Voice of Nigeria (VON) has indicated interest in partnering with China on joint content production to enable VON reach a wider audience in China and across the globe through positive narratives
The VON Director General, Mallam Jibrin Baba-Ndace, made this known during a courtesy visit by a delegation from the Tsinghua University, China, led by the Director of Research and Practice Base for Global South Communication, of the University, Professor, Zhao Yuezhi.
He explained that the aim of the partnership is to promote cultural exchange between the two nations and Africa as well as leverage the expertise of the Tsinghua University, noting that VON has the mandate to always project positive narrative globally and collaboration of such is the way forward.
“One of the biggest challenges in the world today is not about what happened but how what happened is shaped in the media space. More often, Nigeria is reported to the Chinese audience by a third party media and China is reported to Nigeria by a third party media. That is why this visit is very important because it will help us close the gap and tell our stories from our own perspective. We are not saying that Nigeria is perfect, there is no perfect country in the world, we are saying there are so many good things happening in Nigeria that Chinese people need to know. In doing that we don’t have to wait for other people to report us.”
The VON Director General, further explained that: “The partnership that Voice of Nigeria wants to build with the Chinese government is not just broadcasting Mandarin but also in terms of joint content production. Interestingly, since I came on board, looking at global trend and the place of China in Africa and the global stage, we are already talking with the Chinese Embassy to begin broadcast in Mandarin. We are willing to partner with you so that we can leverage on your decades of experience and the expertise that you bring to the world from your university.”
According to him, there is a need for collaborative efforts in fighting the global challenge of fake news, misinformation and disinformation.
“I also want us to work together in fighting fake news, misinformation and disinformation. Because this is one of the biggest challenges of the global community.
“As media practitioners and scholars we must continue to close the gap and empower media practitioners and academics in fighting fake news, misinformation and disinformation. I believe that the relationship between Nigeria and China will continue to grow if the media begins to play its role of shaping positive narratives about the two countries,” he said.
Mallam Baba-Ndace further reiterated VON’s commitment to deepening the relationship between Nigeria and China.
“VON remains committed to deepening the relationship between Nigeria and China which our founding fathers always have respect for.
“Whatever we do, the media must be intentional in shaping narrative about our two countries. That is what we do at VON, shaping positive narratives about Nigeria and Africa. We also want to partner with you on exchange programme where some of your students can come to Nigeria and spend some time in our newsroom and we can also send some of our staff for short and long term courses in your university.”
Earlier, the Director of Research and Practice Base for Global South Communication, of the University, Professor, Zhao Yuezhi, stressed on the aim of their visit to Nigeria and Voice of Nigeria, saying, it is to learn about Nigeria’s media system, culture and different aspect of the society especially in the global South, with emphasis that seeing is different from reading from the books and face to face interaction is very valuable.
“We are here on a global competence practice course. The idea is to bring students, the best from our school, to different countries in the world, especially countries in the global south. At Tsinghua University we stress on practice training, outside learning, which is part of Tsinghua University’s best tradition. Every year we have hundreds of student-professor teams going all over the world on field study trips. We are here because we believe, especially in these days of global change and the rise of global south countries, it’s very important for our students to have not only just global competency, but competency knowledge, deep knowledge in countries like Nigeria”, she said
Professor Zhie, also noted that: “Because particularly, Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa and you play a very important role in the global south, not to mention in Africa. So we want our students to learn first hand knowledge about Nigeria. In particular, also I think in these days, because of the imbalance in global media power, sometimes our students learn knowledge about other countries, especially African countries, through the Western media, which does not necessarily present an accurate, comprehensive picture of your country. So we are very keen on learning about your country first hand.”
She added, the institute looks forward to working with VON to deepen people to people relationship between Nigerians and Chinese.
“There is need for China and Nigeria to communicate directly without the mediation of the western media which have over the years shaped the narratives about the two countries. I’m happy to hear that you are working hard to begin broadcast in Mandarin. We would be more than happy to send students hear for short visits. We have opportunities to masters programme and short visits in our university. We have many opportunities for exchange programme.”
The members of the Delegation on a study mission here in Nigeria, from the Tsinghua University, include seventeen Master Students and PHD students alongside three other colleagues.
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