Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Dele Ezeoba
| credits: gongnews.net
| credits: gongnews.net
By Oduwaiye Fela
The Nigerian Navy has called on the media to join in the fight against terrorism, piracy and pipeline vandalism. The navy also described the media as
“force multipliers in modern warfare” and promised to continue to
implement a press-friendly policy.
The Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice
Admiral Dele Ezeoba, said this at a naval information management
workshop in Lagos on Thursday. Ezeoba, who was represented by the Flag
Officer Commanding, Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Ibok Ibas, said
effective media relation was top priority for the navy. He said, “The support of the media is
crucial to the Armed Forces in general, in the ongoing counter-terrorism
operations, particularly in the North-Eastern part of the nation. Our
recent efforts and the resultant gains in combating illegalities on our
waters confer a duty on our friends in the media to generate the
much-needed public awareness of what the service is doing in ensuring
sanity in our maritime environment.
“The navy is committed to maintaining a
cordial relationship with members of the press. The media are force
multipliers in modern warfare, hence the Nigerian Navy will continue to
operate a media-friendly policy.” Also, Dr. Josef Bel-Molokwu of the
School of Media and Communication, Pan-African University, who delivered
a paper titled, ‘The potential of the social media as tools of
information management by the Nigerian Navy’, said the navy should
embrace social media.
Bel-Molokwu said social media should be
incorporated into the overall communication strategy since the Internet
had become the major source of information for most people. He said the navy could not overlook social media as it had come to stay permanently. He said, “Social media has the potential
to make the profession more global, strategic interactive, dialogical
and socially responsible. However, many practitioners are using the new
media the same way they use the old- as a means of dumping messages on
the general population. “Managing social media is critical. It
should be incorporated into the overall communication strategy of the
navy. You must also strategise to get all stakeholders on-board and must
have policies and procedures. “Best practices should be adopted and social media management tools should be used to improve on productivity.”
www.vividviewconcepts.com
No comments:
Post a Comment