Newspapers, TV Can No Longer Bring Down A Government – Lai Mohammed
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture[/caption]
The Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, at a meeting with resident information officers (RIOs) in his ministry, said the days of newspapers and television stations bringing down a government were gone, rather social media was the new potent tool.
“Gone were the days when the newspapers and the television stations were the major means of information dissemination. Newspapers are no longer as powerful as they used to be. Before newspaper editorial can bring down a government. Gone are those day when the Sunday Times sold half a million copies in one day.
“But today the new media is the social media and unless you are there and show a very strong presence, you are not communicating to the world,” he said.
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The minister said the federal government was doing much but was under-reported because those responsible were not using the proper channel to do so.
“Government is doing so much, yet people keep saying they do not know because we are not communicating through the right channel.
“We need technology to inform the world on what we are doing and with the new applications every person in the world will get to know what is happening in the country real time.”
While challenging the RIOs to rise up to the occasion, he disclosed that the ministry would soon launch an information dissemination App to bridge the gap by using the social media to “tell the world what the government is doing”.
