Communication & Language Arts

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In media we trust versus the media we trust: information subsidies and credibility of editorial content in Nigerian newspapers
(Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria, 2020-04) Ojebuyi, B. R.; Adekoya, O. F.
The mass media serve as the forum for public discussions, political debates and the forging of consensus. However, it has been argued that media efforts to engage, empower and educate audiences are puny owing to several factors such as excessive reliance on public relations contents and well-funded agendas that dominate the media space. Media Studies in many countries have confirmed the growing reliance of journalists on Public Relations (PR) materials—also called information subsidy—but studies in Nigeria have not investigated this phenomenon and its implications for media gatekeeping and agenda-setting functions. The current study was designed to fill this gap. Agenda-setting and Gatekeeping media theories were employed as framework, while mixed methods design was adopted. From two Tier-1 newspapers (The Guardian and Punch), a total of 1,216 news stories drawn through constructed week sampling from 4-11 January 2016, the year the first Nigerian PR industry report was published, were content analysed. This study confirmed the growing reliance of Nigerian newspapers on information subsidy. This reliance on PR materials weakened the gatekeeping function of Nigerian newspapers, but did not undermine their agenda-setting function as the newspapers devoted their prominent pages (17%) to self-generated contents compared to the volume of materials PR (20.3%) confined to inner and less-prominent pages.
Racing beyond race: Western press reportage of 2008 American presidential campaign
(USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, 2014) Obono, K..; Owoiche-Oche, A
The 2008 American presidential campaign was a critical moment for determining the stance of Western Press in the coverage of a race-related political contest. The study content analysed The Economist. Time and Newsweek magazines to identify the genre, slant, source of news reports and prominence given to Barack Obama Campaign Issues relative to those of his opponents. John McCain and Hilary Clinton. Although there were a few elements of racial constructs. reportage was found to be fair focusing more on Obama campaign issues (64.8 percent) than McCain (33.4 percent) and Clinton (1.8 percent)campaign issues. Reported mostly as Features, stories provided in-depth and holistic examination of Obama, guiding voter decision making. News coverage transcended racial sentiments and addressed socioeconomic and political matters that appealed to the American people. The paper points to the gatekeeping and agenda setting roles of Western Press and their implication for electioneering processes and outcomes.