Professor of Communications Studies and Director of International Relations, Partnerships and Prospects (IRPP) at the University of Lagos, Ismail Adegbiyega Ibraheem will Wednesday, December 18 present his inaugural lecture on the topic ‘Casino Journalism and End of History.’
The lecture, starting by 4pm at the J. F. Ade-Ajayi Auditorium of the UNILAG, is the fifth inaugural lecture in the institution’2024/25 academic session. It will also the third inaugural in the 58-year history of the Department of Mass Communication and the first by an alumnus of the Department.
A snippet of the lecture shows it is predicated on the fact that powerful forces are forever seeking to control the media, especially on narratives that might impact on their interests. This creates a situation the media often serve primaryly as a platform where the contestations by various corporate and political interest groups are often played out.
The lecture looks at the implications of this for the society and profers a way out for the media to truly assert its constitutional role as an impartial arbiter in national affairs.
Professor Ibrahim started his career as a programme office with the Civil Liberties Organisation, for which he was editor of its Liberty magazine.
Armed with a PhD from the University of Leicester, Ibrahim joined the University of Lagos on June 1st 2011 as a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication,
Before that he was part of several public spirited initiatives in the UK such as Centre for African Resources Research and Development (CARRD), Educational Support Initiative for Africa (ESIFA), Forum for Sustainable Democracy Africa (FOSDA) and Healthittitude Project.
At the University of Lagos, besides his academic work, he has been part of the following initiatives: Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa, Academics Stand Against Poverty, the African Cities Research Consortium where he supports uptake activities across 12 cities in Africa, a project supported by FCDO and the University of Manchester and the Centre for Journalism, Innovation and Development (CJID) where he leads a national research to develop a framework to measure extent of press freedom and freedom of expression in Nigeria under the VOICE project.
Since 2017, he has been working in the internationalization ecosystem of the University of Lagos; supporting the work of three Vice Chancellors to improve the global visibility of UNILAG and increase the footprints of UNILAG staff and students in global higher education ecosystem.
