A CRITIQUE AND EVALUATION OF THE LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT WEBSITE (www.lagosstate.gov.ng)

Background

Winning support for ones organisation through the media is a core component of public relations. The advent of the internet has enhanced dramatically communication between an organisation and its target publics.

Website, as one of the tools of internet must be diligently worked on anticipating that any information put there is a reflection of one’s organisation policy.

Basically, web site and its associated links include basic company’s information such as history and background, product information, executive speeches, and news release files. However, these must be updated regularly.

Critiques of Lagos State Government Web Site

Structure - Layout: (banner, colour, balance, contrast, white space, aesthetics)

Opening the website of Lagos State Government, one is confronted with coloured flipping banners of the various parts of the city. This gives an impression of an inviting site. The use of colour is moderate but it is heavier at the top than at the bottom. This creates the impression that the important information is at the top meanwhile there are equally vital information at the bottom.

On balancing, there are extreme use weighty elements like flipping banner, Governor’s photograph, Lagos crest e.t.c which make the site lopsided. Similarly, breathing and white spaces dominate the site thereby making it not closely knit and scanty. It lacks much of coherent layout.

Aesthetically, there is not so much blend of fonts, sizes, cases (upper cases and lower cases). The site is not crowded or boring. It appeals to the eyes.

Contents

The creation of link elements (Governors Office, Deputy Governor, Ministries e.t.c) directly below the banner could have as well enhanced the page if they are put elsewhere particularly vertically on the right side stretching downward to the bottom.

Opening the page, the first thing that you see gives one the idea instantly of what the page is all about. The content is not blurry, even though it does not appear like a perfect site, the contents are presented in clear and logical order from left top screen to the bottom right. This does not in any way mean that the current format of the website warrant no improvement.

In conclusion the site has a distinct, easily recognisable purpose i.e educating users, providing news, corporate image branding, supporting existing publics, policy promotion, e-transaction e.t.c. These purposes are reinforced it this site and its links.

But one major drawback of this site is that it was updated last in 2009. For a Government that prides itself as model to other states of the federation and services over 18 million people, its site must be constantly updated and its feedback mechanism made more responsive

Differences between Citizen Journalist and Journalist

 

By Femi Malik
Matric No: - PGD/10/04/2097
PGD Public Relations & Advertising (Part – Time)

Differences between Citizen Journalist and Journalist

Journalism is the gathering of news/data/information, processing them into meaningful facts (refine) and disseminating refined news for people’s consumption. Saddled with this arduous tasks of news gathering and management are professionally groomed individuals, who on daily basis are assigned beats to nose around for news wherever they are, write and sometimes re-write them for their respective desk editors who further refined them (edit), situate them in their relevant contexts before disseminating them to members of public for consumption.

Lately, particularly with the advent of the internet and its associated services, this traditional news gathering and dissemination profession has been encroached upon by another group better referred to as Citizen Journalists.

Citizen Journalism (also known as "public", "participatory", "democratic", "guerrilla" or "street journalism") is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information,". The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires."

Put very simply, citizen journalism is when private individuals do essentially what professional reporters do – report information. That information can take many forms, from a podcast editorial to a report about a city council meeting on a blog. It can include text, pictures, audio and video. But it’s basically all about communicating information of some kind.

Citizen journalism should not be confused with community journalism or civic journalism, which is practiced by professional journalists, or collaborative journalism, which is practiced by professional and non-professional journalists working together. Citizen journalism is a specific form of citizen media as well as user generated content.
Mark Glaser, a freelance journalist who frequently writes on new media issues, said in 2006: The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others. For example, you might write about a city council meeting on your blog or in an online forum. Or you could fact-check a newspaper article from the mainstream media and point out factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube.

On the other hand, quality news coverage journalists, who I wish to refer to here as traditional journalists unlike citizen journalists are professionally groomed individuals imbued with the stock in trade of news gathering, news sifting, analysing and reporting. Again, unlike citizen journalists, traditional journalists are guided by ethics of the pen profession, write in a balance and unbiased manner. Most importantly, their source of livelihood hinge on the job.

Citizen journalists still hire professional journalist to finetune or smoothen the rough edges of their work. In addition to quality news coverage, many of these non-profit online news organisation offer a ‘steal our stuff’ policy that provides newspapers with free news. This is an obvious cost advantage over the traditional news wires that charge for content.
Some of the prominent media in Nigeria that have promoted citizen journalism are Punch (send your photo), PM News (send your news).

References
Dominick, J.R: ‘The Dynamics of Mass Communication, Media in the Digital Age’,
Tenth Edition, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009.

http:/

The rise of ‘citizen journalism’ - Editors Weblog

www.editorsweblog.org

Saturday Editor of The Times and World Editors Forum President George Brock writes about the burgeoning field of citizen journalism, deeming that the term is a "misnomer". Despite the potential of the phenomenon to change the media landscape, when it comes down to it, all publications will be judged

Share

www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2006/10/the_rise_of_citizen_journalism.php

http://citmedia.org/blog/2008/07/14/where-did-citizen-journalist-come-from/
http://www.citizenjournalismafrica.org/en/what-is-citizen-journalism


http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5578671-146/story.csp

Qasim Akinreti February 8 at 7:17am Report

Quite interesting. very good attempt. keep it up.

 

Media Convergence in Nigeria

A REVIEW OF THE NIGERIAN MEDIA SCENE AND TYPES OF MEDIA CONVERGENCE IN OPERATION

Background:

Globalisation has made the world a dynamic place. Today, just as the world is evolving so also is the media. Not only is the evolution of new technologies phasing out new ones but also shaping our daily lives. The fractionalization of mass audience based on our living patterns has resulted in the search for contents that fit audience special interest.

Convergence and media Convergence:

Convergence is defined as the process of coming together or uniting in a common interest or focus. Media convergence on its part ‘is the merging of mass communications outlets — print, television, radio, the internet along with portable and interactive technologies through various digital presentation platforms’. The media convergence movement grew from recent technological advancements—particularly the emergence of the internet and the digitization of information.

Media convergence allows mass media professionals to tell stories and present information and entertainment using a variety of media. Converged communication provides multiple tools for storytelling, allowing consumers to select level of interactivity while self-directing content delivery. Succinctly,

Media convergence allows mass media audiences to interact with and even generate mass media content.  Audiences can now control when, where and how they access and relate to information of all kinds

Ganiyu and Akinreti (2010:11) citing Berger identified seven types convergence as follows:

1.        Corporate Convergence (as in joint ventures) between telecom and media companies

2.      The branching out of a traditional print operation into internet publishing or audio/video mobile;

3.      Reverse publishing from web to print;

4.     Production processes, where content is co-ordinated or shared;

5.      The convergence of skills set of previously segregated specialist media practitioner – whether reporter, news editor, or production personnel;

6.     Convergence of media consumer devices: e.g the camera-cell phone or computers being used to watch video broadcasts; and

7.      The coming together of producer and consumer functions – the audience generating media (content).

Types of Media Convergence in Operation in Nigeria

From the above listed models, no Nigerian media falls into corporate model, that is, the convergence between telecom and media or between TV and newspaper companies. According to Dominick (2009:19) corporate convergence started in the United States in the 1980s with synergy. ‘Companies that were content providers, such as movie studios and record labels, acquired distribution channels such as cable TV. As digital technologies emerged, synergy turned into convergence, a vision of one company delivering every service imaginable’.

The second model, the branching out of a traditional print operation into internet publishing or audio/video mobile, is the commonest form of media convergence existing in Nigeria. Virtually all the Nigerian national newspapers have online version of their daily publications. They viz The Punch (www.punchonline.com), This Day (www.thisdayonline.com), Daily Sun (www.sunnewsonline.com), National Mirror (nationalmirroronline.net), Guardian (www.ngrguardiannews.com), Next (www.234NEXT.com) etc

Laudable as this development is, it has helped Nigerian newspapers to overcome the challenges of space constraints as there are rooms for extensively elaborate reports. It has also helped to complement their sources of revenue as most of them realise their revenue from advertisements on these websites. This is apart from the fact that this type of model has helped to further extend the reaches of these newspapers, particularly beyond the shores of country.

One prominent challenge of this model in Nigeria is inadequate manpower and skill to efficiently and effectively manage newspapers websites. This has resulted in most websites not being updated regularly.

Another media convergence that is prevalent in Nigeria is the use of multimedia in news reporting. The Next newspaper uses more than two media format on its website. It does this through the use of written words, video and still photographs.

In the same breath, The Punch, Nation, Eko FM and Radio Lagos and Channels fall into the media convergence model of consumer devices. This involves the use of camera – cell phones, computer to receive and watch broadcasts. It is also in vogue to receive news update on phones as well as the Nation’s news summary.

It is noteworthy to stress that blogging and citizen journalism which are prominent forms of the convergence of producer and consumer functions. Adunibabe, Abimbola Adelakun and Mnaemeka Meribe are prominent blogs in Punch website. The Vanguard newspaper’s community is another form of producer and consumer function. So is ‘your news@punch.com’.

References

Dominick, J.R: ‘The Dynamics of Mass Communication, Media in the Digital Age’,

                          Tenth Edition, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009

Ganiyu, M and Akinreti, Q: Secrets of Online and Multimedia Journaism, a Manual for

Online and Multimedia Journalism Practice in Africa, Emgee Publishing Limited, Plots 20/21, Ogunmola Layout, Michael Bolarinde Close, Believers’ Quarters, Osajin, Apete, Ibadan

www. The Canadian Encyclopedia.mht

www. Media Convergence (web).mht

Getting Together To Part

by Femi Malik

Starting what seems like an endless journey with couples of friends and little known strangers in November 2009, I had envisaged that it would be an uneventful quest for knowledge at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism Ogba.

As I stood beside the glimmering swimming pool of Excellence Hotel, Ogba, Ikeja Lagos, and the venue of a brief get – together for my colleagues and course mates after 14 months of stress and self – deprivation, I could see through their facial expressions and actions that all these have come to a glorious ending.

Until this evening, there had been jostling for seats, class and grumbling from being overwhelmed with assignments but tonight, all that were gone. It was a night of merriment and recognition.

Going through a three semester post graduate diploma programme at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism was not a tea party for mothers and fathers but tonight, we are all heaving a sigh of relief.

Enjoy a photograph tour of the party.