Prof. Victor Dugga, Dean School of Postgraduate Studies, Federal University, Lafia, has urged the public to acquire more Social Media literacy to serve as tool toward addressing insecurity in Nigeria.
Dugga, a Professor of Theatre and Media Arts, made the call in an interview on Friday in Jos.
The Don was a participant at the just-concluded three-day conference on national security with the theme: “Culture, Peace and National Security”, held in Jos.
The conference was organised by the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Dugga, who presented a paper titled: “Culture, Social Media and National Security: Emerging Issues” during the technical sessions of the conference, emphasised the need for media literacy as an antidote to the abuse of social media space in combating insecurity.
He made reference to some Social Media verification tools, and reiterated the need for security agencies and other relevant authorities to be well informed about ways to safeguard the country and citizens on the social media.
“The antidote to the abuse of Social Media is Social Media literacy, that means people should be able to know much about the media so that they can detect falsehood.
“For instance you need to know that whatever information you get on social media can be verified and you should try to verify it before you accept it or share it with others.
“You can verify this by several means, Google also provides you ways of checking or confirming if incidences so stated are true.
“Another thing to know about verifying an information is to know for instance what date that event took place.
“The time makes all the difference and can determine whether it is true or false.
“Media literacy is what we need to engage in, in order to stop the abuse of social media,”he said.
The Don also advised policy makers and security agencies on the regular use of the social media, saying that such would reduce the spate of crimes and foster tolerance and peaceful coexistence in the country.
“Those who should use Social media should use Social media, the security agencies should use Social Media, even the traditional media should use Social Media.
“Because when you put the truthful information out there, then you are decapitating falsehood that can be spread through the Social Media.
“Government agencies should use Social Media, policy makers must take Social Media as one of the ways in which they can contribute to maintaining peace and building national culture of tolerance and coexistence,” he said.
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