A Public Relations/media consultant, Mr Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu, has decried the deplorable level at which media professionalism is eroding.
Mr Ukegbu warned that if the ugly trend was not urgently addressed, it would spell doom for the nation’s development, adding that no nation survives without the media.
He said “the media coordinates every other sphere of the socio-political and economic structure of a country, and is the last hope of a nation even if every other hope has collapsed.”
“We cannot fold our hands and watch this important segment of our national existence collapse.
“Charlatans have taken over the industry and the industry is fast crumbling like pack of cards.
“The worst hit is the social media where no atom of media professionalism is demonstrated. Ethical issues such as balance and fairness have been thrown away.
“The advent of the new media has turned everybody who can operate a smart phone to a media practitioner. Hardly can you differentiate between quackery from professionalism in the media industry these days.
“The gate keeping process of the media is now a wide concept as it is now a garbage in, garbage out practices these days”.
Mr Ukegbu therefore, called on the media regularly bodies to step up actions to check this menace.
