Assessment of Journalism Trends and Practices in New Media Era

A New Direction for Journalism Education in Nigeria

Abstract

Internet has reinvented and redefined society; it has introduced a new culture, refurbished and reshaped the existing ones. This study is an assessment of new trends and practices in Nigerian media environment. Conducted within the context of mediamorphosis theory, the research used qualitative tools such as semi-structured interviews, direct-observation, while some secondary data from different sources were triangulated with the primary data in order to enhance the richness and trustworthiness of the findings. In terms of sampling, multiple-staged sampling method was adopted and this resulted in the selection of 15 media practitioners which were drawn from different media genres. The findings show that digital delivery of media contents has occupied superlative position in modern journalism practice in Nigeria and this has given birth to “non-media” social media influencers, such as celebrities, corporate organisations, who promote their brands through their various social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs, among others. Findings also reveal that there is a yawning gap between journalism practice and journalism education in Nigeria, as the newsroom is believed to be ahead of classroom. The study therefore recommends that if the ship of the fourth estate of the realm must not sink, the future journalism education must also involve professionals in the industry in teaching of journalism in journalism and mass communication institutions. This is because the potency of the next generation of journalism education can be measured by its ability to maximise opportunities and minimise the challenges associated with digital technologies.