By Owolola Adebola
We live in an age when owning a smartphone, commanding a social media following and publishing breaking information can easily be mistaken for practising journalism. In Nigeria, where a dramatic video or sensational allegation can travel from a neighbourhoodWhatsApp group to national discourse within minutes, the distinction between a trained journalist and a passer-by has become increasingly blurred.
One witnesses an accident, records it and uploads the footage. Another witnesses the same incident, investigates its circumstances, checks the facts and presents a balanced report. Both may have seen the event, but seeing is not the same as understanding, and publishing is not necessarily journalism.
The passer-by may capture the spectacle; the journalist must establish the facts, explain the context and communicate the story responsibly. The difference lies not merely in academic qualifications, expensive equipment or newsroom employment, but in professional discipline, ethical judgment and accountability.
Witnessing Is Not Investigating
An eyewitness to a confrontation may conclude that one person is the aggressor and another the victim. Yet the observer may have arrived after the incident began, missed its underlying causes or misunderstood what was happening.
A responsible journalist asks the necessary questions: What happened? Who was involved? What led to the incident? Which accounts can be independently confirmed? What remains uncertain?
These questions are particularly important in Nigeria, where communal disputes, political rivalries, security operations and allegations of misconduct can quickly acquire ethnic, religious or partisan dimensions. A video showing one fragment of a confrontation may be circulated as proof of an entire narrative, provoking outrage before the facts emerge.
The journalist’s responsibility is to resist the temptation to turn a partial view into a definitive account. Without investigation and context, even an honest eyewitness can unintentionally mislead the public.
Training is the discipline behind any good story
Journalism demands more than fluent English, an impressive voice or the ability to appear before a television camera. It requires competence in news judgment, interviewing, source evaluation, media law, editing, fact-checking and ethical reporting.
Training equips journalists to distinguish allegations from established facts, opinions from evidence and speculation from responsible analysis. It also teaches them to identify credible sources, seek relevant responses and avoid sensationalism.
Consider a road accident. A passer-by might announce online that a reckless driver killed five people. A journalist must establish the number of casualties, confirm whether deaths have occurred, obtain relevant eyewitness accounts and contact the appropriate authorities. The driver must not be declared guilty merely because an angry online audience has reached that conclusion.
Professional training does not make a journalist infallible. It provides a framework for making informed decisions and correcting errors when they occur. The ultimate test is whether that framework is reflected in the work.
Today, digital technology has democratised information in ways that benefit Nigerian society. Citizens have exposed abuses, documented public emergencies and brought neglected community problems to national attention. Citizen-generated footage has also helped draw scrutiny to the conduct of public officials and security personnel.
Yet the race for clicks, views and online relevance has created serious challenges. Unverified claims are sometimes published as established facts; old footage is recycled as current news; misleading headlines are used to attract attention; and political supporters circulate convenient narratives without examining their accuracy.
The pressure is not confined to social media. Traditional media organisations also face commercial pressures, political influence, limited resources and intense competition for breaking stories. Under such conditions, the temptation to publish first can overshadow the obligation to publish correctly.
But speed without verification is not journalistic achievement. A false report can damage reputations, inflame communal tensions or undermine public confidence long after a correction has been issued.
In a country already grappling with insecurity, political suspicion and misinformation, the consequences can be particularly serious.
The Nigerian media must therefore defend accuracy as a professional obligation, not a luxury to be considered after a story has gone viral.
Then enters ethics, which is where professionalism is tested
Journalism is not simply about obtaining information; it is also about deciding how to use it.
A passer-by may record an injured accident victim and publish the footage for attention. A responsible journalist must consider whether publication serves the public interest, violates the victim’s dignity or causes unnecessary distress to relatives. Children, survivors of violence and other vulnerable individuals deserve particular protection.
Fairness is equally essential. An allegation against a public official, traditional ruler, businessperson or private citizen must not automatically be presented as a proven offence. Where appropriate, the journalist should seek a response, attribute claims to their sources and distinguish accusations from established findings.
These principles matter in Nigeria’s politically charged environment, where some publications appear designed less to inform than to discredit opponents or promote particular interests. Journalism must not become a weapon for settling personal scores, collecting political favours or intimidating those who refuse to cooperate.
A press card cannot legitimise irresponsible reporting, just as a popular online platform cannot transform rumour into evidence.
This is not to say that the passer-by is the enemy
It would be unfair to suggest that every passer-by is careless or every trained journalist is professional. Citizens without formal journalism training can demonstrate courage, accuracy and integrity, while qualified journalists can succumb to prejudice, political pressure or commercial inducements.
A certificate does not guarantee integrity, and its absence does not preclude sound judgment.
Citizen witnesses remain valuable partners in news gathering. They can provide photographs, videos, eyewitness accounts and leads that expose wrongdoing or prompt investigations. The journalist’s role is to examine these contributions, verify their claims and establish the context in which they can responsibly be reported.
The relationship should be complementary, not antagonistic. Journalists should welcome credible citizen contributions without surrendering professional standards. Citizens, in turn, should understand that possessing information does not automatically establish its meaning or authenticity.
The more troubling problem is professional impersonation: individuals who use online popularity to present personal grievances, unsubstantiated accusations or partisan propaganda as investigative journalism. Visibility is not credibility, and virality is not verification.
At the same time, established journalists must not invoke professional status to silence legitimate public criticism. Their authority must rest on the quality of their work and their willingness to be held accountable.
In a nutshell, journalism must mean more
Nigeria needs a vibrant press and informed citizens capable of documenting events, questioning authority and challenging abuses of power. But the freedom to publish must be accompanied by a commitment to responsibility.
Between the trained journalist and the passer-by lies the discipline to investigate, the judgment to distinguish fact from speculation and the courage to resist pressure when the truth is inconvenient.
The passer-by may provide the first glimpse of an event. The journalist must establish what can be known, explain what it means and present it fairly.
In the age of the smartphone, everyone may have a platform, but not every platform produces journalism. The difference is not who publishes first, but who does the work to establish the truth—and accepts responsibility for telling it.
*Adebola is the State Publicity Secretary, Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Ondo State Chapter.
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