Some media houses practice churnalism, not journalism – Expert advocates fact-checking

A media expert, Ajibola Amzat has disclosed reasons why journalism practice is suffering in Nigeria and has failed to meet the modern trend across the globe.

Speaking at a two-day training on investigative journalism in Abuja, Amzat who is the Africa Editor, Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism, (CCIJ) lamented that journalists in Nigeria have derailed the conventional practice of getting evidence to back their reports.

He pointed out that journalists now focus and churn out the information they are given without any iota of journalistic truth.

Amzat who delivered a paper on the Procedure and Techniques of Evidence Driven Reporting, described evidence, as an important tool to remain relevant in the media realms.

He described the practice of the profession among conventional media houses in Nigeria as ‘churnalism and not journalism’, warning that it is a bad practice, seeing that, journalism is the only tool to sharpen Nigeria’s democracy.

“Most journalism practice today is public relations. They just give information and it is packaged to Nigerians without verification. All the things we package as news have not been fact-checked.

“Journalists hold a powerful tool to correct wrong data that has been put out to the public. Always question authorities’ methodology to know if the data they are releasing contains a falsehood. Journalists must have a questioning mind. Question everything. Doubt everything given until someone provide the truth. Never stop querying your data,” he stated.

For practising journalists in Nigeria to stop playing into the gallery of reporting information hook, line and sinker without any proper evidence to back up their claims, Amzat suggested that they must embark on consistent research, conduct interviews, observe, obtain verifiable documents, conduct surveys and report their finding without bias.