Mass Communication Students Association (MACOSA), Rivers State College of Arts and Science, Rumuola, Port Harcourt, has appealed to both the school authority and the state government to provide necessary studio equipment and gadgets to enable them carry out their social responsibilities as prospective and ambitious communicators.

The President of the Association, Mr. Nwaoyibo Oscar, made the appeal in an address he presented at the “Grand MACOSA Day 2011”, celebration, at the college in Port Harcourt, last Thursday.

Mr. Oscar  however, noted that lack of equipment had never been a barrier to their performance even as they have remained steadfast in carrying out their responsibilities as social crusaders and watch dogs of the society.

“We have been contributing in publications in the print media, especially in The Tide Newspapers, through industrial attachment and more importantly, we publish a campus magazine known as “RIVCAS Campus Insight”,  and added that Radio Rivers 99.1FM, Rivers State Television also serve as their IT establishments.

Addressing the students, the Head of Department of Mass Communication, Dr. Annette Weje, who served as the chairman of the occasion, explained that the department organised the programme to make the students understand that they just have to read.

According to her, researches show that much of what scholars know, especially, the empirical knowledge that they have, about 70% to 80% of it is what others have told them and much of it is got from reading.

“As students, you are not working, you don’t pay your school fees by yourselves, most of you are not married, you have less to think. So I don’t see any reason why you won’t read. You have to take your reading serious, you have to read! read!, read! I say you must read”.

Presenting a paper with the theme, “Character And Learning: A Dialogic Communication Strategy For Extra-Curriculum Activities”, Mr. Nwokezi John Ikoro, who challenged the students to allocate more time to reading instead of watching home movies, DVDs and communicating with handset messages advised them to go back to the books.

In his words: “Learning is not how much you have read, but how much you can remember what you have learnt, to apply it intelligently to real life situations”.

A lecturer in the department, Mr. Windy S. Alikor, while delivering a lecture titled: “The Decline in Reading Culture Among Mass Communication Students In Nigerian Polytechnics: Causes and Implications”, stated, “What we read today makes us knowledge – driven personalities tomorrow. Indeed, if we must lead the society tomorrow, we must read today, those who even read, do that for examination purposes, therefore, do not imbibe the culture of reading.

“If you want to hide a matter for Nigerian Students today, you can conveniently hide it in a book”, he said.

“The only available therapy for the phenomenon under review is to go back to our root in knowledge acquisition, which is effective reading without season”, he stressed.

The highlights of the occasion include, cutting of MACOSA Cake, drama presentation, artistic performances, among others.

Eunice Choko-Kayode