EXCLUSIVE WITH ERROL BARNETT!
ERROL BARNETT is an anchor and correspondent for CNN International. He visited Lagos for the Social Media Week and had chat with selected media, NNEKA ALAMAZE was there for DigitalSENSE Business News.
Excerpts:
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| Errol Barnett, anchor/correspondent, CNN |
Q: Could you give us a brief background about yourself
with regards to your education and why you went into journalism?
I originated from England, I went to the university
and studied political science at UCLA, I lived in different countries and I
want to know how the world works. I graduated from the university and in 2008 I
worked as a social media broadcast correspondence in Atlanta, I later moved to
UA and anchor a news programme.
Q: What is Nigerian’s response on the social media
week event?
Nigerians response to the social media week was good
and Nigerians will be driving the social media revolution in Africa. We went to
Corporation House in Yaba and it shows that Nigerians are really doing well.
Q: What is the importance of social media in the
profession of Journalism?
The importance of social media is that you as a
journalist must be able to listen to people all over the world and you have to
start a relationship with your audience and be able to take and make good use
of what they say.
Q: What’s your view on gender acceptance of social
media, especially in curbing social vices?
I didn’t really notice any difference in the gender
issue because we spoke with some women who were taking part in the social media
week and there was no discrimination in any part.
Q: Africa as a black continent and being very
traditional, what changes did social media bring to Africa?
As far as tradition is concerned, the social media has
no changes in the tradition of the people but it’s only a platform for people
to be able to share their opinions and be able to say what’s on their mind and
also for people who have solutions to the problems of the people to be able to
help them.
Q: Many people feel that social media should be
censored or at least regulated and this is seen in many countries like China
for example. What is your opinion?
Social media is just like every other media, like
newspapers and it’s something that takes place not only in Africa but in the
whole part of the world and so censorship cannot compete with such domestic issues
from taking place.
Q: There is this belief that Social media is spoiling
our youth in the sense that our youth do spend quality time on the net by facebooking
and doing all other things consider ‘irrelevant’ instead of them studying?
When it comes to the issue of youth on social media,
the parents are supposed to be able to know what their children are doing on
the net and that’s why the parents also should know about social media, because
if the parents don’t know what social media, is they won’t be able to log into
facebook and see what their children are doing.
Q: To what extend is CNN leveraging on social media in
Africa and other parts of the world?
We try to really engage with our views and our
audience because we want them to know that they are part of our channel story
and we listen, just like when I posted on my facebook page that I was coming to
Lagos and people were sending tweets to me on how to go and when I went to
Falomo bridge and took pictures and they were like what is Errol doing on the
bridge and so they were sending in their tweets to me and it was fun.
Q: Apart from the Island, where else did you visit?
We tried visiting other places but the traffic was
really disturbing but apart from the Island we went to Ikeja, and we also went
to computer village, we went into the market and the growth of the computer
village is really improving.
Q: What was the most fantastic thing you saw in
Nigeria and will you love to come back here?
I can’t really say because we visited places and we
had fun and we also saw a lot of interesting things and yes I will love to come
back to Nigeria.
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
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