University don wants social media regulated

From Lawal Sa’idu Funtua, Katsina

A lecturer with the Mass Communication Department, Bayern University Kannada, Dr. Mainasara Yakubu Kurfi has advocated for the regulation of the usage of social media in the country.
Kurfi stated this weekend while presenting a paper titled “Journalism practice in the era of fake news and hate speech in Nigeria” at the
10th seminar series of the mass communication department of Hassan Urban Katsina Polytechnic.
He noted that going by the ethno-religious peculiarities of the country, Nigeria cannot afford the luxury of allowing the social media to continue to operate without some element of control.
The don therefore urged the national assembly to initiate legislation the will ensure the regulation of social media just as according to him the conventional media had several bodies regulating their operations.
He similarly lamented on some situations where even the conventional media rely on information on social media in getting information for their reports.
“ in social media there are no gatekeepers but in the conventional media there are gatekeepers. Therefore the gatekeepers must exercise due deligence in forming their reports” he added.
Kurfi also decried the dearth of rural reporting among media practisioners where he alleged that msst of the reporters are Urban base mostly at the government houses.
He highlighted most of the impediments hampering development reporting in Nigeria and the general Journalism practice which he said include poor pay for journalist, dearth of working tools and lack of plausible pension scheme.