Editorial : New Era Challenges

With the media playing its role of education and catalyst of sensitization and understanding things, could change for the better. The masterminds and organizers of the summit, Xinhua News Agency and the Chinese Government chose for its theme: Boosting Global confidence; Promoting Media Development. What a timely focus at a time when World peace is threatened by geopolitical conflicts, wars, terrorism, cyber criminality, disease, corruption and natural calamities like global warming! What a timely theme at a time humankind must get into action after deploring in conference rooms the societal ills and deadly conflicts that rob our global village of the stability it needs for cooperation and development!
But what next after a summit that brought together some 450 delegates from over 100 countries in dire need of cooperation and development at various levels?
How can media professionals work together with political leaders, Non-governmental organisations and International Community to ensure better understanding aimed at fighting out socio-economic imbalances between the developed and developing nations or the so-called Third World? How can we use the technological advances of the 21st century for positive motives and not the negative that results in various misdeeds.
Regrettably, in an era when the political elite of nations are calling on the media to focus on a redress of negative trends robbing the world of what it needs, media outlets themselves have not been spared of the ills that make them a genuine Fourth Estate in the realm of power.
The problems of fake news, biased coverages and commentaries, disrespect of editorial policies, and ethics of the profession, with destructive criticism make some people see media professionals as outsiders in the onerous tasks of nation building. If this were true, we would not have newsmen risking their lives to cover geopolitical conflicts, wars and natural disasters.
However, only media professionals themselves, and proprietors of mainstream media outlets can weather the storms by seeing that ...