‘I used ASUU strike period to complete my latest book’
Malam Muhammad S. Rabiu is the new head of the Mass Communication Department of Nassarawa State University, NSUK and has authored several books. He talks to Sunday Trust about his works, how he used the recent strike period to produce another book, corruption in the media and the academia.
Malam Rabiu, you have just produced another book from your prolific stable, what drives you to write?
The desire to provide mass communication students with suitable and profitable reading materials. They always complain of lack of books in the discipline. Furthermore, in the academia, we are promoted by the quantity and quality of our publications. During the last 6-month ASUU strike, with the helping hand of God, I was able to complete two books: The World of News: Career Prospects in Journalism and Mass Communication, which has 490 pages and is now out, and then, Journalistic Skills for Professional Excellence, which my university has kindly processed for sponsorship by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND). It has about 820 pages and the quotation from the publishing company says it will cost N 1.68 million to publish.
Interesting. Talking about your latest published book, The World of News, the book explores career options in Mass Communication, why did you think it necessary to write about this?
To give students and other seekers after knowledge a comprehensive picture of the field of mass communication and to show them job options available to them and the demands of each.
Do you think the varied fields of Mass Communication have been fully explored in Nigeria?
In Nigeria, all the tracks of mass communication are practised, that is to say broadcast journalism, print journalism, advertising, public relations and book publishing. There are challenges but the practitioners are doing their best.
How do you think new media has affected the career prospects that have been associated with Mass Communication?
The new media offers new opportunities for journalists and others. That is the way of the world. Life is dynamic. There are always new ways of doing old things. So now the new media offers a fresh and faster means of reporting. Newspapers and magazines have online editions. And there are so many news outlets that are exclusively online. This development has expanded the platforms for news delivery to national and international audiences. However, the traditional news media are perceived as more credible and trustworthy than the Internet platforms of news where one man conceives and constructs stories without checking, cross checking and confirming his facts. One man cannot professionally produce journalistic messages. It takes a team working together in a news organization to produce professional, ethical and welledited stories. Accordingly, many people take stories from the Internet with a pinch of salt. Most of their stories lack credibility and trustworthiness.
In The World of News you also talked about corruption in the media and made recommendations on how to tackle it. How huge a problem do you think it is?
Corruption in the media is an extension of the corrupt tendencies in all other components of the society. Media corruption leads to fictionalisation of stories, propagandising of stories and features, killing or burying of justified stories, among so many other unethical practices. Reporters become willing tools or willing whores in the hands of politicians, government officials and other monied men. Consequently, truth becomes a victim. Half-truths and outright lies become daily diets in the media. Therefore, corruption in the media is a mountainous problem.
There have also been allegations of corruption in academic publications where articles are published in journals not on merit but on how much the author is able to pay. What damage is this doing to the academia?
It is true that there is corruption in academic publications too as evidenced by some past news reports in which some universities sacked the offending lecturers. Whenever discovered, such bad eggs are ushered out of the job. But happily only a few lecturers get involved in this unhealthy practice. May be less than 2 percent. The overwhelming majority of lecturers are hardworking, ethical and worthy.
How do you think this problem can be tackled?
Every university finds academic dishonesty from lecturers to be distasteful because they are supposed to be role models to their students. And every university tackles it by dishing out the ultimate punishment, that is, outright or automatic sack.
In your book Jaunty and Popular Journalism, you talked about the methods tabloids use to engage and hold readers. Don’t you think the same methods are being used by the new media to boost readership and give it advantage over traditional media?
But tabloids too are part of the traditional media. They predated Internet news dissemination. These newspapers have been around for more than hundred years. They are called the fun press. They lean towards entertainment. They lavish coverage on celebrities, sex, scandals, sensation, sleaze and soaps. And that is what the majority of readers crave for. Since they gravitate towards the desires of the majority, tabloids are also called the popular press. And, all over the world, they are winning. Tabloids are the most widely read newspapers. Yes, they sometimes over magnify their reports and in their rush to beat other newspapers they hardly check, comb and contact sources. So, as you suggested, tabloids sometimes behave like the new media. Still, being part of the traditional media, having hard copies on the newsstand, they continue to command readership. People still read them, ignoring what they feel is exaggerated, and enjoying the rest of the believable stories. But news platforms on the Internet have huge credibility challenges. Most of them are yet to earn public trust.
Is this a hindrance or a challenge to conventional newspapers? How do you think conventional media can survive the storm?
The conventional media comprise of broadsheets (the serious press) and the tabloids ( the fun press). Both the conventional and the unconventional press can rise above the storm of crisis of credibility by employing professionally competent and ethical reporters that can earn public trust. The reporters must be well-paid to insulate them from corrupt tendencies.
You are also an academic of repute, as the head of the Mass Communication Department of NSUK, what are the challenges of teaching the course in Nigeria?
I think I am still hard at work. I am a building under construction. Teaching mass communication in Nigeria has its challenges ranging from inadequate facilities to inadequate staff. To make matters even more difficult, it is the most popular course everywhere you go. Accordingly, multitudes strenuously struggle for the few available spaces annually. Here at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi,we have a vicechancellor who is assiduously and determinedly tackling the problems. Professor Muhammad A. Mainoma is working day and night to improve our situation.