Akin Olaniyan is a New Media Specialist, Trainer, Researcher and Corporate Communications expert.
Presently Lead Strategist at The Chatter House, a New Media consultancy based in Lagos, Nigeria, Olaniyan was formerly Deputy Editor of The Punch, Corporate Communication Specialist at Zenith Bank and Group Business Editor at Independent Newspapers.
He holds a Doctor of Philosophy Degree PhD in Media Research; Corporate Communication from the University of The Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, MA Social Media programme at the University of Westminster, London, Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Ibadan and Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the Nigeria Institute of Journalism.
In September 1998, he attended a Writing Business News course sponsored by the Reuters Foundation in London and between January and July 2000, was at the Oxford University, the United Kingdom for the Foundation’s University Fellowship.
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He was also at the International Forum for Democratic Studies, National Endowment for Democracy, Washington D.C as a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows fellow, where he produced a handbook independent media monitoring, ‘The Problem With The Nigerian media.’
” My broad interest, as my research projects at both the Reuters Institute and the NED prove, is in the area of democracy and the media. My doctoral research project, ‘From Iwe Irohin To SaharaReporters.com: Hardcoding Citizen Journalism In Nigeria’ is designed to interrogate how, why new media is being used for citizen journalism; what impact user-generated content is having on the Nigerian political process. Of particular interest to me is how the useful features of new media can be ‘hardcoded’ into the entire media system to enhance discourse, the political process and ultimately good governance in the country.
“The study builds on the insight from my MA research project, ‘Social Media and Political Activism In Nigeria: A Marriage Made In Heaven Or Just A One-Night Stand?’ That study, using OccupyNigeria as a case study deconstructed social media activism to gain an understanding of the democratic credentials of new media.”