CEO of Omni Media, Samuel Atta-Mensah has highlighted the need for traditional media to combine with social media platforms in the dissemination of news.

He stressed that the latter provides a better platform for people to engage in conversations and advised its users to take advantage of it.

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp among others, allow people to share and read stories that shape our society. These stories are told to change the narrative and feed audiences with all the information they need.

“There is no such thing as breaking news anymore because social media has broken the news long ago …. social media has redefined the space because somebody has put it out there already but the processing is such that anytime people get the news on social media, they look for validation on traditional media.”

The unethical use of the social media platforms has the tendency of undermining storytelling. Stories must be told with the aim of elevating people and also contributing to positive change in the society.

Social media is seen as a competitor to their traditional counterparts like radio and newspapers, however, the former have adopted the use of the latter to their advantage.

They reach out to a larger audience through live feed and get direct feedback through their comment sections.

With regards to fake news, Samuel Atta-Mensah, cautioned victims to validate what they read. Readers must not believe every news item they come across on the various social media platforms.

“The processing of social media news is not an event, you process it, you read and validate. When you read the news on social media, validate it from reputable traditional media sources…. I think that the victims of fake news call it for themselves.”

Technologies throw up new challenges and opportunities to its users. Participants were advised to exploit these opportunities by monetizing contents. Managing Director of Citi FM, Samuel Atta-Mensah narrated his journey in the media space.

“I found myself part of a team of young people who wanted to set up a radio station and that was led by Mr. Kwesi Twum of Multimedia. He came with the idea; I had no clue and I never thought that media was an option for me” he added.

This year’s edition of Social Media Week Accra, was launched Wednesday at the Silverbird Cinema, Accra Mall. The global event has taken place in over 20 cities in 16 countries with this year’s themed, “Stories with great influence comes great responsibility”.

The three-day event will provide participants an opportunity to have up-close interactions with various Speakers, attend masterclasses, panel discussions among other interesting activities from September 25 to September 27, 2019.