UNILAG Mass Comm Dept Produces First Alumnus to Deliver Inaugural Lecture
Funmi Ogundare
A Professor of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, Ismail Ibraheem, will tomorrow, December18, deliver an inaugural lecture chronicling the state of journalism practice globally and provide workable solutions to the multidimensional challenges facing the profession.
The lecture themed, ‘Casino Journalism and the End of History’, will rank as the first to be delivered by an alumnus of the university’s Mass Communication Department 58 years after the 62-year-old university established the department.
Prof. Ibraheem’s lecture, which is coming about 20 years after similar lecture was delivered by a lecturer in the department, will also be the first alumnus of the department to be delivering inaugural lecture.
Prof Ibraheem in a statement, explained that the choice of the theme was determined by the urgent need to address key ethical, funding, ownership and managerial crises rocking the global media industry, and particularly diverse societies such as Nigeria.
The university don said the lecture, which he described as a product of spaghetti reasoning, will be his contribution to the body of knowledge within the socio-political space, and an intervention on the troubles within the global media industry.
The ceremony, which is expected to draw audience from the academic, political, and civil society spaces, will be chaired by the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, while her predecessors – Rahamon Bello and Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, are also expected to be on ground.
Dignitaries expected at the event include Nigeria’s former Minister of Sports, Mr Bolaji Abdullahi; the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Lanre Isa Onilu; former Nigeria’s Consul General to Germany, Mr. Wahab Akande; the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, and representatives of various high commissions and embassies in Nigeria and abroad.
According to the Chairman of the Planning Committee and former Head of the Department of Mass Communication, Prof. Adepoju Tejumaye, “all hands are on deck to ensure that every guest has a memorable experience.
At a time like this when the media is expected to serve as a compass to educate, inform and direct the populace to the right path through fair, balanced and quality reporting, interventions such as the inaugural lecture by Prof. Ibraheem would be very pertinent.
“The topic is a reflection of the quality thoughts and works going on in our department. It will be a great intervention to the multifarious challenges confronting the media industry globally and Nigeria in particular. “
