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General News

Addressing Ethical Challenges in the Use of Digital Media in Nigeria

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By Gabriel T. Nyitse, PhD and Felix C. Elele

Digital media has revolutionized the communication landscape globally and disrupted traditional media’s dominance in all its ramifications by ushering a new vista in citizen engagement. The world has witnessed unprecedented growth in the adoption of digital media as the global population of internet users hit 5.18 billion, representing 64.6 percent of the world’s population according to data from Statista.

Out of the entire global population, 4.8 billion individuals use social media. On the other hand, DataReport on “The State of Digital in Nigeria in 2023” reveals that there were 122.5 million internet users in Nigeria by December 2022, representing a penetration rate of 55.4%. In addition, social media users in Nigeria stand at 31.60 million, or 14.3 percent of the total population.

With technological advancement, the number is also projected to grow, as there will be more convergence of social media, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality.

Digital media, according to Wikipedia, is “any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on electronic devices, including digital data storage media and digital broadcasting”.

It refers to the transmission of digital information via screen and/or speaker. It includes websites, online video/audio broadcasts, email, online social platforms, online communities, online forums, blogs, Internet telephony, Web advertising, online education, and a great deal more. In addition, digital news media includes online journalism, blogging, digital photojournalism, citizen journalism and social media.

There has been a growing concern about ethical issues in the utilisation of digital media space due to its unregulated, instantaneous, and decentralized nature. This is made possible because anyone with the necessary device and minimal technical knowledge can be a prominent participant in the digital world, proclaim their message to the world, and demand an audience.  In the midst of every innovative disruption, novel possibilities emerge while established customs and practices are threatened and today is no different.

Digital media is transforming to a new genre in journalism that is a blend of professional and citizen-driven journalism where one feeds the other as a news source. This fusion is noticeable even in developed countries as studies show that journalists monitor social media activity closely and use them in their reporting.

Shannon C. McGregor, Assistant Professor, Hussman School of Journalism and Media, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, postulated that tweets are increasingly incorporated into traditional journalistic coverage of political events and that journalists rely on Twitter to decide which events and voices are newsworthy.

This assertion is also corroborated in an article published in the Nation Newspaper on August 29, 2021 where the author stated that these days in Nigeria, a radio or television program is incomplete without media outlets’ social media handles, through which they can be followed and reached.

This Ethics is one of the cardinal principles of journalism and the fulcrum of media practice. It is the conscience and integrity quotient of journalism. Digital media ethics focuses on the unique ethical issues, practices, and standards of digital news media.

It addresses how professional journalism should utilize new media to conduct research and publish stories, as well as how to use text or images provided by citizens.  Globally, the nature of journalism is being transformed as professional journalists are contesting the media space with tweeter users, citizen journalists, social media users, and bloggers.

These new entrants raise emerging ethical issues in journalism. Stephen J.A. Ward of the Centre for Journalism Ethics, University of Winconsin-Madison opined: “We are moving towards a mixed news media – a news media citizen and professional journalism across many media platforms.

This new mixed news media requires new mixed media ethics–guidelines that apply to amateur and professional whether they blog, tweet, broadcast or write for newspapers. The nagging question then is: What implications can ethics hold for a profession that is required to deliver immediate news and analysis, in an era where anyone possessing an internet-enabled device with a modem can act as a publisher?

This brings to the fore, the overall ethical controversy between the traditional journalism culture of gatekeeping, balance and objectivity and the online culture of immediacy and non-editorial review.

In relying on citizen journalists for information and in the quest to remain relevant and join the bandwagon of being the first to break the news, the ethical standards of balance, objectivity, facts and verification are being compromised. Through social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, blogs, mobile phones, and email, news and images circulate around the world with astounding speed.

Speed places newsrooms under pressure to publish stories before they have been adequately checked and verified as to their source and the veracity of alleged facts. The phenomenon of sensationalism and rumourmongering in journalism is attributed to the economic competitiveness of the industry and the constant demand for 24-hour digital news coverage.

In addition, conventional journalists and media organisations have adopted various social media platforms such as a means of connecting with their audience and sharing their perspectives and viewpoints. Consequently, the absence of substantial reporting or analysis leads to a disregard for journalistic integrity.

The internet contains vast amounts of information, a significant portion of which lacks proper evaluation for both accuracy and relevance. These grave ethical lapses call for concern as a media that thrives on speed has the potential to cause significant damage to society.

On a broader perspective, there is this ethical issue of who is a journalist and what is journalism in the digital media ecosystem. The democratization of media technology muddles the identity of journalists and the definition of journalism. In the traditional media, journalists were a clearly defined set of professionals who wrote for mainstream media.  It was easy to identify “gentlemen of the press.” But today, citizens without formal training in journalism write in ways that fit the definition of a journalist as a person who frequently writes for the public or audience about public issues.

In Nigeria, there is this debate as to whether those who write for popular blogs such as Linda Ikeji Blog, Gistlover, and Zikolo etc., as well as social news sites such as Gamji.com and Nigeriavillagesquare.com, Pulse etc.,  or social media sites such as Nairaland, allAfrica, naNAIJA.com, and onlineNigeria journalists?

A lack of clarity regarding who constitutes a journalist results in foundational ethical conflicts regarding who practices journalism and the question of what journalism is in this context. It is becoming difficult and sometimes unclear to determine where the term “journalism” begins and ends. The ethical challenge is the articulation of guidelines that are consistent with the ethical principles of accuracy, verification, and transparency for dealing with rumours and corrections in digital media.

A related problem created by new media is how to handle errors and corrections when news updates, reports and commentaries are continually updated via live feeds and blogging posts or TV scrolls.

Live coverage of events such as breaking news, natural disasters, elections, handover, and sports are becoming increasingly popular among journalists in Nigeria. Errors, including misspellings and factual inaccuracies, are inevitable when working at this urgency, speed and pace. Occasionally, people retweet, share, or broadcast these factual errors before they are corrected, and the resulting ethical damage can be severe.

It is a fact that unregulated digital media thrives in anonymous and faceless writing. However, the mainstream media require content providers to be identified. Journalists are cautioned by codes of conventional media ethics to use anonymous sources sparingly and only under certain conditions. The question of when anonymity is ethically permissible is therefore yet another ethical issue.

Whether it is inconsistent for the media to enforce various anonymity rules for different media platforms. What should the ethical guidelines for offline and online anonymity be? Supporters of anonymity claim that it allows unfettered freedom of speech and sometimes aids in exposing corruption and official misconduct.

Impartiality is a fundamental principle of mainstream journalism. But this principle contradicts the tenets of the new media, which encourages people to freely and equivocally express their opinions and share their thoughts. Many bloggers and online journalists perceive themselves to be opinion or partisan journalists/activists for causes and political movements and take pride in expressing their opinions and positions.

The majority of them reject the concept of neutral or objective analysis. The ethical challenge redefining what independent journalism in the public interest entails for a media in which numerous new forms of journalism are emerging and fundamental principles are being questioned. Journalists should be guided by the principle of fairness and avoid news stories that are likely to generate conflicts of interest or diminish the dignity of others.

When collecting news sources, journalists should apply research ethics of balance, confidentiality, respect for opinions, and avoidance of sensational content. In addition, journalists should not hide under the cover of technology to distort the truth or reality, manipulate facts, or sensationalize events.

In the midst of plethora of unfettered information sources online, plagiarism in digital media has become widespread. Journalists have been accused of copying stories from less popular blogs and publishing them in mainstream media as their own. Journalists are expected to ensure that their stories are original and not plagiarized. This is related to the fact that journalists are sometimes implicated in copyright violations. However, copyright infringement is a legal issue as well as an ethical one.

On the flip side, the proliferation of new image modification technologies for both photographs and videos raises new ethical concerns too. In Nigeria where fake news, disinformation and hate speech thrive, the manipulation of images is a major ethical issue and prone to fraudulent practices. Citizens and professional journalists have access to new and simple methods for capturing and transmitting images.

These images can be altered and manipulated using new technologies. This convergence of ease of capture, ease of transmission, and ease of manipulation call into question the conventional photojournalism principles that were developed for non-digital image and video capture and transmission. One concern is whether newsrooms can rely on images readily obtained by citizens and citizen journalists.

Who is the sender, and how can we be sure that this photograph represents the event in question? Another issue is whether a journalist or a member of the public used technology to alter the photograph, such as to add or remove an object.

As a way to manage digital media ethical issues, some scholars have advocated for layered journalism, which combines various forms of journalism and different types of journalists to create a multi-media offering of news and analysis written in a professional style combined with citizen journalism and interactive chat. Stephen J.A. Ward recommended that the newsroom be layered vertically and horizontally, with different editors reviewing and editing texts, videos, photographs, and audio from various sources.

As digital media continue to evolve, new ethical issues will continue to arise. However, the mainstream media must not in the cause of joining the digital bandwagon, compromise the ethical principles of Aristotle’s ‘Golden Mean’. Professional journalists must remain the check and standard for measuring journalism practice and not for survival strategies and reasons revert to pre-19th century journalism that lacks the social responsibility norm.

The media as the fourth estate of the realm must continue to be alive to its ethical responsibility to society by upholding ethical principles while adapting and adopting digital technology, which has become a major component of journalism.


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NITDA Takes IT Projects Clearance Campaign to Office of Accountant General, Others

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In line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to enhance governance for effective service delivery, and with NITDA asserting its mandate as the clearing house for all government Information Technology, (IT) projects, the Agency has taken the campaign on the imperative of scrutinizing IT projects of the Federal Public Institutions to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Office of the Auditor General of the Federation and Bureau of Public Procurement.

The visit focused on the presentation of NITDA’s Reviewed IT Project Clearance Guidance Document—an updated framework designed to standardise the planning, funding, and execution of IT projects in line with national digital economy goals.

The document, a revision of the 2018 Guidelines for Clearance of IT Projects, emphasises cost-effectiveness, regulatory compliance, and transparency, reinforcing NITDA’s role as the clearing house for all government IT initiatives under the National Information Technology Development Act (2007.)

During these visits, NITDA’s Director General emphasised that the Agency cannot work in isolation to achieve the Renewed Hope Agenda of transforming the economy digitally. “And we need to explore how we can strengthen our partnerships and collaborations in line with the President’s agenda.”

He averred that there is need to be more focused and intentional in the implementation of IT projects if the country wants to maintain its leading position in Africa. “56 percent IT projects failed to deliver on what were promised because we go for latest technology, and failure to design before building the technology and lack of consideration for the business value proposition we are trying to deliver with the projects, he decried.

Inuwa informed his hosts that in order to safeguard against that, NITDA has reviewed the IT Clearance Guideline because experience has shown that most Ministries, Departments and Agencies build IT projects based on the proposal submitted to them by the contractors who would design the projects, implement them and operate them which give no room for accountability and transparency and that has led to the failure of many IT projects.

“We are building a digitised government service; and government is one. We need to work together, work harmoniously, the same way IT system works to deliver these services. For us to achieve this, we need to be more intentional in the way we design, and implement. And if we continue to design and implement in silos, they will never worked together, he warned.

He maintained that the idea behind the reviewed guideline is to ensure that IT projects are designed in line in line with the mindset of interoperability in order for Ministries Departments and Agencies, (MDAs) to explore shared services and follow the best practices and standard.

“The guideline will guide MDAs on how to design, operate and how to maintain system because building of these systems is beyond technology but people, processes and key components of that are paramount.

According to the Director General, the proposed guideline has three steps of IT projects implementations which are; the Solution Design, the Implementation and Quality Assurance steps. He added that going forward; contractors are required to get license and certified employees on these three steps for their companies before government’s IT projects could be awarded to them.

“These measures are designed to eliminate corruption, prevent duplication, and ensure that government IT initiatives are structured to create meaningful change—fostering efficiency, equity, and fairness in public service.”

At the Bureau of Public Procurement, the Director General, Dr. Adebowale Adedokun stressed the significance of standardising IT Project Bidding Documents. He remarked, “It is disheartening that organisations misuse IT projects to siphon public funds—resources that could otherwise be channeled towards impactful initiatives that can transform the country.

He disclosed that MDAs come with IT projects that were adopted without standardisation and guideline “but with this new guideline our decision should pave ways for the development of the IT sector of the country.”

While describing the meeting as crucial to eradicate corruption in the implementation of IT projects, he noted that because most IT projects component are intangible, official leverage them to siphon public fund, adding that the Bureau has developed a standard bidding document for the IT procurement.

He said, “We have huge responsibility with NITDA to avoid corruption, duplication of IT projects and ensure transparency and accountability in the award of IT projects for the Federal Public Institutions. It is disheartening that we are consuming resources that can be deployed to meet other needs of the country and we need to stop this and say no to wastage.”

He tasked NITDA to reconsider service-wide procurement of licenses of organisations like Microsoft, Oracle and others, and also develop a template for IT Price Intelligence which the Bureau can rely on for costing. “We are not IT experts, if NITDA can help us with data on the prices of IT related products which can serve as benchmark for pricing, it will go a long way in our review.

Dr Adedokun equally canvassed for capacity building for the government’s staff in IT cadre so they would not be outsmarted by contractors.

Both NITDA and BPP agreed to constitute a working committee that would work out modalities for the realisation of the entire intended plan and sign a Memorandum of Understanding on its implementation.

At the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, the Auditor General of the Federation, Shaakaa Kanyitor Chira, remarked that NITDA needs to be commended for its thoughtfulness for bringing the guideline forward for its review and inputs.

He assured that once the policy becomes operational, the Office of the Auditor General will conduct a performance audit to assess whether it is effectively contributing to the betterment of the country.

Similarly, the Accountant General, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, commended NITDA’s efforts to standardise IT project implementation and expressed readiness to support the integration of the clearance guidelines into financial processes.

By presenting the Reviewed IT Project Clearance Guidance Document, NITDA aims to ensure that the AGF’s financial oversight aligns with its vision of a digitally transformed public sector. The collaboration is expected to enhance service delivery, curb inefficiencies, and position Nigeria as a leader in technology-driven governance.

It could be recalled that NITDA, in 2018 unveiled the Guideline for IT Project Clearance and the Agency has been able to save over N300 billion for the country in its effort at clearing IT project.

 


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CBN Maintains 27.50% MPR as Inflation Moderates

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Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained the MPR at 27.50 per cent, thus making it the second consecutive time in 2025.

The decision was announced by the CBN Governor, Yemi Cardoso following the Committee’s 300th meeting which ended today in Abuja.

The Committee equally retained the asymmetric corridor at +500/-100 basis points as well as the Cash Reserve Ratio of Deposit Money Banks at 50.00 per cent, that of Merchant Banks at 16 per cent and Liquidity Ratio at 30.00 per cent.

The Committee reviewed developments in the global and domestic economies including the risks to the outlook.

All twelve members of the Committee were in attendance and were unanimous in its decision to hold policy .

The MPC noted the relative improvements in some key macroeconomic indicators which are expected to support the overall moderation in prices in the near to medium term. These include the progressive narrowing of the gap between the Nigeria Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM) and Bureau De Change (BDC) windows, the positive balance of payments position, and easing price of PMS.

Members also noted with satisfaction the progressive moderation in food inflation and, therefore, commended the government for implementing measures to increase food supply as well as stepping up the fight against insecurity, especially in farming communities.

The MPC, thus, encouraged security agencies to sustain the momentum while government provides necessary inputs to farmers to further boost food production.

The Committee, however, acknowledged underlying inflationary pressures driven largely by high electricity prices, persistent foreign exchange demand pressure and other legacy structural factors.

The MPC noted new policies introduced by the Federal Government to boost local production, reduce foreign currency demand pressure, and thus, lessen the pass-through to domestic prices.

Given the relative stability observed in the foreign exchange market, Members urged the Bank to sustain the implementation of the ongoing reforms to further boost market confidence.

The Committee also called on the fiscal authority to strengthen current efforts at enhancing foreign exchange earnings, especially from gas, oil and non-oil exports.

The MPC, however, expressed concerns about the recent decline in crude oil prices, attributable to increased production by non-OPEC members.


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Nigeria to Launch 4 Satellites for Surveillance, Others

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Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the launch of four satellites aimed at strengthening Earth observation capabilities and improving national security, according to Uche Nnaji, minister of Innovation, Science and Technology.

Nigeria to Launch 4 Satellites for Surveillance, Others

Uche Nnaji, minister of Innovation, Science and Technology

Speaking at the 22nd National Council on Innovation, Science and Technology (NCIST) in Abuja, Nnaji said the satellites include three Earth Observation models and one Radar Aperture satellite. The council meeting was held from 12 to 14 May under the theme: “Research, Develop, Innovate and Commercialise: A Cycle for National Prosperity.”

“Just last week, the Federal Executive Council approved that Nigeria launch four satellites—three Earth Observation satellites and one search satellite,” the minister said.

According to him, the Radar Aperture satellite will be capable of capturing images under various conditions, including nighttime and rainfall.

“The search satellite is the one that will pick images both day, night, during rain, every time of the day, and that is technology in play. The military can use it effectively,” he said.

Nnaji noted that this will reduce Nigeria’s reliance on purchasing data and imagery for monitoring remote areas like the Sambisa forest.

On policy development, he said an inter-ministerial committee is reviewing the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy and working on establishing a National Research and Innovation Fund.

“As a country, we can no longer afford to ignore the widening gap between research and real-world impact,” Nnaji said. “For decades, valuable research conducted in our universities and institutions has remained underutilised, disconnected from industries and policy.”

He pointed out the challenges faced by young innovators, including a lack of structured support and financing to transform ideas into marketable products.

“Let this 22nd edition of NCIST mark the beginning of a new chapter, one where every research has a roadmap to industry,” he said.

Nnaji called for sustained efforts from researchers, private investors, and regulators to ensure innovations are protected and supported. “The government must build and enforce regulatory frameworks that protect, support, and incentivise innovation at every level,” he added.

He said the council’s resolutions would be forwarded to FEC for formal adoption and reaffirmed the ministry’s plan to restore the council’s annual meeting schedule after delays pushed the 22nd edition into 2025.

Esuabana Nko-Asanye, the ministry’s permanent secretary, described the meeting as a platform to promote inter-sectoral collaboration and address challenges such as insecurity, unemployment, and climate change. She said 109 memoranda were presented, highlighting proposals on issues like commercialising research, boosting funding for innovation, and building capacity in emerging technologies.

“The richness and diversity of these submissions underscore the growing recognition of science, technology and innovation as a cornerstone of Nigeria’s sustainable development,” Nko-Asanye said.

George Akume, secretary to the Government of the Federation, represented by Morris Mbaeri, said building a resilient innovation ecosystem is key to national development. “This cycle is very essential in addressing real-world challenges and unlocking long-term prosperity,” he said.

Azikiwe Onwualu, president, African University of Science and Technology (AUST), urged the government to increase research and development spending to 3% of GDP and proposed the establishment of more RDIC clusters that integrate academia, industry, and startups.

He said: “We should operationalise the National Research and Innovation Council Fund to coordinate RDIC efforts as envisaged in the STI policy.”


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