Marek Mracka visits Ringier Africa Digital Publishing

Media/Digital Communications Analyst for the EU Election Observation Mission visits Ringier Africa Digital Publishing

Authors:

Motolani Alake

February 8, 2019 2:57 PM

The visit is meant to peruse the preparation of Nigerian media houses as the Presidential election approaches.

From right-to-left; Pulse Senior Editor, Ben Bassey; Editor-in-Chief, Pulse Africa, Osagie Aonge; EU Digital Media Analyst, Olamide Egbayelo; and the head of European Union Election Observation Mission Mr. Marek Mracka. (Pulse Nigeria)

Nigeria is in deep preparations for the first phase of its general elections on Saturday, February 16, 2019.

On Thursday, February 7, 2019, Pulse Nigeria played host to Mr. Marek Mracka, the Media/Digital Communications Analyst for the EU Election Observation Mission in Nigeria. Mracka is in the country to see the role Nigerian media houses will play in the coming general elections in Nigeria.

He met Editor-In-Chief, Pulse Africa, Mr. Osagie Alonge, Director of Marketing at Ringier Africa Digital Publishing, Yetunde Oyeleke and Pulse Senior Editor, Ben Bassey.

In the forthcoming elections, the role of media in transparently documenting the happenings and details will punctuate the entire media-scape for posterity and fact checking. In fact, the role of media has never been more important in the political scape.

In light of that understanding, On Monday, February 4, 2019, in conjunction with BBC Pidgin and Media Room Hub, Pulse Nigeria organized a debate involving the candidates for the Eti-Osa House of Representatives at the Civic Centre, Lekki, Lagos.

On preparation

As regards the upcoming elections in Nigeria, Osagie Alonge, Editor-In-Chief, Pulse Africa notes that Pulse as usual as always made efforts in providing the most qualitative content in it’s extensive coverage.

He explains further that, "In order to ensure content quality during the process, the Editors have set up a fact checking unit within the newsroom."

“With focus on our already active dedicated elections page, well researched and unbiased election content will be housed and updated on Pulse platforms as election stories unfold. We intend to, not only report from a third party perspective, but also get opinions of the public as the story unfolds by conducting vox pops and polls”, Alonge says.

An overview of some Pulse Nigeria polls. (Pulse Nigeria) Pulse Nigeria

On content distribution

Left to right; Director of Marketing at Ringier Africa Digital Publishing, Yetunde Oyeleke; EU Digital Media Analyst, Olamide Egbayelo; head of European Union Election Observation Mission Mr. Marek Mracka; Pulse Senior Editor, Ben Bassey; and Editor-in-Chief, Pulse Africa, Osagie Aonge; and the (Pulse Nigeria) Pulse Nigeria

Regarding distribution, Director of Marketing at Ringier Africa Digital Publishing, Yetunde Oyeleke explains that the focus is to further build an engaged and informed community by distributing quality content in a timely manner.

“We will ensure that every Nigerian is availed the opportunity to follow the unfolding Nigerian 2019 elections across our various distribution channels. We will be creating different content types - videos, articles, infographics, polls, etc to ensure that our audience get timely updates on the elections, in content formats that are relevant, and easy for them to find & consume," she says.

Other issues were then discussed before the meeting drew to a close and the parties exchanged pleasantries.