A former Ag.Head of the Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences, University of Ilorin, Prof. Kayode Lambe Mustapha, has urged journalists to uphold the ethics of contemporary journalism by ensuring that the information they dish out is factual and serves the interest of the general public.
Prof. Mustapha gave the advice last Wednesday(March 19, 2025) while delivering a lecture on Entrepreneurial Journalism at a programme organised by the Department of Mass communication in collaboration with the RUDN University, Russia, at the University Auditorium Basement.
The don noted that journalists, as the fourth estate of the realm, are expected to discharge their responsibilities without allowing their personal interests to compromise the ethics of the profession.
He emphasised that these ethics include upholding factual information and accuracy, truthfulness, independence, fairness, balance, and social responsibility, among others.
Prof. Mustapha described ethics as the branch of Philosophy that deals with questions of morality.
He defined media entrepreneurship as harnessing resources and capabilities to successfully establish and manage a media enterprise, pointing out that it involves creating and managing media ventures including digital platforms, news outlets, entertainment company and content-driven businesses.
The Mass Communication scholar maintained that the trajectories of media enterprise include personal, partisan, populist, corporate and contemporary press. He added that contemporary journalism has to do with digital transformation and multimedia journalism, independent and entrepreneurial journalism and data driven and AI assisted reporting.
Prof. Mustapha said that the challenges of contemporary journalism include misinformation and fake news, financial sustainability, political pressure and journalistic freedom, and audience- centric approach, among others.
He advised journalists to uphold their professional ethics so they would continue to soar higher in the profession.
