to perform their duty, so the country will be reformed.
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