The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Department of Mass Communication

  • Students donate bus to department

    To enhance service delivery at the Department of Mass Communication of the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic (RUGIPO) in Ondo State, members of the National Association of Mass Communication Students (NAMACOS) have donated an 18-seater bus to the department.

    President of the association Kehinde Ogunkorede, who led other executive members to deliver the bus, said the bus was to support the department’s drive for improved service delivery. He said the bus was bought from students’ annual due.

    The Mass Communication Department is the first in the school to have a staff bus.

    The Rector, Mr. I.B. Ologunagba, led other members of the management to the event where the bus was presented. He hailed the students for the gesture, saying the bus would help reduce transport stress among the department’s employees.

    He said: “I am delighted this is happening in our time. This goes to show that students are partners in our drive to improve the welfare of the school members. We are proud of the legacy being left behind by Mass Communication students.”

    Ologunagba charged other students’ associations to emulate the gesture, advising them to complement management’s effort in making the institution better.

    The Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication Studies, Dr O.S. Ajumuda, promised that the management would maintain the cordial relationship between the school and various students’ bodies, saying the gesture was part friendly rapports with students.

    While unveiling the Toyota bus, the Head of Mass Communication Department (HOD), Mrs Iyadunni Adedowole, said the bus cost the students N3 million, saying the association’s intervention would ease the department’s transport challenges.

    She advised students to channel their energy and resources to activities that could promote peace and development.

    Former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication Studies, Mr. Foluso Alabi, described the gesture as “a welcome development”, stressing that the country would be better if young people contributed their quota to progress of their immediate environment.

    CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the students started contributing money to buy the bus four years ago, immediately after Adedowole emerged the HOD.

     

  • Tears, tributes for hotel fire victim

    Tears, tributes for hotel fire victim

    Atmosphere of sorrow enveloped the Department of Mass Communication of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) on Monday, as students, lecturers and non-academic staff held candlelight procession for a 200-Level student, Roli Odogwu, who died in a hotel fire, last week.

    The late Roli and her friend, Linda Elegeonye, a 300-Level Law student, died from severe burns they sustained during a midnight fire at a Lagos-based hotel. The victims were guests in the hostel; they were trapped in their room during the inferno.

    The late Roli’s colleagues turned out in their numbers for the candlelight organised by Mass Communication Students’ Association (MCSA).

    The procession started at 6:30pm from the department with a crowd of students, wearing black clothes and holding candles. Chanting elegies, they moved from the department through Honours hostel, Faculty of Social Sciences, Fagunwa Hall and returned to the department to gather the candles and say prayers for the deceased.

    The MCSA Welfare Secretary, Beatrice Nwoko, led the prayer, during which the late Roli’s close friends broke down in tears.

    The students sent their condolences to her family. In their tributes, her friends recalled their moments with the deceased. One of them recalled their participation in Dare2Dream, a campus talent hunt show, where the late Roli entertained the audience with her “exceptional dance steps”.

    “This sad incident really calls for sober reflection,” she said.

  • Islamic cleric urges Muslims to embrace team work

    Islamic cleric urges Muslims to embrace team work

    Dr Abdullahi Eleyinla, lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, University of Ilorin, has called on Muslims to embrace the spirit of team work, rather than individualism, to gain Allah’s mercy.

    Eleyinla made the call on Wednesday in Ilorin, while delivering a lecture at the Special Dawah symposium organised by the Muslim Congress, Kwara state chapter.

    The don, who is also an Islamic scholar, presented a lecture, entitled, “Team work: Solution to modern challenges”.

    He said working together as a team was more rewarding than working alone.

    The lecturer identified such activities expected to be done collectively in Islam to include, observing the five daily prayers in congregation, commencement of fasting in the month of Ramadan, and performance of Hajj operation.

    He said that the reward for collective works were greater than those of individual works.

    Eleyinla also said that there were many verses in the Holy Quran that encouraged Muslims to hold fast onto the rope of Allah and see themselves as one to avoid disintegration.

    Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Badmus Yusuf, Dean, Postgraduate School, University of Ilorin, stressed the importance of cordial relationship among Muslims.

    The professor called on the Muslims to unite, irrespective of the group they belonged and be ready to be supportive of one another.

    Hundreds of Muslim faithful attended the lecture.

  • University don tasks media on coverage of rural areas

    Mr Monday Goshit, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Jos, has charged the Nigerian media to ensure effective coverage of rural communities.
    Goshit gave the charge  in an interview with the Mr Monday Goshit in Jos on Wednesday.
    “The living conditions in the rural areas are very appalling. The people do not have even the most basic of human needs, but these hardships are not reported because the media hardly reflect these horrible situations,” he said.
    He regretted that the rural areas only get a mention when a big shot is visiting them or during emergencies like epidemic or violence.

     

    While noting that the current government is working to change Nigerians’ negative attitudes that had stalled the nation’s growth over the years, he expressed fear that the initiatives may not succeed “unless the rural dwellers are carried along and made to participate”.

     

    “World Bank reports have always indicated that more than 70 per cent of the population live in the rural areas.
    “The reports have also confirmed that most of those people live in poverty-stricken conditions.
    “We cannot move forward and succeed as a nation if that huge segment of the population is left behind because, ultimately, the success or otherwise of the drive to reduce poverty will be determined by the impact on such rural poor,” he said.
    Goshit lauded the Federal Government’s moves to diversify the economy and minimise over-dependence on the oil sector, but wondered how that dream could come to fruition if the rural farmer was not encouraged to produce enough to sustain his family and also export.

     

    “Aside agriculture, the solid minerals sector is also being considered as an alternative foreign exchange earner, but if we do not report developments in the rural areas where most of the mining activities take place, success will be difficult because policy makers will not be properly guided,” he said.

     

    The university don noted that the media was concentrating “too much” on politics and the lives of the elites.
    “Politics seem to do dominate most discourse on radio and in the newspapers.
    “Journalists chase sensational stories that concern a very few number of persons, while leaving out major issues that affect the lives of people,” he said.
    Goshit recalled that most rural communities in Plateau had come down with cholera and other waterborne diseases like gastroenthritis owing to lack of good water and basic sanitation in the villages.

     

    “Unfortunately, we hardly hear of these deprivations. We only hear of the consequences when they reach frightening dimensions and become epidemics,” he said.

     

    The lecturer called for more human interest stories that would reflect other areas of life outside politics, and stressed the need for journalists to report issues like the effects of the lack of roads and bridges, as well as the need for strong markets where farmers could sell their produce.

     

    “There are also farming, hunting and fishing festivals and competitions in some rural communities which should be highlighted to encourage the rural dwellers to have a sense of belonging,” he said.

     

    Goshit said that the nation risk total apathy from the rural dwellers, who had continued to feel that they were only remembered for electoral purposes and quickly forgotten after elections are won

  • Parenting internet savvy kids

    Parenting internet savvy kids

    Parents in Nigeria have been advised on ways of parenting technology savvy children for good of the society.

    This advice was given on Monday during the celebration of the Global Day of Parents at the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Lagos.

    At the Panel Discussion programme organised to mark the day in Lagos, parents were urged to keep abreast of their children and be social media smart themselves.

    Speaking on ‘Contemporary Parenting and the Social Media’, Dr Ifeoma Amobi of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, warned that interaction of young people on social media platforms should no longer be dismissed as a ‘waste of time’, but must be acknowledged by parents as a part of contemporary communication.

    “The new way of life, brought on by the spread and development of communication technology, demands different ways of parenting due to the altered fabrics of parent-child relationships,” Dr. Amobi contended.

    According to her: “Parents should be their children’s best friends and should do so by becoming ‘social media smart’.”

    She further noted that in order to fulfil parents’ duty of protecting their children, online activity should be treated with the same diligence as offline activities.

    Welcoming the participants, Mr Ronald Kayanja, Director of UNIC Lagos, highlighted the importance of parents to the development of the child, the community and the nation.

    He observed that the success of the United Nations’ mission to promote international peace and security, ensuring a world free from war and conflict, was dependent on the direction parents provided for their children and the society.

    Quoting from the preamble of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Kayanja observed that “Since wars begin in the minds of men and women, it is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace must be constructed”. He added that parents played an integral role in peace building through teaching values of tolerance, respect for one another, hard work and integrity among others.

    Similarly, Dr. Ebun Sonaiya, Chief Medical Director and Director of Total Health Trust, observed that peer pressure from an early age, the excessive use of technology and gadgets, being subjected to bullying, a sense of entitlement, drugs and substance abuse, sexual experimentation as well as sibling rivalry were the challenges children and parents face at this time in the global development.

    Dr. Ebun who spoke on topic: ‘Critical Issues and Challenges with Parenting in Nigeria’, maintained that “The parenting skills needed to tackle these sort challenges are not taught in schools or homes rather parents need to devise a more practical approach to navigate the challenges.

    In her remarks, the Executive Director of TWYEF, Mrs Stephany Nwanma, re-emphasised the importance of education and restoration of values through parenting and urged parents to rise up to the challenges of contemporary parenting.

    Her Royal Highness addressed the issue of gender equality and women’s empowerment stating that fathers and mothers should be equally responsible for parenting, as “women have always been working side by side to create a happy home for children”.

    In her ‘Testimony of a Parent’, Mrs Chinyere Anokwuru, the former Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Lagos state on women ethnic groups, recounted how her parents upheld integrity and values in the face of hardship and poverty to raise her. She added that the values handed down to her by her parents had brought her to where she was at the moment.

    The Panel Discussion programme chaired by the Erelu of Lagos, Her Royal Highness, Abiola Dosunmu, attracted men and women with varying education background, from all walks of life who gathered just to commemorate the Day3 in Nigeria.