The Nigerian media has been told to brace up for the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in information distribution.
Publisher of ThisDay Newspapers and Chairman, Arise Television, Prince Nduka Obaigbena made the call Tuesday (today, July 30) in Lagos at the 2nd Lateef Jakande Annual Memorial Lecture in Lagos organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors.
Obaigbena, who was the keynote speaker at the lecture with the theme “Rapidly changing media landscape: Survival strategies”, regretted that while most members of the Guild of Editors are above 40 years of age, there are no younger ones in the profession to take over from the current generation of journalists.
He recalled that the late Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Anthony Enahoro, Ike Nwachukwu and others were in their twenties when they started their journalism practice and made their mark in the industry, noting that no such fresh blood exists for the mainstream media to absorb and groom these days.
Obaigbena tasked the information minister to initiate the enactment of a law that would ensure that intellectual property of media practitioners are paid for, not minding whether such information is sourced from Google or any other social media platform.
Other speakers at the event emphasised the imperative of returning and sustaining newspaper hard copies on the streets, especially with the obvious threats posed by the emergence of artificial intelligence technology.
Mr. Tunde Obe harped on the need for the current generation of journalists to think out of the box and come up with ideas and contents that interest the youths, describing news as “a commodity, which once it breaks becomes dead,”
He advocated a return to the era of entertainment and soft sell magazines and newspapers, which, according to him, are what the current generation crave for, adding that the media should focus on how to convert the trust of the audience to money, which the media industry needs to survive.
Earlier, General Ike Nwachukwu extoled the virtues of the late Alhaji Lateef Jakande and called on the Nigerian media to remain “courageous to report the wrongs our leaders have done to the people”.
Other eminent personalities who spoke at the event were the Minister of Information, represented by the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Alhaji Ali .M. Ali; former information minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Publisher of the Vanguard Newspapers, Mr. Sam Amuka; Mr. Tunde Rahman, former president of the Guild of Editor and former commissioner of information in Osun State, Mrs Funke Egbemode, former MD, The Sun Publishing Ltd and former Information Commissioner, Anambra State, Chief Tony Onyima among others.
