“BLOG IT RIGHT”, DON ADVISES ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIAN BLOGGERS
Posted by Nofisat Nojeem | 5 months ago | 648 times
Through its quarterly Professional training, the Association of Nigerian Bloggers have taken the responsibility of educating its members on the need to uphold the trait of communicating true information.
In one of the sessions, Dr Olunifesi Suraj, who is a University Don and a consultant to UNESCO on media and information literacy, advised bloggers to desist from “clout chasing” and rather tell the truth while communicating.
The Don in his speech titled “From Clout Chasers to Digital Truth Tellers: A Clarion call to ‘Blog it Right’, implores members of the association to identify their proper role in today’s communication ecology system.
He believes despite the bloggers’ role to bridge the digital gap in news dissemination, there is need to be socially responsible rather than constituting a societal nuisance in the already information polluted environment.
Suraj said that many individuals have taken on the business of blogging to get attention, become popular and make money through ill-written and misleading content. These contents not only damage the image of the association but also disrupt peace and normalcy in society.
He made a reference to bloggers who engage in ‘clout chasing’ to build unnecessary popularity and unprofitable venture from click bait culture. He believes bloggers should not be carried away by their attention seeking mechanisms and their digital influence machine enabled by their various digital platforms but should constantly reflect and evaluate their content /actions on the social well-being of individuals and society at large.
Suraj urged bloggers to prioritize truth in all forms of content as many rely on them for information, adding that consciousness, integrity and responsibility must be deeply rooted values of good bloggers. “These attributes ensure that they are contributing meaningfully and truthfully to society with their contents,” he said.
To further ground the importance of truthfulness in blogging, the university don charged bloggers to educate themselves on topics of media and communication.
In his words, "as a professional group, we must build an “army” of credible messengers, the Digital truth-tellers that will be more effective at conveying the right messages and not profiting from fake news and disinformation.”
