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Journalists who refuse to move with the times by embracing social media will vanish sooner than later, a seasoned Nigerian journalist and media trainer has predicted.

Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin, Managing Editor, Online, The Nation newspaper, Lagos, made the prediction during a free social media training for journalists held on Friday at the Correspondents Chapel Secretariat, Mokola, Ibadan.

His words: “Journalists practising in the old way would vanish in the profession sooner than later. This is just the reality of it, and I think we have to face it. We really need a mindshift as to how we practise this profession. Truly, journalism is not changing, but it is the method that is changing. Our traditional ways of getting stories is getting difficult without being on one of these social media outfits.”

Mr Otufodunrin therefore charged journalists to embrace blogging, twitting and facebooking, while also investing in gadgets and using them maximally so as to enhance perfect online journalism practices in this technological age.

Speaking on the importance of social media and online journalism, Mr Otufodunrin said it is a new level of communication which could be used to enhance one’s journalism practice in this era of multimedia journalism.

“We don’t have to belong to the set of journalists and editors who do not believe in the social media platform of journalism practice. The world is changing everyday, and we have to realise the fact that we change with it,” he said.

Mr. Otufodunrin advised journalists to be familiar with some of the social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Skype. On the future of the profession, he said that journalism will not die but that traditional journalism will be phased out with time.

•Photo shows Lekan Otufodunrin speaking during the social media training for journalists . . . Friday in Ibadan.

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