Journalism, A Non-Violent Tool Of Social Transformation

A facilitator from the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) known as Busola Ajibola has called on campus journalists and professional journalists to make use of the profession as a non-violent tool to drive social transformation. 

Mrs Ajibola made the statement during an interview with campus journalists at Lagos State University during the national convention of the National Association of Nigerian Campus Editors (NANCE) held from the 23rd to the 26th of February 2022. 

“Many of the students who are practising campus journalism really don’t know the ethics of journalism, and that causes many of them to be mixing up journalism and public relations practice. The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) has come to educate and correct them, to help them understand the difference between journalism practice and public relations,” Mrs Ajibola said.  

“We expect that after this training they find their voices and a lot of young people in Nigeria including those practising journalism are not fully aware of how powerful their voices are, and how they can use journalism as a non-violent tool for social transformation.”

“We hope that beyond this training they find those voices wherever they’re hidden and make use of journalism as a powerful tool to transform the society,” Mrs Ajibola reiterated.

Also speaking, Mrs Femke van Zeijl pointed out that a majority of the youth and campus journalists feel powerless. However, she stressed that everywhere there is a majority, there should be power and CJID is happy to teach young people to use their power constructively, without violence and conflict. 

“In fact, in each of the trainings we say that people like you are the majority and feeling powerless is just an emotion. 

“If you’re a majority somewhere there must be some power behind it and we’ve been trying to teach them that without violence, without conflict, you can use that power for good and even for us, it’s hopeful to see young people who have realised their power. 

“If they can do so as journalists to first of all at least do no harm when they’re reporting but otherwise be more constructive, and we can have a constructive society and change things”. She added 

The training featured classes on the ethics of journalism by Mrs Busola Ajibola, investigative reporting and fact-checking by Mr Deji Adekunle, and conflict reporting by Femke van Zeijl a Dutch reporter based in Lagos.  

The schools that participated in the training included Lagos State University (LASU), Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), University of Lagos (UNILAG), Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU)  Tai Solarin University of Education, Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Lagos State Polytechnic (LASUTECH) and more.