The Chairman and Editor-in Chief of the THISDAY-ARISE Media Group, Prince Nduka Obaigbena, has called on the Nigerian government to provide laws that will ensure that the intellectual assets of journalists are bankable, ensuring that journalists are paid every time content from newspapers and magazines are used online.
Obaigbena said this at the 2nd Alhaji Lateef Jakande Annual Memorial Lecture which was held on Tuesday in Lagos, where he also encouraged journalists to engage young people in the industry and embrace Artificial Intelligence to ensure the survival of journalism in Nigeria.
He said, “We are here faced with newspapers and magazines in the battles of survival. How do we survive is what I’ve been told to address today as newspapers and magazines. First is to have the laws changed where intellectual property is recognised as an asset. We have to enable the IP, the work of your brain as an asset class. That asset class has to be bankable. You can raise money against it, and you can create value. And the first thing that I challenge the Minister of Information, is to ensure that we pass a law that those who use our work online – call them Google, call them Facebook, call them Instagram, that they must pay for it. If we get payment for the work we do everyday as journalists, we will be in a far better place.”
Saying that journalism in Nigeria is in “survival mode”, Obaigbena emphasised the importance of engaging young people in the industry, saying, “Journalism in Nigeria is 165 years old today. The Iwe Iroyin started in 1859. In those 165 years, a lot has changed. Today, we all seated here, what is the average age of the editors who are here? Most of us here are over 40. Where are the young people who are 30, 40, 50% of the population, who are reading, who are engaging, who are in social media? Why are they not amongst you? How old was Uncle Sam when he was in Daily Times? How old was Peter Enahoro? How old was Ike Nwachukwu? They were all young people in their 20s and 30s, and today, we say we are in a survival mode.
“That survival must come from the audience, and your audience in Nigeria are young people. Are you engaged with them, are you working with them? Are they part of your news genre? Are you connected? So that’s the first question that we have to answer.”
The media mogul then expatiated on the benefits of AI in journalism, despite what seems to be the shortcomings, as he said, “The world is being driven by technology, and technology is shaping it. So, I can hear the lamentations of Uncle Sam that he cannot buy his favourite newspaper again in Ife. Yes, but the content you could not buy was already in Ife the night before, people have consumed it, people have read it. So, that information is still there. We are only a means of distribution of that information. As journalists, we write stories and engage with audiences. The newspaper is just a form of distribution of that news.
“Your phone is distribution, your computer is distribution. So, let us not confuse the idea and the means of distribution. That means of distribution is changing, but good journalism will not change.
“However, what is good journalism? Old fashioned truth, getting your facts right, telling your story as it is, engaging with your audiences, and building a future. However, that journalism is under threat. You have what they call artificial intelligence. So, the world we’re going, we’re confronted and challenged by artificial intelligence.
“The threat we face is in AI, but AI is a machine. We have to train AI, we have to treat AI, we have to challenge AI, then AI will respond. Are we ready for a world that is being changed by Artificial Intelligence? Where young people, 7/8, take the computer, take their phones, and can do a lot with it? Therefore, my friends and colleagues, that is where we face challenges. But we can also use it for good, we can use it for medicine, we can use it to cure diseases, we can use it to do many other things,” he added.
Explaining why it was important to move with the times especially when it comes to media, Obaigbena said, “I joined Nigerian Union of Journalists 1th November 1977. So at that time, we were still doing the letter press, we were still printing pictures in studios, we were still exposing them…and things started changing, and we started with what we call the Weekly Magazine, the News Weekly, when a week was a news circle. And we had that battle with Dele Giwa and Co of News Watch… But sooner or later, it was clear to us that the news circle, after Time Magazine named the computer the Man of the Year, that the news circle will change, and we changed with it and went to THISDAY to do the newspaper. But it’s also clear to us as THISDAY that the news circle… is a video-led circle, and we went and we did ARISE television. Now, it’s clear to us that AI and the mobile phone will change it all. So watch out for what we’ll do.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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