By Archibong Jeremiah
The Cross River Government has announced plans to hold a Media Literacy Education symposium for youths in the state with focus on social media management.
The symposium will be organized in collaboration with the Association of Cross River Online Journalists (ACROJ) said the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mrs. Rosemary Archibong Tuesday in Calabar, the Cross River State capital when she hosted members of the association led by the Chairman, Mr. Hope Obeten.
She said that: “The symposium is necessary because of the impact of online journalism on our youths who take whatever they see online as truth without recourse to the fact that in as much as there are good news online, there are false ones too which we must teach them how to differentiate because they are the future.”
Mrs. Archibong commended online media practitioners in the state and posited that: “Online journalism has come to stay, it has come to enhance the practice of journalism given the speed of news reportage, it goes where conventional media can’t.”
However, she called on the online media practitioners to abide by the ethics of journalism as well as shun propaganda.
Mr. Obeten in his remarks commended Mrs. Archibong for the meeting and the planned symposium which he maintained that it will “Go a long way to educate all and sundry.”
Also, he used tasked the State Government to support the union in all ramification and he pledged that: “We will ensure that Cross River remains the most reported State online in the country.”