​Media institute launches ​​conversation on COVID-19

The Institute for Media and Society, IMS, has launched a national Stakeholders’ Conversation on the Media and COVID-19.

The aim of the initiative, which emerged from broad consultations, is to contribute to deepening the delivery of public information and education by the media on COVID-19 in Nigeria.

A statement by the Executive Director of the institute, Dr Akin Akingbulu, on Tuesday, said he conversation is erected on the foundation that quality and inclusive dialogue is a strong element in the search for solutions to defeat the pandemic.

The conversation, which runs on an online platform, will focus on the trends and challenges of media coverage of COVID-19 issues in Nigeria.

The statement reads: “As journalists work on the frontlines to report the pandemic, they come in contact with new experiences, even as they face a diversity of institutional and external challenges. Attention to these and more will be prioritized in this dialogue.

“Participants in the Conversation are drawn from a broad range of key media and public health stakeholder groups. Among the illustrious men and women are those based in Nigeria as well as compatriots in the Nigerian Diaspora.

“Each comes into the Conversation with a wealth of relevant experience and track record of commitment to noble and progressive causes within and outside the media and health industries.

“They will exchange ideas and generate collective takeaways which will be processed and presented to the media, the public and the government at specific intervals.

“This means that the Conversation will produce outputs which feed into national practice and policy. In a practical sense, it will generate ideas to strengthen media practice as well as policy and regulation in the fight to contain and overcome COVID-19 in Nigeria.

“The Conversation will establish cross-border linkages, that is, it will contribute to and draw relevant experience from similar initiatives at the international level.

“We are optimistic that, with the careful packaging of this initiative, quality outputs will emerge from it into the nation’s collective effort to defeat COVID-19.”