Aondover Eric Msughter
Department of Mass Communication, Skyline University, Nigeria
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Gen Med
Fake news with local and global dimensions is everywhere. Africans are targeted by blatant lies, hoaxes, conspiracies, and misinformation being peddled as news on legitimate sites. It can be mixed with truth to create controversy, which in the digital era can be spread wide with immeasurable consequences. Journalism appears to be in an existential crisis stoked by a continuously evolving ecology, complicated or enhanced, depending on the argument, by the dynamics of digital technology and communication. This character of the media ecology has had collateral consequences, with the focus on the subject of fake news trending in discourse and contestations in the public sphere, terrestrial or virtual. Such focus furthers the larger discussion on media content which are portrayals of reality but are not necessarily accurate in their reflection of relationships in journalism and health domains. The media are therefore arena for the coloration of reality through the prism of sources and gatekeepers driven by agendas and a worldview encapsulated in frames, which are value-laden. Fake news or misinformation is a problem in every African country, especially in this era of Covid-19. It is within this context, that the attention to media literacy around those lacking the requisite literacy to guide safe consumption of fake news has gained prominence. The outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (Covid-19) and its escalation to a global pandemic posed threat to public health worldwide. Although availability and acceptance of Covid-19 vaccination is a crucial step to cushioning the pandemic, hesitancy tends to hamper the success of the vaccination. As a result, many could not accept the vaccine with different notions that the vaccine is a conspiracy to reduce population, and it can lead to infertility. As a result of fake news on the vaccine, many also believe that the government is using it to generate money, it can cause dizziness, and it can make someone run mad, among others. Therefore, the challenge of fake news in Nigeria points to the need for a coordinated response by governments and other stakeholders. Media education and digital literacy are urgently needed. The private and third sectors will need to invest in initiatives to tackle the problem to promote accuracy in media in Nigeria. This implies that Nigerians must come together against fake news on the Covid-19 vaccine.
Aondover Eric Msughter, a Doctoral student at BUK is a communication scholar. He obtained a Master of Science Degree (M.Sc) in Mass Communication from Bayero University, Kano and Bachelor of Science Degree (B.Sc) in Mass Communication from the same University. He has published papers in several national and international scholarly journals and attended and participated in several conferences and workshops on communication, media and journalism. He is a member of Association of Communication Scholars & Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN), African Council for Communication Education (ACCE), and Social Science Research Council (FSSRC), USA and an Award Winner of Campus Journalism as “Syndicated Writer”, 2018 and “Book Author”, 2019. He is currently an academic staff of Skyline University Nigeria (Department of Mass Communication), as well as the Guest Editor of Science Publishing Group (PG), New York, U.S.A and Reviewer/Editor of Academia Scholarly Journals.
