Osun State in collaboration with KA Media Consultants, has organised a two-day workshop for journalists and information officers in the state on election coverage ahead of the July 16 governorship election.
Addressing participants at the opening of the workshop on Tuesday in Osogbo, the State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mrs Funke Egbemode, said that the training was to equip them to effectively cover the forthcoming governorship election.
Declaring the workshop open, Gov. Gboyega Oyetola of Osun, represented by the State Head of Service, Mr Oyegbade Olowogboyega, charged the participants to project and inform the public about the good works, developmental programmes and projects of the government.
Oyetola also charged journalists, who he said fought for the achievement of democracy in the country, to continue to sustain democracy in Nigeria.
Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, the Lead Consultant/Facilitator of KA Media, said the workshop was to equip participants on information management and election coverage.
He said that the capacity of journalists and information officers in the state would be enhanced by the facilitators of the workshop.
A facilitator, Prof. Kehinde Salami, Professor of Philosophy at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, took the participants through the paper titled: “Logic and Fallacy in Political Argument,” and advised the participants not to be swayed by political fallacies in their reportage.
Also, Dr Tunde Akanni, a lecturer at the College of Media and Communication Studies, Lagos State University, in his lecture, equally charged participants to deploy energy to accessing hidden information and invest more in investigative journalism.
Dr Adeyinka Olarinmoye, Sociology and Anthropology lecturer from Lagos State University, in his paper titled: “Language and Culture in Campaign Messaging” task journalists to use the right messages and language to disseminate information.
Olarinmoye said that unambiguous and clear languages should be used by journalists in their reportage, while Mrs Bunmi Oke, the CEO of Ladybird Advertising Limited, told participants to avoid social media influence when covering election.
