A Professor of Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, will on Wednesday, 18, 2024 deliver inaugural lecture chronicling the state of journalism practice globally and provide workable solutions to the multidimensional challenges facing the profession that is generally viewed as the fourth estate of the realm.
The lecture, which is themed: “Casino Journalism and the End of History,” will rank 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.
Professor 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.
According to the lecturer, 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.
- Advertisement -
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, Professor 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) Professor 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 on the campus, Professor Adepoju Tejumaye, all hands are on deck to ensure that every guest has a memorable experience.
He said 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 Professor 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. We therefore plead with every guest to be on seat by 3:30 p.m on Wednesday, 18 December,” Professor Tejumaye said.
About the lecturer
Professor Ismail Adegboyega Ibraheem finished from the university in 1990 and bagged a Master of Science in Political Science in 1993.
In 1996, he was awarded the British Chevening Scholarship to study a Master of Arts in Mass Communication at the University of Leicester, UK. He later went on to earn a PhD in Media and Politics at the same university in 2004.
He started in 1990 as a youth corps member with Nigeria’s Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) where he was involved in overseeing the organisation’s Media and Governance Programme, and coordinated its Journalists’ Outreach for Human Rights (JOHR).
After his PhD in Media and Politics, Mr Ibraheem assumed a role as the Country Programme Director for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, United Kingdom (CIPR) professional certificate and diploma programmes in Nigeria. In 2006, he took on higher responsibilities as he was appointed the Executive Director of the Centre for African Resources Research and Development (CARRD) in the UK.
In 2011, he returned to Nigeria and was appointed a lecturer in his alma mater, becoming a professor in 2020.
He has authored more than 75 academic publications and supervised more than 150 masters dissertations and 10 PhD thesis.
Outside the classroom, Mr Ibraheem is the Chairman of TheCable News Foundation, Network Coordinator of Afretec Network at the University of Lagos, and the Director of Uptake at the AFrican Cities Research Consortium.
He is also the Director of International Relations, Partnerships and Prospects at the university where he oversees the institution’s globalisation project.
BV.
