Against the dwindling revenues acruable to media Organisations due to covid19 pandemic and fierce competition from the social media platforms, traditional media Organisations have been challenged to develop new business strategies that will shore up their revenue base.
Professor Nicholas Iwokwagh, Dean , School of ICT, FUT Minna, gave the advise , in a lecture titled” Stay safe , staying in business, organised for kogi and Nasarawa Journalists by ActionAid with funding from GCERF with the theme: media masterclass, policy engagement for PVE during covid 19 in kogi , Nasarawa States , held at Kini resort Akwanga, Nasarawa state.
According to the professor, the digital revolution taking place in the media industry, stated that, although it came with huge advantages, it has placed serious financial burden on the existing traditional media.
He said unless the managers and owners of the traditional media Organisations think within and outside the box to tap into the financial opportunities created by various platforms they may be on their way out of business.
He advised them to leverage on platforms such as ePaper ,YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagrams to generate revenue for the Organisation rather than depending on sales from hard copy and advertisement which are gradually loosing public appeal.
He therefore challenged Media managers to be creative and innovative enough to making news a commodity which is sold and bought as a panacea to remaining in business.
The erudite scholar further opined that media Institutions should develop and diversify their contents to making news sellable thereby generating huge resources.
He called on Journalists on the frontline of Covid 19 and other emergencies to take the issue of personal safety very seriously so as to stay alive to report the event rather than being reported.
While calling on Journalists covering emergencies to make use of data , he urged them to factcheck the data before dishing it to the public, warning against rumours from some social media platforms .
He challenged Journalists to write purposive and authoritative features on the pandemic and play up pharmaceutical interventions as a confidence building for the citizenry.
Iwokwagh explained that the outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic has no doubt altered way of lives , the managers are expected to use critical thinking to convert the threats to bumper of opportunities to keep thousands of media workers on their jobs.
He said such opportunities have started manifesting with the introduction of zoom , virtual meeting which have reduced incidence of physical contact .
According to him, the difference between trained and citizens Journalists is the adherence to the ethics of the profession, hence , he warned journalists against sensationalisation of stories.
