BusinessDay 17 Dec 2017

C002D5556
10 BD SUNDAY
NewsFeatures
Sunday 17 December 2017
On a mission to sanitise online journalism
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
Activities of the online
media platforms have
become so worrisome
that the Online Publishers
Association of
Nigeria (OPAN) has decided to take
a bold step to bring sanity and raise
the standard of the profession.
The digital or online media, comprising
the Blogs, Twitters, Instagram,
among others have become
a tool to disseminate fake news, engaging
in ethical infractions such as
plagiarism/copyright infringement,
misinformation, and sensationalism,
among others.
They exploit and blackmail, and
in some cases some people use these
handles or website springing up
everywhere for propaganda and so
on. More worrisome is the fact that
they damage the fabrics of what the
legitimate ones stand on.
One of the instances of damaging
activities of some online reporters
was the rumour making the rounds
in the month of May 2017 that
something unpleasant has happened
to President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Senior Special Adviser to
President Buhari on Media and
Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a series of
tweets, cleared such rumour saying
“is plain lies spread by vested interests
to create panic.”
Perhaps it was due to this instance
and other irresponsible utterances
by groups and individuals
using the social and online media
platforms that made Federal Government
to take a decision to clamp
down on “hate speech” and to treat
same as “terrorism“.
It is on this note and in his determination
to sanitise the sub-sector
that Austyn Ogannah, the President
of Online Publishers Association of
The economic side of ‘The Experience Lagos 2017’
For the 12th year running,
The Experience Lagos has
been one of the world’s most
popular musical concerts and
the world’s largest gospel music gathering
that brings together well over
500, 000 individuals every year.
This non-denominational event that
holds every first Friday in the festive
month of December had over 700,
000 participants this year. The just
concluded edition featured an array
of best-selling local and international
music ministers including Don Moen,
Donnie McClurkin, Frank Edwards,
Travis Greene, Chioma Jesus, Midnight
crew, Tope Alabi, and the Lagos Metropolitan
Gospel Choir of House on The
Rock church, amongst many others.
One may agree that the organisers
made a good choice of December as
the regular period for the event being
naturally a month filled with hordes
of economic activities. It’s considered
everyone’s favourite time of the year.
Generally, people are in a relaxed state
of mind, winding down from the year
and more willing to spend money and
travel most especially if business has
been good in the same year. Music
makes us all happy, it’s little wonder
that many people are enthusiastic
and inclined to attend The Experience
Lagos 2017 which has been considered
as happy grounds of music, worship
and very importantly, of networking.
Expectedly, there is another side of
this gathering which attracts over half
Austyn Ogannah
Nigeria (OPAN), is advocating that
high ethical standards in online journalism
in Nigeria must return so that
eroding public trust can be restored.
Ogannah, 43, is also the President
of media company THEWILL
MEDIA and editor-in-chief of digital
news website THEWILL (www.
thewillnigeria.com).
As the newly elected president
and also a member of the board of
trustees on OPAN - Nigeria’s premier
association of digital/new media
publishers and entrepreneurs, he has
the task of achieving OPAN’s vision
which is to restore eroding credibility,
professionalism and trust once
enjoyed by the digital media when
it started over a decade ago.
OPAN’s goal is to instill the required
high standards of quality,
content and professionalism in the
internet news media.
Founded in May 2010 and duly
registered at the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC) of the Federal
a million people in one physical space,
which does not quickly come to mind.
From the initial preparations, planning,
strategising to the physical set up of
venue, advertisements, invitation of
artistes, traffic control, crowd control
and many more, all include a bee-hive
of human, economic and industrial
activities. Directly and indirectly, The
Experience Lagos 2017 came with
loads of economic opportunities and
benefits whose impact span across a
wide range of industries. The horde
of human, economic and industrial
activities had a direct impact on social
behavior, employment and individual
standard of living for all involved for
the duration of event.
The event supported over 50 jobs
and SMEs including sound engineers,
facility providers/managers, designers,
catering, guest houses, medical and
health vendors, mobile toilets, web
and graphic designing etc. It created
over 70 on-site jobs like hawking of
food, selling CDs, juices and snacks
recharge card, bean cake popularly
known as ‘akara’, books and lots more
from individuals who make the trade
just to leverage on the opportunity
The Experience Lagos 2017 provided.
Additionally, individuals and companies
saw it as a time of networking
with the goal of meeting new clients
and forming new partnerships, so
they arrived the venue with flyers
and advertising materials to share
with people. During The Experience
Republic of Nigeria on 14th of November
2011 by some discerning
professionals who felt the time
had come to define standards for
the fastest growing engagement
platform of our generation, the
idea of OPAN was conceived after
founders recognized and understood
the shift in the mode and means of
social engagement, disruptions and
changes that was coming which
would overlap with current laws and
rules guiding conduct and practice
and therefore sought to create a self
regulatory body that would provide
the means-tested standards for users
and practitioners to operate by.
It took founders many years to get
the model running due to wide consultations
amongst stakeholders, the
public and private entities as well as
learning from similar international
bodies.
As a self-funded organisation,
OPAN is modeled after similar international
media associations with
Lagos 2017 a popular malt company
gave out free can malt drinks to over
500, 000 people present. Information
like that gets me thinking because I like
money matters.
I quickly made a calculation of how
much is involved. A can malt drink is
sold for N 100 or N120, it varies based
on location - but let’s work with N100.
That is N100 multiplied by 500, 000
people. The result is a whopping N50
million. Some may say ‘why will the
company waste so much money?’ truly,
there lies great wisdom. To advertise
for a new product on the popular Lekki
roundabout costs about N 120 million.
Now the company has used 50 million
to reach over 500, 000 people directly.
The key word is ‘directly’.
a mandate to self regulate members
to maintain high ethical standards
in digital publishing and uphold
the sacred values and principles of
journalism.
Ogannah through THEWILL
has contributed immensely to the
acceptability and credibility that
internet media enjoys presently in
the country with dozens of quality
reporting and breaking news to its
credit.
He was one of the very first to
report the death of former President
Musa Yar’Adua, who died in office
on May 10, 2010 and the first to exclusively
report on May 12, 2010, the
international arrest and detention
of a former governor of Delta State
and highly influential member of
the Peoples Democratic Party, James
Ibori on charges of graft. Recently,
THEWILL exclusively unmasked the
National Intelligence Agency (NIA)
as owner of the $43m found in an
Ikoyi luxury apartment by the EFCC.
A graduate of the renowned
University of Benin with a Bachelors
Degree in English and Literature,
Ogannah as most people who know
him prefer to call him, has worked in
the media space throughout his professional
career, starting as a political
reporter with ThisDay newspaper
and then rising to the position of
special assistant to the chairman of
the firm until he voluntarily resigned
in 2006.
Speaking recently while briefing
representatives of the media on the
association’s upcoming Annual New
Media Conference billed to hold in
February 2018, Ogannah highlighted
some crucial points, stating: “At
inception, the internet news media
was highly respected and revered
by the public for its doggedness, fearlessness
and resilience in bringing to
light events and news that ordinarily
would never be published by the
By giving the drink for free, the
500, 000 plus prospective customers
got a first real taste of the product and
will be more inclined to purchase it
when next they come across it. It’s
psychology; the average person will
naturally go for something they’ve
tasted before and loved. From a
personal perspective, it’s much more
effective than placing bill boards’
advert. So the company saved 65
percent of what it would have cost
them and received more direct value.
The Experience Lagos usually has
its own customised branded T-shirt.
The organisers – House on the Rock
church started this and announced
that every church member should
wear the T-shirt during the last four
traditional and establishment backed
print media because of the influence
that powerful public and private sector
figures have over their owners
and top editors. For the public then,
the independent internet media (we
were often called internet warriors)
was the only trustworthy source for
untainted and unbiased reporting.
Sadly, that same unfaltering public
trust is fast eroding.”
“Today, every tom dick and harry
is a news site blogger or digital media
entrepreneur or about to open shop
without understanding the basic
tenets of journalism (Truth, Trust and
fairness). They write poorly, publish
fake and disseminate unsubstantiated
information, lack the capacity
to create original content, plagiarise
works of others, extort and blackmail
people with threats to publish
stories about them that are often
times fake amongst several other
odious practices that have brought
damage to the credibility of the genre
and threatening to destroy the hard
and noble work of the pioneers of
this space.
“In fact, because of these unscrupulous
practices by these misfits
there have been growing calls from
the public for something to be done
urgently to curb the madness and
chaos and it is that call that I am
taking on headlong as President of
OPAN.
“OPAN’s Annual New Media
Conference, slated for February
2018, is the platform amongst other
initiatives that we intend to use to
begin the debate because it brings
everyone to the table.”
“OPAN has severally voiced its
openness to work with the federal
legislative and executive arms of government
to enact an enforceable law
that is fair and just and does not impede
the independence of the media
in anyway whatsoever.
Sundays before The Experience Lagos.
Guess what that did? It opened up a
new angle of business - all the cloth
designers got to work. As you approach
the church’s entrance, you will notice
that the various sections of the out
court are filled with cloth stands by
different vendors.
An old colleague of mine –Anayo
who deals in cloth business, says,
‘This is not bad business sha. This
year I invested N180, 000 to make
200 pieces of quality shirt plus I even
bought mannequins and cloth stands
to make my business attractive and I
made over N 400, 000 in revenue. It’s
not so easy because it’s not every time
I see people who will buy my shirt but
at the end it was worth it”.
Also, it opened up more opportunities
for collaboration with the
clients who patronise these vendors
as noted by Anayo who leveraged
on the opportunity The Experience
2017provided to make T-shirts.
Finally, The Experience Lagos 2017
was a modern day phenomenon. Its
impact has been felt by everyone
in Africa and in the world through
several means of connecting to the
program. It has improved lives, boosted
businesses and added to economic
growth and development. Personally
I think that this event should be supported
by government and replicated
around the country, imagine the impact
it’ll have across the above listed
sectors. It will be magnanimous.