Watching news is part of me

There is a popular saying that if you are not informed, you will be deformed. Truly, lack of information is deformity in its own way.

I have been a fan of listening to news right from childhood. I didn't learn it from my parents because they weren't news-loving kind of people. I learned it from my uncle. During my primary school years, I used to regularly spend the holidays with my maternal grandparents, and my uncle, in his twenties back then, loved listening to news on his stereo radio. I used to join him to get glued to the radio while listening to the latest happenings nationally and internationally. I became a firm believer in whatever I heard in the news.

When I came of age in secondary school, I lost count of how many times I bought radio sets. The first thing I listened to in the morning was network news on radio Nigeria by 7 a.m. I would continue to listen to other channels throughout the day whenever I was able to. It was years after that I started to scrutinize the information I get from traditional media outlets like radio and television.

Having a phone that gives me access to the internet came as a great tool of assistance in not just having access to news updates but comparing updates across different news platforms. It was at this point that I realized that not in all the cases that the traditional news media can be trusted with respect to objectivity in news updates. It became convincing to me that there are certain media outlets that are tools in the hands of the government for propaganda. An example of the station is the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA). This station's role is to defend and propagates any government in power. Tuning in to NTA with the expectation of listening to objective news against any government policies can be likened to daydreaming.

Presently, you can hardly see TVC or The Nation newspaper objectively reporting anything that can be seen as being against the interest of President Tinubu-led federal government. The reason is that the president has stakes in these media organizations.

In order to control what I feed myself with from the radio or TV stations, I rank them according to how close they are to the government individually. The closer a station is to the government, the lesser my interest in listening to news from such a media outlet. Despite what Nigerians are going through in terms of security and economy, NTA and TVC will continue to praise the government and tag it as the best thing that happened to Nigeria. They selectively feed the populace with what they consider friendly to the government.

To avoid this, I tune in to stations like Channels and Arise News. I also consider Saharan reporters, Premium Times, and Punch as credible online news platforms. Generally, I don't finalize the veracity of news from what I get from one news medium. I access various news sources and compare and contrast. I also make use of social media to confirm what is really happening in the country. Watching the news has become a part of my life that I can't do away with. The only thing I do is be careful about how I consume every piece of information I get access to through the news.