When Paul Collier, the professor of Economics at the Oxford University wrote in his book “Wars, Guns & Votes – Democracy in Dangerous Places”, and provided an eye-opening assessment of the ethnic divisions and insecurity in developing countries especially the so-called Third World nations of Africa; not a few development media journalists criticized him for indulging in illicit generalization about the problems of insecurity in Africa especially considering the tripartite roles of Civil unrest manifesting in wars, weapons and the elusive pursuit of peace through democratic practices.
But Africa is indeed a hotbed of crisis. And Nigeria is living up to the calling as the battleground. The nation has been in the news across major news outlets around the world; providing daily items for the media with nothing short of bad advertisements for the continent in reports (often contrived) of insurgency and the perceived failure of the security agencies to repeal these attacks. While the nation groans under the threat of insecurity, politicians are busy perfecting their acts and strategies to win the elections either by “rigging” or “shifting” of the elections; and the media busy feeding on all sorts from rumours to outright falsehoods.
Reports on threats of Boko Haram especially in the run up to the general elections have dominated the media. Almost half of every news bulletin on Nigerian television stations is dedicated to stories on Boko Haram. Newspapers sell more with screaming banner headlines announcing Boko Haram exploits or rarely of the bravery of our soldiers as Chris Olukolade or the Defence Headquarters would want; radio is not any better. Perhaps the most guilty remains the online media. Bloggers are everywhere. Every jobless Nigerian graduate with a computer and modem has now become a journalist. Blogging has been remained gossip-journalism. It is copy and paste practice without regards for the fine ethics of the profession. Every click dents our national image with the attendant Nigerian taste for negative news.
The Nigerian Union of Journalists has failed woefully in protecting and safeguarding the standard of practice for the profession. But that’s a discourse for another day. For this purpose of this piece, am focusing on how Television stations have glorified the activities of Boko Haram in the troubled north east part of the country. Much as major news outlets have their headquarters in the South West; the troubled region of Northern Nigeria has remained a no-go area for journalists to have first-hand accounts of events; so most of them merely rely on online news sources; save for the few professionals who employed locals as reporters, correspondents and stringers and sell their rushes and reports to foreign partners agencies.
Not surprising therefore is the unethical practice of publishing verbatim whatever is received via the news wires. The military has exploited this to either manipulate the media to publish outright falsehood or cheap propaganda in form of press releases with lazy journalists not deeming it necessary and duty-bound to engage the rule of thumb. Check and double check with sources. A journalist is as fertile as his sources but that was in the past.
A very common but disturbing practice is the undue publicity given to the dreaded group with every video. Every time Boko Haram releases videos, the newsrooms go crazy; feasting over it; some even broadcast their videos end-to-end thereby directly aiding the group to push its deadly agenda. No censorship. No sense of responsibility to the society and the Nigerian state.
I dare say every responsible television station is obligated to refuse giving these thugs visual air time. It is revolting to have to watch these deranged gang bangers recite their inciting and damaging speeches with the attendant dexterity and mannerisms that have been associated with the persona of Abubakar Shekau; and he is getting negative publicity as the group takes human life all for free.
However, that is not to say media should not verbally report on these issues but should be given the necessary attention especially as they bother on the matter of security or insecurity as the case may be. These cowards are getting off on their obscene violation of human life. And we are unwittingly helping them do so.
It must be noted that Boko Haram has benefited from the media. Both locally and internationally. Infact, local media plug in to foreign news agencies such as Reuters, Agence France-Presse (AFP) etc to relay Boko Haram videos.
Needless to say that these videos have been professionally packaged. The standard of production is nothing short of highest quality with almost perfect audio balancing and video texture useful for multi-platform and cross-media contents. This is another reason the messages are often short and simple – a basic requirement for advertising to ensure mass appeal especially to the young generation of gullible media consumers.
Unfortunately, media organisations in Nigeria seem not to recognize these messages for what they are – pure advertisements. They are busy throwing the baby away with the bath water. Truth is, you can not avoid reporting the activities of the insurgents and the efforts of the military but give their message and gruesome violence as little direct exposure as possible. Unfortunately, the full videos are online, so those with a prurient interest can all-too-easily find them.
There is no reason to show these often graphic videos, except to titillate the public. Do we need to actually see a beheading to know it is obscene and revolting as in the ISIS trending videos? Do we need to see the Boko Haram display of mastery of Armoured Tanks stolen from the Nigerian Army to know the nation is in security crisis? No. But then, I do not rubberneck on the highway when I pass a gruesome accident, either. The general public doesn’t need to see it on TV to fully understand what it is. Those who have insatiable appetite for odd and negative news could turn to another medium or go online. These videos, though certainly puts their operations into perspective, but our sons and daughters are dying fighting this oppression and these barbaric murderers. We owe it to our soldiers to see and comprehend what they’re fighting for but not to glamourise and celebrate the activities of the insurgents by manipulating the news.
Real news informs and enlightens. It should not, in and of itself, incite or propel negative responses. Not for a nation in dire need of responsible and development-oriented journalism like Nigeria. News should lead to rational response and reason, not reactionary impulse. What Boko Haram is doing and promoting through its media, is evil and unconscionable to the lowest imaginable. From the abduction of Chibok girls to videos of treasonable speeches; the news that the captives were being sold and used as suicide bombers provides the information from which we can form a reasonable response. The showing of the actual videos promotes only the most reactionary of responses, it stoops to the level of Boko Haram and moves us backward, instead of forward.
Journalists make decisions to “tone up” or “tone down” content every day – it is a reality of the job, time, getting readers/viewers, purpose, affecting change, etc although this is changing. With content being released on the internet, gatekeeping is virtually non-existent and gatewatching has emerged. Citizen journalists still rely heavily on the tubes for information as sources. Journalists would therefore do our society more good by adhering to the time tested principle of sieving through information for public consumption. And there are criteria for this.
A key criteria is: Boko Haram wants us to show it. If Boko Haram wants you to show something, you should start with the principle of ‘How can we avoid doing that?’ Sometimes you can’t, because it’s editorially a key part of the story. But in this case, we can if we want to.
Adedeji Ajayi is Head, Output at TVC News Nigeria.
