The Federal Government is seemingly worried
over the menace of fake news, and is preparing the Information Officers (IOs)
on how to effectively counter this effect with fact-based narratives, reports ITRealms.
The Minister of Information and Culture,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made this disclosure in Abuja Wednesday in his key note
address at a capacity building Workshop for Strategic Communication Liaison
Officers, with the theme "Mainstreaming Strategic Communication Across
Government for National Security."
He said though the Social Media has proved
to be a powerful tool of public communication, it is plagued with challenges,
particularly the prevalence of fake news which makes it imperative for
Information Officers to brace up and overcome the challenge.
''Faced with the prevalence of fake news,
we took action by preparing Information Officers with the skills to identify
and counter such fake news through engagement and counter narrative.
Information Officers are assigned to monitor both online and offline news media
to identify such fake news and develop timely and credible counter narratives
to respond to such fake news,'' Alhaji Mohammed said.
He said the Federal Government is also
implementing a robust strategic communication framework, with feedback mechanism,
to interface with Nigerians on the policies and programmes of government.
"For example, we engage through Town
Hall Meetings across the six geo-political zones to inform Nigerians and the
international community about our programmes and to listen to criticism,
feedback and advice from the citizens.
''Through these meetings, we are able to
shape policy and improve on delivering our promises to the people. The town
hall meetings, undoubtedly, have yielded positive results with the kind of
direct feedback we received from Nigerians. These interactions with Nigerians
underscore the importance this administration attaches to the people in
carrying them along in the task of governance," the Minister said.
He underscored the critical role of Information
Officers in strengthening government communication to achieve national
strategic objectives, particularly in managing the image, reputation and
promoting the cultures of the people of Nigeria through a dynamic public
information system.
He said because of the dynamics of public
communication, ''the ministry is leveraging on various Social Media platforms
like Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, Twitter and Instagram to reach our audiences,
especially the youths. These Social Media platforms also provide unique
opportunity for the Ministry to aggregate and gauge public opinions and
perceptions of government."
The National Security Adviser, who was
represented by the Permanent Secretary, Special Services, Ambassador Aminu
Nabegu, challenged participants to come up with a strategic communication plan
to counter the propaganda and negative narratives by terror and anti-state
groups.
He said the present administration has
eliminated inter-agency rivalry in order to achieve seamless and coordinated
approach to effective communication.
The Workshop was organized by the Office of
the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Nigeria Stability and
Reconciliation Programme (NSRP) to build the capacity of Strategic
Communication Liaison Officers (SC/LO) across Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs),
Uboshe Uboshe/GEE
ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!
No comments:
Post a Comment