Media chiefs flay journalists’ misuse of contacts

Top media experts have expressed displeasure over journalists exploiting their contacts created in the course of professional tasks for personal benefits. The experts say the development is not only worrisome for the practice of journalism, but also the trend is equally growing.

According to the experts, the development sees some journalists twisting professionalism to begging for business contracts and pointlessly hobnobbing with politicians and different characters in the industry, more for self-seeking interests rather than for news, scoops and investigation that will enhance the journalistic profession.

Condemning the unwholesome practice, Josef Bel-Molokwu, a seasoned journalist and lecturer at School of Media and Communication of Pan Atlantic University, says the business of journalism is about a commodity that is sacred, as “the work of a journalist is a sacred calling.”

Genuine reporters and publishers need to keep a safe distance from people that are in power, Bel-Molokwu says, looking at journalism in Nigeria from two perspectives – “Hobnob journalism, those who want to eat and associate with them and the cringe journalism, which involves those who are not hobnobbing with them but are so scared of them and are not able to take decisions and work professionally. Journalists should be professional. Keep distance from them and maintain your integrity so that you are not influenced.”

A media consultant, who prefers anonymity, says the rising development, which is becoming a norm in the society, borders largely on internal code of governance within media houses.

He says a journalist is expected to build his contacts and connections to consolidate his or her professional function as against using them for personal business, linking such practice on media practitioners who are not sure that their future lies in what they are doing. “So, there is the issue of try here and there. But at the end of the day the institution loses, even the employees will be distracted from being the best media professionals they should be,” he notes.

He explains further that contacts developed in journalism should be used to further journalism, saying best sellers use such contacts to deepen their journalistic skills.

The other effect is that in an environment like Nigeria where you have a massive population, few publications are surviving yet people are under-served, so content and quality become issues. “What makes a journalist is the ability to set agenda, and if you cannot create quality dialogue because you are suppose to have access to information then you have lost it,” he states.

In his view, Femi Adesina, president, Guild of Editors, says contacts don’t just drop from the sky, “when contacts are established, they are nurtured. You groom the contacts until at a point of mutual trust that the contacts believe that he can let you into certain fundamental things and you will not betray the trust.”

He however describes as unethical when journalists use their contacts for personal business, saying “if you meet somebody on professional front and get yourselves introduced and the next time you come around asking him/her to do certain favour for you on the private level, that is opportunism, it is not ethical. I will not subscribe to opportunism, but I will subscribe to building healthy vibrant relationship with people.”

This development is not peculiar to Nigeria, as a journalist of an international media presently faces charges for hobnobbing with government authorities, a development that could affect her professional duty.

In his article “The future of media business in Nigeria: Holding ourselves accountable” published in BusinessDay recently, Richard Ikiebe, a director, Centre for Leadership in Journalism School of Media and Communication Pan Atlantic University, says media exists for two central purposes: to help the community it serves to find its way in a complex world, and hopefully to make a modest profit for all owners and employees. When the media fails in any one of these two, it has failed in both.

He says nearly everyone agrees that, that powerful media of old is now extinct; what is left is a shadow – toothless, and hardly ever barking.

To Ikiebe, lately, it would appear that most media houses have become disconnected from the reason they exist… to be a change agent, noting “we seem to be satisfied to just exist.”

By: Daniel Obi