A senior lecturer at the Fountain University lecturer, Dr Rasheed Adebiyi, has called on Online Media Practitioners in Osun State to engage in Solutions Journalism for the betterment of the society.
Adebiyi, who is a Fellow of the African Solutions Journalism Fellowship delivered the training and dialogue on Wednesday, in Osogbo, the Osun state capital.
While making his advocacy talk, Dr Adebiyi stated that solutions journalism is a practice of journalism that focuses on response to a social problem with the aim of drawing insights, presenting evidence and calling attention to limitations of the response.
The Journalism guru further said this type of journalism is what is needed to give agency to those who are working to respond to the problems confronting humanity.
He, therefore, appealed to his fellow online media practitioners to accept the solutions approach in other to change the narrative of “bad news is good news”.
He explained that focusing on efforts made to respond to problems would enable people to have hope and not be overwhelmed by the enormity of the problems confronting the human race and especially the African continent.
The Varsity lecturer also emphasized the need to bring localize contents for global audience.
The programme featured a question and answer session where concerns of all the participants present were addressed.
In attendance at the programme was publisher of Voiceairmedia, insight media, Docpetinfo media, Orionframe news, Blazenewz, THESOURCE, Idealplus media, Amiloaded news, Affairs tv, and 3 other online journalists in the State.
In his response, the Chairman of Online Media Practitioners in Osun state, Jare Tiamiyu embraced the idea of solutions journalism and appreciated Dr Adebiyi for the seminar.
He promised to ensure the message gets deeper and is put into practice by colleagues.
Dr. Rasheed Adebiyi stated other activities to be undertaken by the fellow; they includes organizing a roundtable on Solutions Journalism teaching and practice as well as setting up a Solutions Journalism Hub in the State.
It was gathered that the African Solutions Journalism Initiative is supported by the Solutions Journalism Network, New York and implemented by the Nigeria Health Watch, Nigeria.
