DEDICATION
I dedicate this humble work
To
God Almighty, God of gods, and King of kings, who brought me up to this lofty height 
from the base of a rusty beginning;
And to You 
My Beloved Mother, Grace Fagbami Asabi Ojegbemileke (Mama Busayo);
You went into Eternal Rest in the Lord on Friday, August 7, 2009.
 Forever we will celebrate you as a Great Mother a True Amazon: Aporogunjo, Eso
Ikoyi Omo Eru Ofa... 
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I give all glory to the Living God God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, my
God, the Eternal Rock of Ages, I am Who Is I am, the Creator of all things. He gave
me the grace and favour to climb the ladder of honour. Without God, I would surely
have remained another scoundrel wandering helplessly in the dusty terrain of the rustic
village square, and eking out a living in the thick heart of the jungle.
I sincerely thank D
but I also see him as my mentor, my confidant, my model, and my Uncle. Besides
attending to my work with exceeding scholarly touch, constructive criticism, prompt
response, and warm encouragement, he solidly stood by my family through the time of
storms. He has really assisted and inspired me in many ways. In conjunction with his
friend and senior colleague, Professor Anthony A. Olorunnisola (Pennsylvania State 
University, USA), he has initiated me into the cult of global scholarly conversation. 
Only a few academic apprentices could enjoy this privilege. 
I am also thankful to his best friend and beloved wife Mrs M-member
Demyam Moyoo Ojebode and all the children Ushahemba Anuoluwa, Oluwatomi, 
Ebunoluwa, and Omosunlade for allowing my supervisor to attend to my work 
amidst the tasking domestic responsibilities. The family also warmly accepted me as
one of them.
The encouragement and contributions of my teachers and senior colleagues in 
the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan, cannot 
be quantified. I am happy I belong to this Big Family of the following great scholars: 
Professor (Mrs) Abiola I. Odejide (the Great Mother of the Department); Professor 
Festus A. Adesanoye (our Good Father Baba Rere); Dr Ebenezer O. Soola; Dr
Beatrice A. Laninhun; Dr Oyeyinka Olayinka Oyewo; Dr Lawrence A. Adegoke; Mr 
Pius S. Omole; Dr Godwin O. Shoki; Dr (Mrs) Nkechi M. Christopher; Dr (Mrs) O. A. 
Egbokhare ( ); Dr (Mrs) Louisa B. Andah (Mama Radio); and my big 
brother and friend, Dr Ebenezer Adebisi Olawuyi (Bisi Crown), who ceaselessly
motivated me and provided some comic relief for me and many others in the 
Department.
I will always remain grateful to Professor Abel Olorunnisola (Dean of 
Postgraduate School, University of Ibadan), who kept on encouraging me to be
ii
focused and give my doctoral study all attention it deserved. He really inspired and 
assisted me in diverse ways.
My acknowledgements will remain incomplete in this regard if I fail to
recognise the following Staff members of our Department: Mrs M. Olaide, Babajide;
Mr Eyitope Femi Kuti; Rev. Sis. Doghujde;  Mr Samuel.O. Olawoyin (My Big Uncle);
Mr Ayoola F. Falana; Mrs Rashidat O. Kamil (Alhaja); Mr Tajudeen Shittu, and Mr
Mathew Dare, Olaoye. They all rendered unquantifiable auxiliary assistance and moral
support to me throughout the period that the conduct of this study lasted. 
My sincere indebtedness goes to my Eternal Examiner, Professor Lai Oso. His 
wealth of scholarly experiences which he displayed at my final defence significantly 
improved the overall quality of this thesis. Dr M. Ayo Kehinde of the Department of 
English, University of Ibadan, deserves a special mention here. Apart from being my
Internal Examiner, he made massive contributions to this thesis. His deep, critical and 
constructive criticism strengthened this work, and exposed me to some fundamentals
for the inspiration he gave me all along.
I will continue to appreciate the constructive advice of Dr Akin Odebunmi of
the Department of English, University of Ibadan. As the Sub-Dean (Postgraduate), 
Faculty of Arts, he gladly bore the burden of collaborating with me and my supervisor
to ensure that my abstract was in a good shape. My close interaction with him proved 
to me that he is evidently a first-class scholar of awesome talents. I thank Dr Fame Olu
Familusi and Dr Samson Fatokun of the Department of Religious Studies, University
of Ibadan, for their prayers and moral encouragement.
I am indebted to Dr Tayo Lamidi, Dr Ayo Ogunsiji (both of the Department of
English, Unversity of Ibadan), Dr J. K. Ayantayo of the Department of Religious
Studies, and Dr Edo of the Department of History, University of Ibadan. They played
significant roles in the course of this study. They constantly encouraged me to
complete the work in record time.  
 I thank the following friends, colleagues and families, who assisted morally and 
financially towards the success of this work: Oluwaseun Ogungbe; Yinka Adeoye; Mr 
Monday Ekpe; Alhaji Oyetunde Adeoye Nurudeen; Mr Dayo Adeosun; Mr Yakubu 
Adeoti; Mr Idowu M. Alade; Dr A.B.  Sunday; Dr Isaac Fadoro; Dr and Dr (Mrs) 
iii
menaghawon; Mr and Mrs Kehinde Lawal;
Alhaja Kafayat Adeola Adigun-Hammed; Mr Anthony Uche Utulu; Mr Abejide; Mr
Ayo Awopeju; Mr Adetosho; Mr Keshinro;  Mr Demola Eyinade; Mr Agboola 
Olalekan; Mrs Sunday Sangotoogun, and others too numerous to mention here. I thank
my Pastors, and spiritual fathers: Reverend P.O. Olaniyi; Reverend S.T. Sangokunle; 
and Chief Stephen Ayangbayi, of Wonderland Baptist Church, Orogun Ibadan. They
helped me spiritually and morally. 
I recognise the contributions of the following research assistants: Ridwan 
Kolawole; Oyedele, Obasanjo Joseph; George Oluwasegun; Rafiu Adebayo;
Olanrewaju Ogundiran; Adepoju Sunday Benjamen; and Wole Oladapo. They greatly
facilitated the data collection for the study. I also thank all the newspaper journalists 
and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) participants, who volunteered to be interviewed 
and be part of the discussions. Specifically, I must mention Mr Segun Olatunji of The
Nigerian Tribune, and Mr Olaoluwa Ajayi of Vanguard newspaper for providing 
useful in-depth information and connecting me to colleagues.
My parents Chief Moses Ojebuyi Obagbaroye, Pa Isaac Ojegbemileke, and 
late Mrs Grace Fagbami Ojegbemileke are so dear to me that the little space I have 
here will not be enough to enumerate all they invested in my life. Yet, I have to 
acknowledge them as my root, and the principal stakeholders in the journey of my life. 
The following people are those untiring individuals who worked tirelessly
behind the scene to provide support-services that facilitated the execution of this work: 
Ngubughun Ikeseh; Bami Betitku; Nguhemen Chigh; Mbangohol Ikeseh and Niyi
Asiyanbi. They assisted in carrying out many auxiliary services and the complex task 
of sorting the quantitative data collected through the instruments for survey and 
content analysis. 
My siblings Adewole Ojebuyi, Reverend Wale Gabriel Ojegbemileke,
Adebola Ojegbemileke, and Oluwabusayo Rebecca Ojegbemileke deserve my
special gratitude. They gave me moral support and prayed fervently for me. I also 
recognise all the extended families of Obagbaroye and Ojeniyi of Balogun Compoud,
Isemi-Ile. Mrs Kemi Akinpelu, Mr Bayo Akinpelu, Mrs Dayo Egunjobi and Mr
Olugbade Egunjobi, I thank you and your entire families for your enduring care, love 
and supports for my family. You have always been there for us. I wish I could repay
you beyond this verbal gratitude. I thank you, Aunty Mary Olagbenro, Mr Rasheed
Eguntola and Mrs Bosede Adetona (nee Ojebuyi), for your support and prayers.
iv
The Special One that really complements my life is my wife and confidant
Rachael Temitope Ojebuyi (nee Adelere). Your presence in my life is massively
instrumental. Your ceaseless prayers, encouragement, warm companionship, and moral
and financial supports are unquantifiable. I really denied you and our sons
Oluwaferanmi Olamilekan Michael (Ojebabson), Oluwanifemi Olabisi Victor, and
Aanuoluwa Olanrewaju Ebenezer many things, but you patiently endured and bore it
all with me. God will give me the grace to reward you appropriately. 
Babatunde R. Ojebuyi, PhD. 
October, 2014 
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS                                                                                                   PAGE 
Dedication.............................................................................................................i
Acknowledgements.............................................................................................ii-v
Table of Contents...............................................................................................vi-viii 
List of Tables.......................................................................................................ix-x 
List of Figures.......................................................................................................xi 
CHAPTER ONE: Background and Articulation of Research Problem
1.1 Introduction....................................................................................................1-4
1.2 Secondary Gatekeeping in Nigerian Broadcast Stations................................5-7
1.3 Brief History of Radio as a Medium of Mass Communication......................8-9
1.4 Advent of Radio Broadcasting in Nigeria....................................................9-11 
1.5 Articulation of Research Problem................................................................11-13
1.5.1 Research Questions...................................................................................13
1.5.2 Research Hypotheses................................................................................13-14
1.6 Purpose of the Study...................................................................................14-15
1.7 Significance of the Study............................................................................15-16
1.8 Scope of the Study......................................................................................16
1.9 Justification for the Scope of the Study......................................................16-17
1.10 Limitations.................................................................................................17-18
1.11 Operationalised Definition of Terms.........................................................18-19
CHAPTER TWO: Theoretical Underpinnings
2.1 Introduction..................................................................................................20 
2.2 Gatekeeping Theory......................................................................................20-21
2.2.1 Gatekeeping in Communication...............................................................21-22
2.2.2 ....................................22-24
2.2.3 Model of Gatekeeping........................................24-26
2.2.4 Levels of Gatekeeping Mechanism..........................................................26-28
2.3 The Theory of Newsworthiness..................................................................28-31
2.4 Relevance of Gatekeeping and Newsworthiness Theories to the Study...31-32
2.5 Agenda Setting Theory................................................................................32-33
vi
2.5 -Setting Model of Media Effects............33-35
2.6 Relevance of Agenda-Setting Theory to the Study.....................................35
CHAPTER THREE: Literature and Empirical Dissertation
3.1 Introduction..................................................................................................36
3.2 Attributes of Radio as a Mass Communication Medium.............................36-40
3.3 The News Coverage Roles of Radio............................................................40-42
3.4 Organisational Structure of a Radio Station.................................................42-44
3.5 The Nexus among Media Bias, Ethics and Structure...................................44-52
3.6 Code of Ethics for Nigerian Journalists........................................................52-56
3.7 Forces in Media Gatekeeeping.....................................................................56-62
3.8 Some Empirical Studies on Media Gatekeeping..........................................62-69
CHAPTER FOUR: Conceptualisation of Secondary Gatekeeping 
4.1 Introduction..................................................................................................70
4.2 Secondary Gatekeeping: A Conceptual Clarification..................................70-73
CHAPTER FIVE:  Methodology and Procedure
5.1 Introduction......................................................................................................74
5.2 The Research Design.......................................................................................74-78
5.3 Population.......................................................................................................79
5.4 Sampling Techniques......................................................................................79-82
5.5 The Samples....................................................................................................82-85
5.6 Research Instruments......................................................................................86-90
5.7 Validity and Reliability...................................................................................90-92
5.8 Method of Data Collection..............................................................................92-93
5.9 Method of Data Analysis.................................................................................93-94
CHAPTER SIX: Data and Findings
6.1 Introduction......................................................................................................95
6.2 Research Question 1: News Selection Criteria.................................................95-108
6.3 Research Question 2: Topic Areas Most Frequently Reported in the 
News Review................................................................................................108-124
6.4 Research Question 3: News Review and Audience Awareness of 
vii
Events.............................................................................................................124-136
6.5 Research Question 4: Secondary Gatekeeping and Agenda-Setting.............136-143
6.6 Research Question 5: Impact of News Reviews on Newspaper
Patronage by Media Audience.....................................................................143-160
6.7 Chapter Summary.........................................................................................160-161
CHAPTER SEVEN: The GNA-Bond Model
7.1 Introduction...................................................................................................162
7.2 The GNA-Model............................................................................................162-164
CHAPTER EIGHT: Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations
8.1 Summary.......................................................................................................165-168
8.2 Conclusion....................................................................................................168-170
8.3 Recommendations........................................................................................170-171
REFERENCES................................................................................................172-180
Appendix I: Radio Audience Questionnaire....................................................181-188
Appendix II: Interview Guide for News Review Editorial Personnel.............189-190
Appendix III: FGD Guide for News Review Listeners..........................................191
Appendix IV: FGD Guide for Newspaper Practitioners.........................................192
Appendix V: Content Analysis Coding Sheet.........................................................193
Appendix VI: Randomly Selected Days for the English Version of News 
Reviews (Premier FM, Ibadan)...............................................................194
Appendix VII: Randomly Selected Days for the English Version of News
Review (Splash FM, Ibadan)................................................................195
Appendix VIII: Randomly Selected Days for the English Version of News
Review (Radio O-Y-O, Ibadan)............................................................196
Appendix IX: Randomly Selected Days for the Yoruba Version of News 
Review (Premier FM and Splash FM, Ibadan)......................................197
Appendix X: Federal Radio Corporation (FRCN) National Stations....................198 
Appendix XI: FRCN FM Stations....................................................................199-201
Appendix XII: State Government-Owned Radio Stations...............................202-205
Appendix XIII: Private Radio Stations.............................................................206-208
viii
LIST OF TABLES
TITLE                                                                                                              PAGE 
Table 5.1: Population Types and Sampling Techniques.......................................79
Table 5.2: Randomly Selected Local Governments from the Three Senatorial
               Districts.................................................................................................81 
Table 5.3: Editors/producers of News Reviews Programmes..............................82
Table 5.4: Number of Questionnaire Copies Distributed and Retrieved............83
Table 5.5: Sample Size of the News Reviews for Content Analysis..................84 
Table 5 iables........................85
Table 6.1: Association between Ownership and Themes Reported 
                  in the News Reviews........................................................................109
Table 6.2: Association between Ownership and Political Content Categories
                Reported in the News Reviews.........................................................112
Table 6.3: Summary of Chi-Square Test for Association between Ownership
                 of Radio Stations and Themes Reported in the News Reviews......113
Table 6.4:  Summary of Chi-Square Test for Association between 
                 Proximity and Radio Stations.........................................................117
Table 6.5: Summary of Test of Differences in Number of stories, Duration, 
            Commercials and Banters among Stations...........................................120
Table 6.6: Tests of differences in duration, commercials and banters
                 between English and Yoruba reviews.............................................121
Table 6.7: .................125
Table 6.8: to
               News Reviews..................................................................................126
Table 6.9: Juxtaposition of Audience Preference for Issues and 
                  Issues Actually   Reported in the News Reviews...........................127
Table 6.10: 
                  Contents of News   Reviews..........................................................130
Table 6.11: ............................................136
Table 6.12: ............138
Table 6.13: Comparison of Degree of Prominence Radio Stations 
            Accorded Public Issues and Degree of Recognition Audience
ix
            Gave to the Issues................................................................................140 
Table 6.14: Audience Preference for Media Types..........................................143
Table 6
              for Media Type...................................................................................144
Table 6 ing to Newspaper Reviews.....146 
Table 6 apers........................147
Table 6.18: Audience Radio Listening Habit, Urge for Information and 
             Eagerness to Buy or Read Newspapers after News Reviews..............149
Table 6.19: Summary of Chi-
             Reading   Newspapers after Listening to News Reviews...................151
Table 6.20: Summary of Chi-
           Buying Newspapers after Listening to News Reviews........................153 
x
LIST OF FIGURES 
TITLE PAGE
..............................23
           Mass Communication.................................................................................25
Figure 2.3: Shoemaker and odel.......................27
Figure 2.4: -Setting Model of Media Effects......34
Figure 3.1: Radio Station Table of a Organisation................................................43
Figure 4.1:  Secondary Gatekeeping Model..........................................................71
Figure 6.1: Comparability of Audience Preference for Issues and Issues 
                   Actually Reported in the News Reviews..........................................128
Figure.6.2: Parity of Extent of Prominence Radio Stations Accorded Public 
                Issues and Degree of Recognition Audience Gave to the Issues..........141
Figure 7.1: The GNA-Model of Eclectic News Selection Approach....................163
xi
CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND AND ARTICULATION OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
1.1 Introduction
News is not just the occurrence of events, but also an account of such events as 
reported by the appropriate news media. It is a reported piece of information (Agbese, 
2008; Alao and Osifeso, 2009) about current event(s) that have significance for the
people. Daily, across the world, millions of incidents happen: new children are born;
people, old and young, die; wars and crises break out; disasters, natural or man-made,
strike unannounced; man makes exciting scientific exploits; suicide bombers kill in
hundreds and thousands; monumental frauds are unearthed. In fact, the list is endless. 
It is from this plethora of events that the mass media select some items, process them,
and make them available for the consumption of the mass audience. Talking about this 
process of selection, Paul and Elder (2006:4) posit that: 
The logic of constructing news stories is parallel to the logic of 
writing history. In both cases, for events covered, there is both a 
massive background of facts and a highly restricted amount of
space to devote to those facts. The result in both cases is the 
The foregoing position of Paul and Elder paints a paradoxical picture of the news
selection process: it is just a fragment of the innumerable occurrences that the mass
media report to the public. This phenomenon is what Paul and Elder (2006:4) describe as 
The mass media are a fundamentally vital institution of th
democracies and social order. They constitute a significant part of the dominant means
of ideological construction because what they produce is considered the representation
and images of the social world. As events and issues occur daily, the mass media try to 
bring them to the consciousness of the public. They describe, explain and interpret 
events, and create the platforms for perception of how the world is, and why it operates
1
as it is reported and described to operate (Norris, 1995; Vreese, 2005; Watson, 2007).
surveillance on their environments. They gather and report events in the immediate and 
remote environments. The citizens see the media as a storehouse of information. For 
this reason, millions of people turn  eagerly to the news media the modern town crier 
and constructor of social reality (Eun-Ho, Kyung-Woo, and Afif, 2007) to satisfy 
their appetite for up-to-date information about the events that have significant impact
on their lives and conducts.
Through their agenda-setting role (Severin and Tankard, 2001; Watson, 2003; 
Sambe, 2005; McQuail, 2007), news selection and production functions, the mass
media help to shape public opinion and dictate public action (Baran, 2002; Soola, 
2007). However, not all the happenings can be reported by the mass media. Some
issues are reported, while some or even many are discarded (Aliagan, 2006; Paul 
and Elder, 2006). Two main reasons account for this: First, most of these events
potentially possess almost comparable status of importance. Second, the criteria for 
determining what is important are numerous, or quite often, intrinsically subjective and 
competing. Mass media actors usually consider certain events to be newsworthy. Such 
events are believed to possess significant implications for the target audience, the 
Within the media organisation, the individuals often with some level of
professional training and orientations  who decide what is to be reported, how it is to 
be reported, and what is to be discarded, are referred to as the media gatekeepers 
(McKain, 2005). The interaction between the media environment and these actors 
within the news production milieu, together with other socio-cultural forces, influences 
the editorial decisions as to what is discarded, and what is selected and reported as
news (McManus, 1995). In the process of news production, this critical role of 
deciding what and how stories are selected for media contents is called gatekeeping. In 
other words, gatekeeping, in mass media terrain, is conceptualised as the process by
which competing news items are sieved, shaped, and reduced into those few that are
eventually transmitted to the audience (Donohew, 2001; Shoemaker, Eichholz, Kim
and Wrigley, 2001; Paul and Elder, 2006). Gatekeeping is a complex mass media
process that involves multifarious activities, actors, forces, and stages which underpin
how media organisations select, reduce, construct, and transmit the social reality. It is 
2
about opening and closing the channels of communication; it is about granting or 
refusing access (Watson, 2003).
  Describing the gatekeeping process, Lewin, cited by Lyons (2002), says 
items encounter gate regions as they pass through various channels in the media
organisation. Also, the media gatekeepers, whose business it is to decide whether an 
item will scale through the gates, always encounter a lot of forces that influence their
decisions as they guard these gate regions. What the reporters consider as being 
newsworthy and what the editors eventually select as news items are always
determined by the aggregate of such forces. The audience, in some cases, are now
setting the agenda for selecting the information they consume on daily basis (Wright, 
2005; Min cited by Storm, 2007). This trend compels the editors to give the audience
what market findings indicate they prefer. If a media outfit fails to give what the 
audience want, other competing media organisations will definitely satisfy the 
audience.
Three kinds of influence that underscore how the inherent interplay between 
decisions were identified by Pearson, Brand, Archbold, and Rane (2001). The first is 
an agenda-
issues and their selection of news items or their prioritising of news schedules might be 
largely shaped by other media. The second is a lesser competitive influence, where
editors of a media organisation monitor other media in order to ensure their outlet is on 
top of the news agenda and not missing out on any significant news items. Pearson et 
on stories of which they might have been uninformed if other media did not make them
available. The third is a reference influence where a media organisation uses other 
media as a reference source something to be used to support an issue or to 
authenticate information before making it available to the audience.
 Interestingly, the profit-driven mentality of the liberal economy has 
intensified the magnitude of competition in the media market (Lyons, 2002; Fog,
2004). If gatekeeper X refuses to publish or broadcast certain information that the 
audience need, they (the audience) have the option of switching to gatekeeper Y or Z. 
The mass media radio, television, newspapers, and the Internet  co-exist and 
compete with one another (Thorburn and Jenkins, 2003). They are all operating
probably in the same market segment. And ultimately, each of these competing media
3
organisations must ensure that it remains perpetually afloat by offering what the 
numerous market forces demand. All these are instances of individual, cultural and 
Lyons, 2002; Barzilai-Nahon, 2008; Sang, 2008). 
The aggregate of these influences, as identified by Pearson et al., patently
underpins the trend in information dissemination process by the mass media, where 
certain media genre constantly monitors and reports the contents of other media,
probably to satisfy their audience and remain relevant in the news market. This
phenomenon is, in the context of this study, termed secondary gatekeeping (that is, 
secondary or second-level selection of information). In this case, the print media
newspapers especially serve as the primary gatekeepers because they gather, select,
process, and report facts which they consider significant from daily events. In the
process, they perform their agenda-setting function by selecting which public affairs 
stories will be reported, and giving special prominence to some stories at the expense
of others. Thus, the news media suggest which people, issues, and events are
especially deserving of public attention, and help to shape public attitudes and opinion
(Althaus and Tewksbury, 2002). The broadcast media, in addition to their primary
gatekeeping and agenda-setting functions, monitor, select and broadcast some portions
of the contents of the print media. Such secondary selection (Secondary gatekeeping)
is influenced by a myriad of yet-to-be-identified forces.
Specifically, the secondary gatekeeping function of radio in terms of structure
(procedure and content), forces (news values) and outcome (impact) is the primary
focus of this study. The study investigated how the radio stations selected and 
delivered the news items they reviewed, the dominant issues that they usually reviewed
from the newspapers, the rationale for discarding or selecting certain news items for
review, and the actual cognitive and behavioural impact of the reviews on the 
audience. The study also aimed at assessing the validity or otherwise of the claims as
to whether the secondary gatekeeping review of newspapers by radio stations in 
Nigeria actually had some adverse impact on the level of readership and sales of the 
newspapers or it indeed encouraged the radio audience to buy and read the reviewed
newspapers.
4
1.2 Secondary Gatekeeping in Nigerian Broadcast Stations
Of course, secondary gatekeeping is not a new practice. The newspapers supplied the
news of early radio stations, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States of
America (Streibert and Lewis, 1941). In Nigeria, before December 2008, the broadcast
media radio and television always reviewed contents of newspapers and news
magazines, and broadcast them to the mass audience. These secondary gatekeepers
(radio and television), usually adopted different methods to broadcast the contents of
other media they monitored. Some broadcast stations presented verbatim, almost the
entire contents of the news items they selected from newspapers or news magazines,
while some stations paraphrased the news items, or read only the headlines and the 
leads of the news stories. In some instances, some broadcast stations translated the
news stories from the English Language to the indigenous languages of the local
audience. The broadcast stations coined for the programme, different titles such as 
. In addition, the broadcast stations acknowledged their
sources by directly mentioning the names of the newspapers being reviewed and 
referring their audience to the pages or sections where the reviewed stories could be 
found in the newspapers. The leading Nigerian newspapers whose contents were 
reviewed by these broadcast stations, especially in South-Western Nigeria, were The
Guardian, The Nation, New Age, Nigerian Tribune , Daily Independent, The Punch, 
Oke-Ogun News, The Sun, This Day, and Vanguard, among others.
In 2008, the newspaper owners intensified their protest against this trend of 
secondary broadcasting and instigated some rounds of litigation against the broadcast
stations (Newswatch [Nigeria] March 3, 2008). Consequently, in December 2008, the
Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) and the Newspapers Proprietors 
Association of Nigeria (NPAN) met and BON announced a ban on the review of 
newspapers by radio and television stations in Nigeria. This however, seemed to have
little effect as the trend still continues, albeit in a more indirect style. The radio stations
now adopt a new style of review whereby the presenters neither acknowledge the
names of the selected newspapers that originally published the stories they review nor
make reference to the audience to the pages or sections of the newspapers where the 
reviewed stories could be found. Programme titles 
- Gbe
5
ou H -Tedo,
- . The stations, in a more blurry style, obliterate every trace 
of the sources of the news items they review. Most times, they embellish the reviews 
with locally sourced stories, and attribute substantial segments of the entire reviews to
their local reporters whom they refer to as stringers (local informants).
The motives for this secondary gatekeeping by the Nigerian broadcast media
might be as noted earlier  to remain firmly relevant in the ever competitive market,
it by broadcasting programmes that appeal to 
Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) had alleged that these reviews were 
adversely affecting the sales and readership of newspapers, and had consequently
forced some newspapers out of circulation (Newswatch [Nigeria] March 3, 2008). It
was further claimed that once the audience listened to the reviews, they felt they had 
heard all the relevant information the newspapers had for them, then, they (the
audience) no longer had the usual appetite to buy or read the papers (Ojebode, 2009).
This trend has expectedly generated a lot of comments, issues and criticism
from the general public and stakeholders as to why the broadcast stations continue to
review though indirectly in most cases the contents of newspapers, especially long
Sunday Punch [Nigeria] August 8, 2010:14) reflects
this feeling as he contends that: 
The argument has often been that anybody that hears the stories
over the radio or television may decide not to buy the newspaper. It 
has to be made clear that newspaper outfits are losing enormous
amount of money on
newsbreak as a result of this review. Many readers, especially those 
that are not concerned about documenting newspapers reports, have 
jettisoned the idea of buying newspapers because they are sure of 
an unhinde
period.
  The foregoing argument by Ayankunbi and the position held by the 
Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and the Broadcasting
Organisation of Nigeria (BON) are proximate. Evidently, both NPAN and BON 
centred the ban on the review programmes on emotional sentiments as there are no 
6
empirical proofs or reliable statistics yet
knowledge, to establish such claims or show that readership and sales of the 
newspapers were related to review of the newspapers by the broadcast stations.
Interestingly, however, some individuals have claimed that the reviews actually
inspired them to buy the newspapers (Ojebode, 2009).
  What transformed to the contemporary secondary gatekeeping
practice by radio stations (as the case in Nigeria) could be traced to the early radio-
newspaper synergy. The first radio stations got most of their news contents from
newspapers (Streibert and Lewis, 1941; Ayankunbi, 2010). As
radio stations in the United States of America had established a symbiotic relationship 
with the newspapers. The inception of radio broadcasting witnessed a phenomenon
where press associations supplied their news contents directly to radio networks. Radio
news presenters were allowed to make free use of the news from the press associations. 
This practice served as a catalyst for the growth of news programmes on the various 
radio stations, and made both the newspapers and the radio stations to become more
popular among the audience. However, the progressive popularity and success of radio
broadcasting as a medium for both news and advertisement gave the press services and 
the newspaper publishers a serious concern. Thus, the press associations discontinued
their supply of news to radio in March1930 (Streibert and Lewis, 1941). 
Despite the breakdown of the press-radio agreement, the demand for more
news on the radio continued to increase. Therefore, in 1935, the International News
Service and the United Press Associations felt compelled to resume service to radio 
networks. In March 1939, the press-radio relation was further enhanced when the 
Associated Press decided to give its news services to the radio networks for non-
commercial and non-sponsored purposes. The same news contents that were made
available to the radio stations were also reported by newspapers. From the 1930s, till
date, radio continues to whet the appetite of the mass audience for newspaper reading. 
It does this by broadcasting news contents of newspapers. As explained earlier, this
similar appellations (Ojebode, 2002).  With this trend of media synergy and blend of 
journalistic genres (Streibert and Lewis, 1941; Riedel, 2008), the spate of competition
between the press (newspapers) and the radio stations has increased, and the audience 
have more options as to where to be informed of the daily news reports. 
7
1.3 Brief History of Radio as a Medium of Mass Communication
Radio as a medium of mass communication involves the transmission process whereby
sound signals are sent and received through electromagnetic waves (Sambe, 2005). As 
far back as the late nineteenth century, researchers had intensified efforts to liberate 
electronic communication from the wire. These efforts were inspired by the 
observations earlier made by Michael Faraday an English Physicist that (a) an 
electric current travels in a circuit, and returns to the source of energy once the circuit 
is broken; and (b) a magnetic field is generated around an electronic circuit, while the 
circuit lasts, and disappears once the circuit gets back to the source of energy.
Similarly, in 1864, James Clark Maxwell, Professor of experimental physics at 
Cambridge University, had predicted that electrical charges and their magnetic
properties could be exploited to transmit messages (Folarin, 1999).  The implication of 
Heinrich Hertz, German Professor of physics, carried out a series of experiments to test 
ion, and eventually established the validity of the prediction. 
However, none of the scientists was able to solely produce a perfect system of wireless 
communication. Thus, radio as the first form of wireless communication was a product
of the concerted efforts of various inventors. Prominent among these scientists are 
Guglielmo Marconi, Reginald Fessenden, and Lee De Forest (Folarin, 1999; 
Dominick, Messere, and Sherman, 2004). 
In 1896, Marconi started experimenting with radio transmitters and receivers
a
findings. Eventually, he was able to transmit a radio signal over a mile distance. 
Marconi signalled the dawn of the age of radio, when in December 1901, he 
successfully sent ,
covering a distance of more than 2,000 nautical miles. He had earlier formed his 
wireless telegraphy system company after he had been granted a patent by the British 
in 1896 (Baran, 
However, the next hurdle was the transmission of human voices by wireless
communication. Other scientists realised this challenge and intensified their quest. 
Therefore, in 1903, Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian-born electrical engineer, came up 
with the solution when he built a high-speed alternator (liquid barreter), the first audio 
device that could permit continuous reception of human voices through wireless 
8
process (Folarin, 1999; Baran, 2002).  On Christmas Eve, 1906, Fessenden 
demonstrated the efficacy of his alternator when he sent human voice signals across to
people on ships on the eastern coast of the United State of America. That was the first 
 and the beginning of a new age for radio with
One major challenge still confronted radio transmission device developed by 
Marconi: Weak incoming voice signals especially over a fairly long distance could not 
be amplified. Later, around 1910, during his experiments with something called a
Fleming Valve (Dominick et al. 2004), Lee De Forest surmounted the challenge. He 
invented the audion tube, a vacuum tube that improved and amplified wireless signals 
over a long distance. De Fore
(Baran, 2002). The audion tube invented by De Forest really improved transmission
and reception of wireless signals. But it was later refined into the vacuum tube which 
eventually formed the basis of all radio transmissions. This continued until the 1950s, 
when the transistor and solid state electronics replaced the vacuum tube (Folarin, 1999;
Baran, 2002; Dominick, 2004; Sambe, 2005).
 time till today, radio has received remarkable improvements
and has been adopted as an effective mass communication medium spreading fast 
f the whole world and to the ubiquitous companion
Titanic saga of 1912,
and the military/propagandist instrument during the World War I, radio has burst on 
the scene and become a global craze because of its inherent ability to catalyse national 
development.
1.4 Advent of Radio Broadcasting in Nigeria
The advent of radio in Nigeria is dated back to 1932 when a monitoring
station/listening post was built in Lagos. The project was designed within the 
framework of the British Corporation Empire Services, and was meant to experiment
Station transformed into a Radio Distribution Station (RDS) in 1936, with the
assistance from the Post and Telegraphs Department. In the same year, the Plymouth
Committee proposed a remarkably adapted BBC model for radio broadcasting in
Nigeria and all other British colonies.
9
Later in 1939, the colonial Public Relations Office, which later became Federal
Department of Information, started to supply the Radio Distribution Station (RDS) 
with cultural programmes that featured Nigerian artistes. The RDS moved to Ikoyi
ds between 
1946 and 1950 witnessed the establishment of radio stations in the three regions of the
country.
In an attempt to improve radio services in Nigeria, government in 1948 set up 
the Turner-Byron Commission. The mandate of the Commission was to look into the 
broadcasting imperatives of Nigeria and other British West African colonies. 
Subsequently, the Committee recommended a wireless system of radio broadcasting 
for Nigeria, and advocated the replacement of all old broadcasting equipment (Sambe,
2005). In addition, 1,200 radio sets and 8,000 rediffusion boxes were sold in Nigeria. 
On April 1, 1951, the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) was inaugurated.
In 1954, broadcasting became a concurrent legislative matter in Nigeria, and 
two years later (1956), the NBC Act was enacted. Shortly in 1957, the Nigerian
Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) was established purposely to produce a nationally
representative domestic service and an external service. In May 1959, the Western 
Nigerian Broadcasting Service (WNBS) was established after the Western Region
Government had signed a contract with an overseas Rediffusion Company for the 
establishment of a television and radio station. Thus, the Western Nigeria became the
first region to own a TV and a radio station in Africa (Duyile, 1989; Sambe, 2005).
With the emergence of military government, the NBC Act of 1956 was amended in
1961 to empower the Federal Minister of Information to give directives to the NBC on
matters of policy and appointment of board members. Also, in 1962, the Federal 
Military Government inaugurated the NBC External Service Voice of Nigeria.
The military government demonstrated some dynamism in the area of
communication development as it approved and inaugurated AM/FM stereo in 1977 as 
a second sound channel. One year after, government re-organised the NBC, and
the promulgation of Decree No. 8 of April 1978. Subsequently, in 1980, FRCN zones
were established in Lagos, Kaduna, Ibadan, and Enugu, while FRCN stations were also 
established in the states of the federation. The early 1990s witnessed the emergence of
the first few private radio stations after the liberalisation and decentralisation policy of
the Federal Government. Before 1992 when Broadcasting in Nigeria was fully de-
10
regulated, the broadcast media were owned and controlled either by the National,
Regional or State Governments. This monopoly continued until the promulgation of 
Decree 38 of 1992, under the leadership of General Babangida. The decree and its
amendment have been adopted as Acts of the National Assembly numbers 38 and 55.
This development compelled Government to really take a decisive step to discontinue 
with its perennial monopoly of the broadcast sector. The decree established the 
National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and charged it with the responsibility of 
regulating and deregulating broadcasting in Nigeria. The law also empowered the NBC
to license stations, regulate content and, generally, set standards for quality
broadcasting across the country.
 The emergence of the new regulatory framework has significantly changed the 
broadcast landscape in Nigeria: It has allowed private ownership of radio and 
television in the country. At present, as a result of that revolution in the Nigerian 
broadcast industry, the number of broadcasting stations in the country has, at the last
count, moved to 394, from less than 30 before deregulation. These include 55 private 
companies licensed to offer radio broadcasting services. Over 90% of these private 
radio stations are operational across the country (see appendix). Also, the Commission
has licensed 25 companies to offer television service; 34 companies to provide 
Wireless Cable; and five (5) companies to offer Direct to Home (DTH) Satellite 
Television Platforms across the nation (National Broadcasting Commission, 2011).
 1.5 Articulation of Research Problem
Despite the prevalence of secondary gatekeeping in the Nigerian Broadcast media, the 
practice is yet to receive attention of communication researchers. Various scholars (for 
example, McManus,1995; Clayman and Reisner, 1998; Shepard, 1999; Donohew,
2001; Shoemaker, Eichholz, Kim and Wrigley, 2001; Lyons,2002; Fog, 2004; Bazilai-
Nahon, 2005, Bazilai-Nahon, 2008; Sang, 2008) have carried out studies on how and 
why some news items are given access to in the media channels, while others are
prevented or ignored. However, hardly does any of these studies come from Nigeria or 
focus on the Nigerian media system. Most of the studies on media gatekeeping come
from America, Europe, and Asia. Also, the studies predominantly concentrate on
primary gatekeeping in the print media, thus creating a gulf in respect of secondary
gatekeeping in the broadcast media, radio in particular. For instance, Clayman and 
Reisner (1998) conducted a study among editors of purposively selected eight 
11
metropolitan and rural-based American newspapers to investigate the actual
procedures (structure) through which the editors render gatekeeping decisions. 
Donohew (2001) carried out a study on why media gatekeepers in Kentucky selected
or published certain items and suppressed the others.  Also, Lyons (2002) conducted a 
study on gatekeeping decisions by editors of a South Florida-based newspaper. 
In addition, given the new trend of growing competition occasioned by 
liberalisation of the media and communications industries as asserted by Olorunnisola
(2007), and the emergence of new media, the media audience now have greater
freedom and a wide range of alternatives from where to get information about events
that affect their lives (Thorburn and Jenkins, 2003; Morrisett, 2004). This trend has 
compelled media organisations to be more sensitive to their roles to transmit or publish
what the audience really want and what they can get from other competing media
(Lyons, 2002). This phenomenon and other forces have modified or complicated the
process of traditional gatekeeping as some media organisations now monitor others,
reproduce and report to the audience, contents of other competing media. Riedel 
(2008) describes this practice as secondary gatekeeping a trend yet to receive serious 
attention of media scholars, especially in Nigeria. 
Based on the phenomena presented above, the complexities of secondary
gatekeeping, especially in terms of the procedure followed (structure); the news values 
and other criteria that are always applied (forces); and the impact on the media
organisations and the audience (outcome), deserved scholarly attention. Therefore, this 
current study attempted to fill the identified gap by extending the scholarly
conversation to the context of secondary gatekeeping in the broadcast media
especially radio in Nigeria.   
The dearth of empirical studies on secondary media gakeeping in the Nigerian 
broadcast industry, coupled with the fact already established that emerging forces are
changing the media gatekeeping configuration, makes this study worthwhile. The 
fundamental questions that presented the gap that this study intended to fill are: What 
major forces really influence the editorial decisions of secondary media gatekeepers?
Do the news reviews actually drive radio audience to read or buy newspapers? Do 
radio stations have bias for specific public issues or news values in their news reviews? 
How have the radio stations fared in using their news review programmes to inform 
the audience of daily events and set public agenda?  Because of the normative values 
that prescribe how the mass media operate in their peculiar environments (Folarin, 
12
1998; Watson, 2003; McQuail, 2007), it is relevant to investigate and establish, with 
empirical evidence, how Nigeria radio stations perform secondary gatekeeping; the
factors that always guide the media operators in their secondary news selection
decisions; the justification for secondary gatekeeping by these  radio stations; the 
implications of this practice for the corporate survival of the affected media types; the
impact of this trend on expectations, and perception of social reality; and 
how the trend affects the audience  decision in terms of their choice of, and 
preference for, one media type or the other. The identified variables served as the basic
premise for this study.
1.5.1 Research Questions
Against the premise articulated above in the statement of the problem, the following 
research questions were formulated. These research questions were used to pilot the 
study while the answers they generated formed the core findings of the study.
(1) What criteria are applied in the selection of items for broadcast in news review
programmes?
(2) What topic areas are most frequently discussed in news reviews by the radio    
stations?
(3) To what extent do the contents of news reviews by the radio stations satisfy the 
audience expectations and urge to be informed of the daily happenings in their
environments?
(4) How well do radio stations set public agenda by their secondary gatekeeping?
(5) What is the extent of eagerness of radio audience to read the news contents of 
newspapers after listening to the daily broadcasts of news review by radio 
stations?
1.5.2 Research Hypotheses
To complement the research questions presented above, one alternate and five null 
hypotheses were constructed for this study. The combination of research questions and
hypotheses would enrich the quality of the study. The hypotheses are listed as follows:
13
H 1.1: News editors always demonstrate bias for some news values in their editorial   
decisions, while selecting items for news reviews. 
Ho 2.1: In terms of themes, there is no statistically significant difference in the
contents of news reviews by federal, state and private radio stations.
Ho 2.2: In terms of proximity, there is no statistically significant difference in the
contents of news reviews by federal, state and private radio stations.
Ho 2.3: In terms of the frequencies of duration, and extraneous comments added by 
the presenters, there is no statistically significant difference between the news 
reviews presented in the English Language and those presented in the Yoruba 
Language.
Ho 3.1     There is no statistically significant relationship
frequency of listening to news review programmes on radio and their 
willingness to read newspapers.
Ho 3.2    There is no statistically significant relationship
frequency of listening to news review programmes on radio and their frequency
of buying newspapers. 
1.6 Purpose of the Study 
Specifically, the study examined the procedure followed by editorial teams while
performing secondary gatekeeping exercise. The study further examined the forces and 
factors (newsworthiness values) that usually influenced the editorial decisions of 
media gatekeepers in terms of what they considered newsworthy enough to pass 
through the gate region and form contents of the news review programmes, and what 
they prevented from getting to the audience.
Also, the study investigated rocess
shaped the structure of the news they disseminated to the mass audience. That is, the 
study examined the composition
in terms of the issues that always featured prominently and most frequently at the 
expense of others.
Furthermore, the study assessed the extent to which radio stations, through 
their news review programmes, sustained the interest of the audience and informed
them of the daily happenings in their environments. Here, the packaging and the
delivery devices employed by the on-air personnel of the radio stations to present the
secondary content matters were examined.
14
In addition, the study aimed at investigating the extent to which radio stations, 
through their news review programmes, influenced the audience to see and interpret
societal issues in the same way the mass media (radio stations) presented such issues. 
This was directed at proving the validity or otherwise of the theoretical proposition
that the mass media have the power, through repeated coverage and emphasis given to 
an issue, to make the audience treat such an issue with the same degree of  significance
the mass media ascribe to it (Severin and Tankard, 2001).
Moreover, the study attempted to assess the impact of news review
programmes on the audience in terms of the extent to which he audience patronised 
newspapers after listening to news review on radio. This specifically was to reveal
whether or not listening to news reviews on radio stations could drive the radio 
listeners to buy newspapers and or read contents of newspapers after listening to the 
secondary content matters presented by radio stations.
1.7 Significance of the Study 
This study would provide for media researchers and theorists a new perspective of
studying media gatekeeping specifically in respect of its other variant secondary
gatekeeping especially when the objective is to domesticate the study within the
normative variables that determine how the media industry fare in the given social 
context. Findings of the study would contribute to knowledge and literature in the
domain of the communication theories upon which the entire study is anchored, and in 
the area of secondary media gatekeeping, especially in radio broadcasting as a medium
of news dissemination.
Through seminars, workshops and publishing in journals and chapters of 
books, findings of this study would sensitise and educate radio stations managers,
editors, and news producers to evaluate the extent to which they satisfy their audience
in terms of production of programmes that educate the audience and update them with 
the events in their immediate and remote environments. This would ultimately enable 
media types that serve the same sets of audience. Similarly, when findings of this study
are made public, stakeholders in development projects would find the findings 
valuable by enabling them to measure the scope and strength of radio in its broadcast 
of development-centred messages within the context of news reviews, which was the 
primary focus of this study. 
15
Secondary gatekeeping as an emerging trend in the media ecosystem, where 
one medium feeds on the other to keep the circle going, deserves more scholarly
attention in terms of research. This study would, therefore, help to sensitise
communication researchers to carry out further investigations especially in the areas of
media bias and ethics, and how the interface between these core factors shapes media
contents.
1.8 Scope of the Study 
The focus of this study was secondary gatekeeping in radio broadcasting. Specifically, 
the study covered the aspect of news review where radio stations directly or indirectly
monitor and report the news contents of other news media. The major radio stations in 
Oyo State (Premier FM, Radio O-Y-O, also known as Broadcasting Corporation of
Oyo State Radio [BCOS], and Splash FM) were studied. Although, Nigerian broadcast
media could also get news contents from other mass media such as the News Agency
of Nigeria (NAN), Cable Network News (CNN), British Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC), and other foreign news agencies, this study primarily focused on newspaper
reviews by the selected radio stations in Oyo State, Nigeria. 
Audience of these radio stations formed a segment of the human population for
this study. The audience who always listened to the news reviews by the radio stations
were selected from the senatorial districts of Oyo State (Oyo North, Oyo, Oyo Central,
and Oyo South), which were the coverage areas of the radio stations selected for this
study. In addition, editors and producers of news review programmes of the selected 
radio stations, and some journalists in Oyo State were interviewed to establish how 
they (radio editors and producers) make, and what always guided their journalistic and
editorial decisions in terms of selection of news items from the primary sources, and 
how they (journalists) perceived the impact of news reviews by radio stations on 
economic survival of newspapers.
1.9 Justifications for the Scope of the Study 
Oyo State was chosen as the geographical focus for this study not only because it is 
Nigeria) but also because the radio stations in the state represented the pattern of the 
national broadcast system in Nigeria. The three radio stations (Premier FM, Radio O-
Y-O, and Splash FM) selected for this study are owned by the Federal Government,
16
the Oyo State Government, and a private individual respectively. This pattern of
ownership is a reflection of the trend in the Nigerian broadcast media system after
1992, when the Federal government liberalised the sector. The choice of the three 
radio stations would essentially enable the study to explore the dimension of 
ownership as one of the major potential forces that were likely to have influence on the
editorial decisions of media actors.
 Secondary gatekeeping news review was a common practice of the three
radio stations selected for this study and all these stations broadcast the programme
around the same broadcast belt (starting from 6:30-9:30am). This period is strategic: 
many civil servants and other categories of people are always eager to be informed of
the latest news of the day before they set out for that day, and they rely on the mass
media to get the news. Radio, given its unique nature, is probably the media genre to
first bring the news to the mass audience. Managers of the radio stations must have 
been aware of this fact as they targeted the early hours of the day when majority of the
audience would not have had access to the contents of other media, especially
newspapers. Potentially, this critical phenomenon was likely to have some implications
for the rival radio stations, which had almost the same coverage areas, and the
newspapers which might not get to the audience until after the radio stations must have
broadcast the latest news of the day, coupled with the 
contents served as the primary sources for substantial portions of the news reviews. 
The foregoing situation informed the choice of the news review segment of the daily 
broadcasts of the radio stations.
1.10 Limitations 
This study focused only on radio broadcast. The restriction
review might limit the results of the study, as the findings might not be applicable in 
other media types. Another factor that could limit the generalisation of the findings of
this study to other radio stations in Nigeria is that the radio stations selected for this 
study are all from Oyo State.  Furthermore, this study focused on news review by radio 
stations and impact of this programme on radio audience frequency of buying and
reading newspapers, but not on the numerical indicators of sales figures recorded by 
the newspaper vendors. Thus, this study did not provide statistical evidence to show
the direct effect of news review by radio stations on the actual sales volume of 
newspapers. In addition, this study did not employ an experimental approach; 
17
therefore, the findings here could be limited in terms of establishing a strong causality
between audience frequencies of listening to newspaper reviews and their patronage of 
newspapers. In spite of these limitations, the study provides an insightful springboard
for further research into how secondary gatekeeping is practised in other media types,
and the possible effect of secondary gatekeeping by radio stations on survival of 
newspapers in Nigeria.
1.11 Operationalized Definitions of Terms 
News Review: This is a programme in which radio and television stations broadcast, in
part or in full, news contents of newspapers, news magazines or other news media. In 
the past, these broadcast stations used to directly and fully acknowledge the 
newspapers whose news contents they reviewed. However, the trend in most radio 
stations, as at the time of this study, was that these news newspapers were no longer
fully acknowledged.
Secondary Gatekeeping: This is a recycled, secondary or second-level selection and
dissemination of information. It is a process where certain media type constantly 
monitors and reports the contents of other media. In this case, the print media
newspapers especially serve as the primary gatekeepers because they gather, select,
process, and report facts which they consider significant from daily events. The 
broadcast media, in addition to their primary gatekeeping and agenda-setting functions, 
monitor, select and broadcast some portions of the contents of the print media. News 
and editorial reviews by Nigerian broadcast media are examples of secondary
gatekeeping.
Criteria: In this context, the term, criteria, is used to explain the decisive factors in
the newsroom operations. These criteria cover two broad categories forces and news
values.
Forces are those internal and external factors that always influence what journalists
and editors select as news and what they discard from among the competing daily
events. Examples of such forces are
demographic variables, influence of competitors, audience interest, impact of ideology
and culture,  roles conception and evaluation, market forces, internal values, and
political alliances of the media organisation.
18
News Values are the professional norms that journalists use to decide what is 
newsworthy. They serve as the yardstick for determining which out of competing
issues should be included in the list of news to be disseminated to the mass audience.
.
Structure: This is the composition of the contents of the news review programmes by
radio stations and the procedures through which the radio stations select and report 
such news contents. It also implies procedure and delivery techniques in terms of the 
linear movement of news items from the primary gatekeepers (newspapers) and to the
secondary gatekeepers (radio stations and their editorial teams) before the news items
finally get to the audience.
Outcome: Outcome, in this context, refers to the impact of the various forces at the 
media gate regions on the structure of news contents of the selected radio stations, and
the consequences that the secondary gatekeeping of the radio stations are likely to have
on the audience. The impact may manifest in the cognitive and behavioural reactions 
of the audience in terms of their perception/interpretation of social reality, eagerness to 
buy or read newspapers, empowerment through development-centred news, awareness
of events in the immediate and remote environments, and taking political decisions.
Stringers: These are individuals who serve as informants by helping some media
organisations to gather and post information from different sources, especially from
remote, local areas where regular staff of the news media are not present. These 
individuals are not fully employed by the media organisations they serve. Rather, they 
collect commissions according to the volume of information they supply. They serve
as local correspondents.
19
CHAPTER TWO
THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS
2.1 Introduction
This section presents a review of theoretical perspectives that are relevant and make
significant contribution to the core focus of this study. Review of relevant theories
provides the ideological framework for a good scholarly work. A study without any
theory or model to substantiate its findings or claims would be hanging and may lack 
universal acceptability. The gatekeeping theory, the theory of newsworthiness, and the 
agenda-setting theory of communication are selected to form the theoretical base for 
this study.  
A lot of events happen daily, and these usually compete for space in the news
media, but only a fraction of them get to the audience through the media (Paul and 
Elder, 2006). The success of the potential news items is always determined by the 
individuals at the media region. In turn, the decisions of these media actors as to what
items are selected as news are frequently influenced by diverse forces attached to the 
various gate sections in the news media organisations (Shoemaker, Eichholz, Kim and
of social reality, the mass media help to shape public opinions, prompt trends of public
debates, and dictate public actions (Baran, 2002; Soola, 2007). The foregoing
submissions, which capture the thrust of this study, fall in the ambits of the three
theories identified earlier, and other relevant models selected for the study.
2.2 Gatekeeping Theory
Gatekeeping as a theoretical concept was first coined in 1947 by Kurt Lewin, a social
psychologist. In his post-World War II work, Frontiers in Group Dynamics, a research
on social change, Lewin proposed a gatekeeping process, whic
Kim and Wrigley,   2001:234). Lewin suggested a model that explained how food 
items that came from different channels had to travel through several gates before
20
represent the individuals who are engaged in the acts of buying, transporting, and 
preparing the food items before they become available for the final consumers. In each 
section of the channel, the food items undergo some manipulation before their final 
destination. Lewin reported that in the groups he studied, housewives controlled the 
pattern of decision-making process in terms of food habits and activities by
establishing behavioural barriers and incentives. He described these housewives as
gatekeepers. Therefore, viewing the societal impact of gatekeepers as a matter of
change is to pay attention to influential individuals, who control the flow of goods and 
ideas through the societal spectrum (Clayman and Reisner, 1998; Shoemaker, 2001; 
Barzilai-Nahon, 2007, 2008). 
various fields 
of scholarship such as Information Science, Political Science, Law, Management,
Sociology, and notably, Communication Studies. Although, he did not originally apply
the theory to communication studies, Lewin had suggested that his gatekeeping theory 
 et al., 2001:233 ).
2.2.1 Gatekeeping in Communication
Within the framework of communication, gatekeeping is simply conceptualised as the 
process by which competing news items are sieved, shaped, and reduced into those 
few that are eventually transmitted to the audience. It stipulates that in a media
organisation, there are individuals who control the flow of information, language and 
knowledge (Donohew, 2001). McKain (2005:416) describes gatekeeping as a process
the context of mass communication. According to them, the channels are the gates
the individuals or organisations in the communication process (that is, the reporters 
and editors, or the media outlets they work for), who select items that are
communicated to the audience, especially when such items are not within the 
21
immediate reach of the audience. This simple model describes the elements in the
gatekeeping process through which information travels from discovery to transmission.
In the context of the news media, channels refer to 
communication linkages, whether they are passages in the
source-journalist relationship or within media organisations 
themselves. Sections are events or states of being that occur
within each channel, e.g. the editing process, and a channel may
have multiple sections, such as multiple editing points. Gates
are decision points at which items may be stopped or moved
from section to section or channel to channel. Gatekeepers are
either the individuals or the sets of routine procedures that 
determine whether items pass through the gates (Shoemaker, et
al., 2001:235). 
It is evident from the foregoing descriptions that gatekeeping in mass communication
is a complex systemic process, involving multifarious activities, actors, forces, and 
stages that define how media organisations select, shrink, construct, and transmit the 
accessing or refusing acces
news items, information or entertainment get to mass audience (Pearson, Nelson, 
Titsworth and Harter, 2006).
2.2.2
David Manning White became the first schol
concept to mass communication. In 1950, he conducted a case study in the news
editor on an American non-metropolitan newspaper Peoria Star, a morning
newspaper selected some stories and discarded others (Watson, 2003; Sang, 2008). 
Eventually, White came up with a simple model to explain the gatekeeping process in
mass communication. The model is presented below.
22
Gatekeeping Model (1950)
Source: Watson, J. 2003.Mass communication: An introduction to theory and   process. 2nd ed. 
New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 133 
23
ure 2.1 shows that in the gatekeeping process, there are a 
number of potential news items (N1, 2, 3, 4), coming from different sources (N). At the 
gate is the sub-editor (Mr Gate), who decides what items to be selected and which to be 
discarded. In the process, the N2 and N3 have been selected, while the N1 and N4 are
discarded. After going through modification, N21 and N31 become mediated information
eventually communicated to the audience (M
news selection process at the expense of other forces such as media routines, socio-
cultural influences and other criteria for selection or rejection of news items. It also fails
to appreciate the fact that in news gatekeeping, there are various gates, and at each level 
of gate keeping, modification to the selected news items occurs (Sang, 2008; Watson,
2003; Shoemaker et al., 2001). 
2.2.3
Communication
the gatekeeping process in mass communication. The model is presented in figure 2.2 as
follows:
24
25
The gatekeeping model by Westley and McLean as shown in figure 2.2 above explains
that the source /reporter (A) gathers and passes information to the editor (C). The editor 
performs the role of the gatekeeper by deciding what items of the information are to be 
selected as news, and which items are to be thrown away. While making these decisions, 
attitude, interest, demographics, age, and experiences. When the selected news items are 
published, they get to the consumer (B), who may receive the information positively or 
negatively depending on how the gatekeeper at the gate region views and constructs the 
news. The consumer (B) may give feedback to the source (A) or the gatekeeper (C).
2.2.4 Levels of Gatekeeping Mechanism
According to Shoemaker et al. (2001:234), Shoemaker (2006), and Barzinlai-Nahon
(2008), the assessment of the gatekeeping process occurs on five stages of analysis.
These levels are (1) the individual level, (2) the routines level, (3) the organisational
level, (4) the institutional level, and (5) the societal level. The individual level refers to
the extent to which individuals reporters and news editors are responsible for the
interpretations of events or issues, decision making, roles conception and values affect
the gatekeeping process.  The routines level has to do with structural elements such as
patterned, repeated, internalised activities that usually guide journalists in their daily
assignments. The organisational level comprises those internal values or variables that 
decision-making patterns. The institutional level refers to the external characteristics of
media organisations and their external representatives that affect their gatekeeping
business. These factors may include political alliances, market forces, influence of 
competitor, and other social institutions. The social level looks at those normative factors 
such as the impact of ideology and culture on media gatekeeping process. Citing 
Shoemaker and Reese, McManus (1995) explains that the five stages of analysis are
interdependent as what happens at one level affects the structure of the next level, and 
this may produce a chain effect across the five stages. MacManus, therefore, presents a 
hierarchical model to summarise the inter-relatedness of the five-level analysis of news
forces. The model is presented in Fig. 2.3 as follows: 
26
                                                                                            Ideological (social system)
              level
 Extramedia (institutional)
             level
 Organisational level
Media routines level
 Individual level
Source: McManus, J. 1995. Market-based model of news production. Communication
Theory 5.4:303
27
From a differing point of view, Zeh (2009) presents an abridged version of
Barzinlai-
levels namely: (1) the micro level or the level of the individual gatekeeper, (2) the
organizational level, and (3) the macro level, which consists of influences from the
surrounding environment and society. The macro level is similar to Barzinlai-
first and second levels the individual and the routine levels. The macro level as 
identified by Zeh accommodates Barzinlai-
which are the fourth and the fifth levels respectively.
2.3 The Theory of Newsworthiness
 The theory of newsworthiness examines the characteristics of events and topics that are
selected as news in terms of their news values (Elders, 2006; Shoemaker, 2006; Zeh 
2009; McGregor, 2010). The newsworthiness theory is anchored on the following tenets 
that:
(a) news value determines the chances of an event to be selected as news by
gatekeepers.
(b)  the higher the news value of an event or social reality, the higher is its 
probability of being considered for publication as news, whereby the 
newsworthiness of an event is determined by diverse news factors. That is,
the newsworthiness factor explains why some events or issues of social
reality are selected as news while others are neglected by gatekeepers. 
(c)  journalists use professional norms called news values, such as proximity,
impact, magnitude, timeliness/freshness, oddity/bizarre, conflict,
celebrity and human interest, to decide what is newsworthy (Lasorsa, 2008;
Media Awareness Network, 2010).
(d) the concept of newsworthiness is not limited to which item is selected as 
news, it is also signified through the space allocated to the story, the position
of the story, and the visual or vocal emphasis the story receives. That is,
newsworthiness of an event selected for publication is usually noticed
through the overall editorial significance or emphasis the story is accorded.
The term news value was introduced by Walter Lippmann in 1922 to describe 
characteristics or features of an event. It is also known as news factors. Charles Merz
conducted the first empirical study of this concept. He identified four elements of news:
conflict, personality, prominence, and suspense (Schwarz, 2009; Zeh 2009).
28
One of the first scholars to look for explanations on why international news flow
seems to be distorted was Einar Östgaard. In 1965, Östgaard presented a rather complex
theory to explain this phenomenon (Watson, 2003). He explained that some countries got 
more media attention than others, irrespective of their sizes. He further asserted that there
are certain characteristics of news that make these countries particularly interesting for 
journalists. These features are (a) simplicity, (b) identification, and (c) sensationalism. 
Thus, events that are fresh, simple and odd; that have a high degree of sensationalism and 
identification or relevance (for the readers) are newsworthy and are most likely to be 
considered as news ahead of others that lack the attributes (Folarin, 1998; Ufuophi-Biri,
2006; Alao and Osifeso, 2009).
Of course, the foregoing submission is right to a very large extent. Human
beings, by nature, are eager to know about new events in their environment; they are
curious about events that appear unusual or abnormal, and events that have significance
for them or for their relatives. 
In 1965, Galtung and Ruge published a study that listed 12 news factors that may
determine the newsworthiness of an event (Watson, 2003; Schwarz, 2009). These factors 
are enumerated below:
Frequency: If the time span of an event fits the timeliness of a medium, the event has the
higher probability of being selected for publication. 
Threshold (intensity/increase). Before an event is noticed or considered by the medium,
the intensity or force of the event has to pass a certain threshold. The bigger 
the increase in intensity, the higher is the likelihood for it to be covered.
Intelligibility (simplicity): An event that is simple and clear has the chances for
publication.
Meaningfulness (proximity and relevance). Events with far-reaching consequences or
impact (for a large number of people) with direct effects for the lives of the
media
attention.
Consonance (predictability): The more an event fits expectations of the recipients, the
better its chances are in becoming news.
Unexpectedness (unpredictability): The more surprising or unusual an event is, the better
its chances are in becoming news.  
Continuity: Once an event has been defined as news, it will stay as news, even if its
intensity drops.
29
Composition: If the news is dominated by a certain type of event or topic, a 
complementary topic has good odds in becoming news to balance the 
overall representation of the news.
Reference to elite nation: Events that take place in powerful (politically, economically, 
and militarily) nations naturally get more media attention.
Reference to elite persons: Analogous to the previous factor, the media are more attentive
and sensitive to events in which powerful, prominent or influential persons
are involved.
Reference to persons: Generally speaking, the media prefer events that can be seen as 
actions of identifiable persons over abstract events. This has to do with
concreteness of such events.
Reference to something negative: If it bleeds, it leads. Damage, disaster, conflict, and 
negative consequences raise the chance of an event to be selected as news
by media actors. 
The first eight factors, according to Galtung and Ruge, are compatible with
general rules of human perception and are considered to be stable across different 
cultures. They are called culture-free criteria. The last four are considered to be peculiar
to the Western culture and are expected to vary along the north-south or centre-periphery
alignment. These last four, therefore, are tagged culture-bound criteria (Schwarz, 2009). 
 However, Zeh (2009) argues that some of the news factors identified by Galtung 
and Ruge contradict themselves. For instance, he contends that an event usually cannot 
be predictable and surprising at the same time.  
This argument by Zeh is valid, at least to some extent. The more predictable an 
event is, the less the degree of suspense or surprise such events has, and vice versa. And 
when an event has an insignificant element of surprise, editors may not consider such an 
event as being newsworthy. This is what Galtung and Ruge have failed to realise.
However, it is not in all occasions that a less surprising event may not be considered by 
editors. An event that is low on the dimension of surprise, but is high on another
factor(s), may be selected for publication or broadcast by the news editors. Zeh describes
this as complementarity. Consequently, he postulates five hypotheses concerning how 
these factors constitute the newsworthiness of an event:
(1) The more an event satisfies the criteria mentioned, the more likely that it will be 
registered   as news (selection).
30
(2) Once a news item has been selected, what makes it newsworthy, according to the 
factors, will be accentuated (distortion).
(3) Both the process of selection and the process of distortion will take place at all steps
in the chain from event to reader (replication).
(4) The higher the total score of an event, the higher the probability that it will become
news and even make headlines (additivity).
(5) If an event is low on one dimension or factor, it may compensate for that by being 
high on another (complementarity).
On the other hand, Schulz, cited by Zeh (2009), argues that news factors cannot
be seen as objective characteristics of reality when deciding on the newsworthiness of 
events or issues. In other words, the news factors should be seen as assumptions about 
social reality and journalists use these assumptions to decide the news value of an event. 
The news factors are strict rules that journalists have acquired during their professional
training and socialisation periods. These rules, especially those that relate to the culture-
free criteria, as identified by Galtung and Ruge (Schwarz, 2009; Zeh, 2009), are
universal. Journalists, and even the audience, use the criteria for selection and retention of 
media content. Perhaps, this phenomenon accounts for why different media organisations
covering the same geographical and thematic terrain usually make similar news-selection
decisions.
2.4 Relevance of Gatekeeping and Newsworthiness Theories to the Study 
Both gatekeeping and newsworthiness theories provided the framework for constructing 
the research questions about the concepts of structure (selection process and composition
of secondary content matters) and forces (criteria and news values that were applied in 
the secondary gatekepping process of the selected radio stations), which formed some of 
the core variables that the study addressed. The tenets of the two theories are
complementary as they explain media concepts that operate in the same domain.  That is, 
the theories underscore the selection process and predict the factors and forces that 
always shape the editorial decisions of journalists in their routine coverage, preparation
and dissemination of news. These forces always shape the structure of the news contents
that the media gatekeepers disseminate to the mass audience: they have been reported to 
raise the question of bias in the media business because they have a direct influence on 
31
what issues are likely to dominate the media contents at the expense of others (
and Allen, 2000; Donohew; 2001; Martin, 2005; Levasseur, 2008; Mathews, 2009).
2.5 Agenda-Setting Theory
nt, to
raise the significance of such an 
give repeated attention to an issue, they cause such an issue to be elevated in significance
to the public (Severin and Tankard, 2001). Agenda setting theory describes how 
information output is shaped in such a manner that certain issues are raised in importance
to the public at the expense of some other events. According to agenda-setting theory
(Lippmann, 1922; Cohen, 1963) , as the mass media raise issues, they might not tell us 
what or how to think (for example, what position to take on a health, political, or an 
economic issue or what candidate to support in an election), but they tell us what to think
about (for example, what issues are important or what candidates are viable); they do 
influence our becoming aware of the issues, and eventually forming an opinion on them.
The media do this by assigning the issues a high degree of importance through repeated 
coverage and editorial emphasis (McLeod, Becker and Byrnes, 1974; Palmgreen and 
Clarke, 1977; McCombs, 2004; Kiousis and Wu, 2008). The agenda-setting theory
extends the gatekeeping concept as it establishes a connection between news items that 
are allowed through the media gates to reach the audience, and the issues audience hold 
to be significant to their own lives (Sibii, 2006; Lasorsa, 2008; Nesbitt-Larkinc, 2008). 
given emphasis in public perception; what is amplified by media is enlarged in public
The first empirical study of the agenda setting hypothesis could be traced to the 
late 1960s and the early 1970s (1968-1972) when Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw, 
after studying the U.S. presidential campaigns of 1968, found a high correlation between 
what the news media reported as issues during that year's U.S. presidential race and the 
set of issues of significance among undecided voters in Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
where the study was really conducted. McCombs and Shaw, therefore, conceptualised the 
The two researchers consequently hypothesised that the mass media set the agenda for
each political campaign by influencing the salience of attitudes towards the political 
 to describe this hypothesis.
32
The promising results of the 1968 study inspired McCombs and Shaw to extend 
their study to all voters in the 1972 presidential election. They, in addition, tested the 
opposite hypothesis that the public agenda set the mass media agenda, rather than the 
converse. After they had tracked and juxtaposed the press and public agendas three times
during the election campaign, their findings showed that changes in the mass media
agenda at one time led to subsequent changes in the public agenda, but the changes in the 
public agenda did not alter or reflect subsequently in the mass media agenda. . Their
findings explicated the definition of agenda setting as a theoretical concept focusing on 
the cognitive (awareness) domain rather than the affective (feeling) domain. That is, the 
mass media have capability to affect cognitive change among the audience by making
them aware of the issues raised by the media, but do not tell them how to think or feel
about the issues (Severin and Tankard, 2001; Watson, 2003; DeSanto, 2004; Lasorsa, 
2008).
2.5.1 -Setting Model of Media Effects
The model explains how the mass media control the representation of social reality in 
such a way that the public see issues as the media present the issues. Issues that the media
present as significant become what the public consider to be significant, and issues that 
the media de-emphasise become trivial in public assessment.  Based on their judgement
of newsworthiness of competing events, the mass media give different proportions of
attention or emphasis to issues. Consequently, the public rate these issues according to
the proportion of emphasis the issues receive from the media (Watson, 2003; McQail, 
2007). According to the model, as presented in fig. 2.4 below, X represents an issue that 
is amplified by coverage in the mass media.
33
Issues  Differential Media Attention  Consequent Public
                             Perception
                                                of Issues
x1 x1
                              
x2 x2
x3                x3
  
X4 x4
   
X5 x5
X6 x6
-Setting Model of Media Effects (1976).
Source:    Watson, J. 2003. Mass communication: An introduction to theory and process.
       2nd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
34
As shown in the model (Fig. 2.4), X1, X4, and X6 represent issues that receive the
highest emphasis from the mass media at a given period, and the issues get the same 
degree of emphasis in the public perception. Also, X2, X3, and X5 are issues that get lesser
media attention in that descending order, while the importance the public consequently 
attach to these issues is proportionate to the degree of media attention they receive. The 
implication of this is that the extent of amplification the media give an issue determines
the degree of significance the public will consequently attach to
media pay attention to certain topics, they determine, or set the agenda, for what topics 
et al., 2006:273). This explains why
issues of great significance may be treated as less important in public perception if such
issues are underplayed by the mass media. Thus, the mass media have the power to set 
ive mindset of
the public in terms of ranking the important news makers (personalities in the news) and 
2.6 Relevance of Agenda-Setting Theory to the Study 
This study, in part, focused how well radio stations (through secondary gatekeeping) set
the agenda for the mass audience; satisfied their urge to be informed of the daily 
happenings; and increased their eagerness to buy and read newspapers after listening to 
news review programmes by radio stations. The agenda-setting theory is, therefore, 
relevant to this study because the theory explains how the media can help the audience to
and perception, or understanding of the social realities. The theory helped the researcher
to make predictions as to what issues the radio audience would think or talk about after
listening to news review programmes by the radio stations.
35
CHAPTER THREE
LITERATURE AND EMPERICAL DISSERTATION
3.1 Introduction
This chapter presents a review of literature and empirical works that are relevant to this 
study. The broad headings discussed in this section include the following: Attributes of
Radio as a Mass Communication Medium; The News Coverage Roles of Radio;
Organisational Structure of Radio Station; The Nexus among Media Bias, Ethics and 
Structure; Codes of Ethics for Nigerian Journalists; Forces in Media Gatekeeping; and 
Some Empirical Studies on Media Gatekeeping.
3.2 Attributes of Radio as a Mass Communication Medium 
Radio as a mass communication medium has some attributes that make it a unique 
medium. However, as expected, some of these attributes constitute strengths for radio 
while some are its weaknesses.
3.2.1 Strengths of Radio
Radio, by its nature, has some peculiar attributes that give it an appreciable degree of
advantage over other media of mass communication. These characteristics, as espoused 
by communication scholars (Baran, 2002; Ojebode, 2003; Oyero, 2003; Dominick et al., 
2004; Sambe, 2005) are discussed as follows:
3.2.1.1 Radio is Specialised and Flexible 
Radio has the advantage of creating interesting programme contents that can be directed 
at a specific segment of the public, and can do this comparatively economically. The 
emergence of format radio where a specific programme concept is chosen and given
priority has enabled the medium to attract a highly specialised, unique audience of a 
uniform interest. Although, adopting a given format may reduce the number of potential 
listeners, what really counts here is not the size of the audience, but the relative economic
advantage derivable. Advertisers who have a specific segment of the public as their target 
audience can look for the appropriate specialised stations that offer the very programme 
types the target audience naturally prefer. For instance, in Nigeria, Brilla FM, Victoria 
36
Island, Lagos, is a specialised station that gives its audience all-sports programme
contents; while Steam Broadcasting FM, with stations in Victoria Island, Lagos, and 
South City Centre, Abuja, is a cool FM that plays music more frequently. Also in Ibadan, 
Oyo State, Amuludun FM, Moniya, a subsidiary of Premier FM, Gbagi, broadcasts its
programmes (except some commercials and the network news) in Yoruba language, and 
plays only Yoruba music. Only radio can enjoy this flexibility and specialisation without 
investing at a relatively high cost. Baran (2002:247) justifies this when he asserts that:
Format radio offers stations many advantages beyond low-cost
operations and specialized audiences that appeal to advertisers. 
Faced with falling listenership or declining advertising revenues, 
a station can simply change deejays and discs. Neither television 
nor the print media have this content flexibility. When
confronted with competition from station with similar format, a
station can further narrow its audience by specialising its
formula even more.
Obviously, competition is a central issue in radio business. By almost every
standard, there are more radio stations than any other mass media (Dominick et al., 2004), 
and this has serious implications for the survival of these stations. But radio stations that 
can effectively combine flexibility and specialisation will always stay afloat. 
3.2.1.2 Radio is Ubiquitous
Another characteristic of radio that gives it an edge over other mass media is its
fragmentation. Radio stations are widely scattered across the country. In the United States
of America, almost every town, irrespective of size, has at least one radio station (Baran, 
2002). Although Nigeria cannot boast of this massive presence of radio stations,
especially in the less-city areas, the liberalisation of broadcast industry in 1992 has made
radio the largest mass medium in Nigeria. For example, apart from over 55 licenses 
granted different private companies to operate radio stations, there are 43 National
Federal Government-owned radio stations; more than 41 State Government-owned radio
stations; and about 27 campus radio stations across the country (National Broadcasting 
Commission, 2009). Many radio stations are actually serving many areas. Even where 
there are no radio stations, radio signals are clearly received: The nomads in the plain
desert of the North, the farmers in the green savannah of the Middle-West, the fishermen
in the creeks of the Niger Delta, and the hunters in the heart of the thick tropical forest of
37
the West, enjoy music and get news about current events in the cities.  No other mass
media can boast of this unique advantage.
3.2.1.3 Radio is Personal and Mobile
Rapid technological improvements over the years have changed the relationship between 
radio and its audience. The big ugly box hung at a conspicuous corner to serve a group of 
curious listeners has been remarkably miniaturised to the size of a pen. An individual can
carry his radio set in his pocket; hang it on his neck, and listen to the programme of his 
choice. As we select personally gratifying programme format, we listen and engage in 
other personally important activities. On our way to lecture rooms, as we rush to get to
work, and while eating our supper, we listen to radio. As Sambe (2005:95) puts it, radio
a reliable communication
medium that can penetrate large portions of the masses, and constitute a potent tool in 
behaviour change process (Jamison and McAnany cited by Oyero, 2003). Because radio
2003:87).
3.2.1.4 Radio is Cheap and Local 
Unlike television and the print media that require huge resources to establish and manage,
radio costs less to run.
local television station than a local radio station, advertising rates on radio tend to be 
lower than on television. Local advertisers can afford radio more easily than they can 
television, which increase  when 
local people are the target audience or the potential consumers, radio becomes the 
 because it can take the message to the grassroots people at a lower 
cost.
With direct reference to rural segment of our society, Oyero (2003:191) while citing
FAO, asserts that radio has unique potentials to fulfil a number of crucial roles, and is
i. an important mechanism for rapid diffusion of development information in a
diversity of languages and to widespread, often remote geographical areas;
ii. a channel for interactive communication, for dialogue and debate on the major
issues of rural development;
38
iii. a platform for democratic and pluralistic expression of the opinions, needs and 
aspirations of rural communities;
iv. a tool for cultural expression and entertainment, and a means of collecting, 
preserving and enhancing the oral and musical heritage of rural communities;
v. a medium for collecting local information on social issues, which is essential for
defining, planning and implementing development efforts;
vi. a means of raising public awareness and motivation; and
vii. a tool which, combined with other media, can be used for training and the transfer
and exchange of knowledge and technologies.
Arguably, radio as a medium of mass communication is really unique. Its 
attributes are crisply captured in the following descriptions by Ojebode (2003:88):
development practitioners. It is cheap, both to transmit and 
receive. It is easy to operate and does not require literacy.
Radio listening is convenient and its programming is 
flexible. It is battery-powered; therefore, non-availability of 
electricity is no barrier. It reaches very far and remote places 
where there is no access to other mass media. It can report 
an event
Radio has the social power that makes it irresistible to the agents of development
and the advertisers. It has become a core part of the social fabric; the number-one source 
of home entertainment. Radio news reports possess an element of immediacy that sets
them off from items in the newspapers (Dominick, Messere, and Sherman, 2004).
3.2.2 Weaknesses of Radio 
Radio is not devoid of weaknesses. In fact, it has some limitations that, if not carefully
taken care of, are capable of rendering the medium ineffective especially when it is 
employed to broadcast development messages. Ojebode (2003), citing empirical findings 
by some scholars (e.g. Kilvin et al.; Gilluly and More; Brieger; Bogue and Peigh;
Rosario-Braid), contends that radio is not an omnipotent medium as certain development 
hurdles have proved very hard for the medium to cross: First, as Ojebode explains, radio
is less effective at making people adopt new practices, especially when such new
practices contradict the peop
39
radio does not take development messages to everyone; formally educated people have 
the tendency to use radio for education, while the illiterate listen to radio for 
entertainment. Third, radio cannot effectively transmit complex technical details without 
heavily depending on written materials and the assistance of experts in the field. Finally,
radio, especially under the control of government, and in the contemporary neo-liberal
economy (Moemeka, 2009; Ojebode, 2009), lacks credibility. People believe that message
contents by radio are always heavily influenced by some gatekeeping factors such as
(McManus, 1995; Donohew, 2001; Epstein, cited by McManus, 2005). This phenomenon
adversely affects the reliability of the radio messages.
It is imperative that people who use radio are aware of these fundamental
limitations of the medium. This would enable the various stakeholders to minimise these 
weaknesses, and exploit the strengths that make radio an irresistible medium of mass
communication and development messages.
3.3 The News Coverage Roles of Radio 
Radio, no doubt, has the unparalleled capacity to reach the mass audience at a relatively
cheaper cost and within a short time. It is not hindered by the factor of illiteracy, as the
case with other mass media, especially the print and the new media (mobile phone and the 
Internet). Radio has the power of spontaneity and it combines with this, other attributes of 
the mass media in general as captured in the words of Emery, Ault, and Agee cited by 
Ojebode (2002:57) that: 
They illuminate the societal fabric of the nation. They are 
essential to the development of the economic fabric in a
modern industrial state. And they contribute to fulfil their 
historic role of protecting and improving the political 
fabric of democracy. Among the many opportunities 
enjoyed by the communicator, none is more important
than the opportunity to help shape public opinion. 
Radio, like other mass media, performs the traditional roles of dissemination
of news, entertainment, information and other development messages (Mwakawago, 
2006).  Having realised the lofty attributes of radio, governments, individuals and
development agencies have fallen in love with the medium as a potent tool for educating 
and/ or informing the public as well as achieving development goals.
40
In terms of speed and flexibility in news coverage, radio is the fastest medium. No 
other news media can compete with radio when it comes to covering events of 
tremendous national or global significance that must be disseminated instantly to a large, 
scattered, heterogeneous audience (Sambe, 2005) and cause them to act spontaneously.
For instance, the power of radio to report on the spurs of events and produce instant 
effects was demonstrated on Thursday November 27, 2008, when a group of suspected
armed robbers attacked some commercial banks around Idi-Ape; Iwo-Road; and 
Awolowo, Bodija, all in Ibadan, Capital of Oyo State, Nigeria. Spontaneously, Splash FM
radio station in Mokola, Ibadan, alerted the public and the Oyo State police Command.
The Police instantly mobilised its men and countered the suspected armed robbers. Just 
three days later (Saturday November 29, 2008), Premier FM radio station in Dugbe, 
Ibadan, successfully foiled further armed robbery attack in Mokola and Gbagi areas of the 
city by promptly alerting the Police and warning the public to stay off those areas. The 
television stations in the capital city relayed the stories moments later, while local and 
national newspapers could not report the incidents until the following days. Probably, 
majority of the mass public got the details of the incidents during news review
programmes by radio stations.
On the 9th of April, 2011, when the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), 
halted and announced the postponement of the National Assembly elections, which was 
already underway, most of the electorate relied on the radio as a reliable and rapid source 
to ascertain the authenticity of the news. Even when the electorate first received the 
breaking news from friends through mobile communication (GSM), they still remained
sceptical until the local radio stations relayed the information. Splash FM, Ibadan, the
only radio station (private) that was not totally affected by the national strike called by the
ernment, really 
connected the people in the state capital and beyond. Throughout the period (Monday 9th 
to Monday 16th January, 2012) that the strike and the nationwide protests lasted, the 
station continued to give situation reports of the events receiving updates and distress
calls from the citizens and helping them to inform the relevant security agents for rapid 
responses. Despite that there was no electricity in much of the city, the radio station
continued to broadcast the minute-by-minute updates on the unprecedented mass protests
 In a developing country like Nigeria, where
epileptic electricity hampers effective functioning of mass communication media and 
other social infrastructure, only radio can broadcast with such unusual, astonishing 
41
velocity, and substantial veracity, without cultural barriers. Radio performs this golden 
function without marginalising the grassroots (Ansah, 1979; Okigbo, 1988; Haussen, 
2005).
3.4 Organisational Structure of a Radio Station
Radio stations may vary in terms of their sizes and peculiar in-house cultures or 
philosophies; they share a similar organisational structure. The structure explains the flow
of interdependent managerial coordination in a typical modern radio station. According to 
a model provided by Dominick, Messere, and Sherman (2004), a radio station must have 
typically four core departments. They are (a) operations, (b) programming, (c) sales,
and (d) engineering. Figure 3.1 presents the diagrammatic illustration of the relationship 
among the departments.
The Operations Department is also known as Traffic Department. It is headed by
operations director or traffic manager. The primary responsibility of this department is
continuous placement of advertising or commerci
The placement must be done according to the agreed schedules and the contract signed 
with advertisers. Failure to adhere strictly to the schedules for airtime, length, and 
position may have some negative implications for the station. This is why the task of the 
staff in this department is considered difficult and delicate. To forestall any possible 
breach of contract, some radio stations usually automate their operations department with 
computer software to track billing and placement of commercials.
42
General Manager 
Station Manager 
Operations                 Programming                     Sales                             Engineering
  Staff 
                                                 Announcers                        Promotions 
 Traffic Music Director       Sales Staff 
      Continuity News Staff 
Fig. 3.1: A Radio Station Table of Organisation
Source: Dominick, J.R., Messere, F., Sherman, B.L. 2004. Broadcasting, cable, the 
internet, and beyond: An introduction to modern electronic media.
Boston: McGreaw-Hill Companies, Inc. P.98 
The next is the Programme Department, which is primarily responsible for 
affairs, news, documentaries, and other programme contents, apart from commercials.
The department is headed by programme director and staffed mostly with news personnel. 
A station with music and/or news/talk formats may appoint a music director to oversee 
music production, and a news director to supervise coverage and production of news, 
public affairs and other related programmes. These two directors, as the case may be, are 
directly answerable to the programme director.  Some radio stations, because of economic
factors, merge the operations and programme departments. In the case of a merger like 
this, the name may change to production department while the operations and programme
personnel (which may include producers, editors, and on-air personalities like presenters,
announcers, hosts, co-host, anchors, disc jockeys or radio jockeys) are responsible to the 
43
production director. The personnel must always collaborate to ensure that the station has 
appropriate contents to broadcast as specified in the programme schedules.
The sales department, headed by the sales manager, is probably the most
important unit in a radio station, especially in a competitive environment like Nigeria
where the media market is profit-driven as a result of the deregulation of the media
industry (Olorunnisola, 2009). The department is solely responsible for making money for 
the station. It oversees the sales of commercial time the various categories of advertisers. 
The department may also combine promotion and research functions which are overseen
by a promotion director and a research manager respectively. 
The station s expected to always be on air with the best quality signal. It is a 
complete embarrassment and potentially loss of public confidence and patronage by
advertisers if a radio station transmits on a weak or an epileptic signal. To avoid this ugly
phenomenon, every radio station must have the engineering department whose sole duty
is to perpetually keep the station on air with a high quality signal. It is supervised by the
chief engineer. Most times, a radio may retain the services of a consulting engineer or 
firm, mostly on a part-time basis, to handle some highly technical operations or repairs.
At the top management level is the General Manager and /or the Station Manager
as the case may be. The Station Manager assists the General Manager to coordinate the
station. Unless a station is very large and is owned by station groups, only the General 
Manager (GM) is appointed to oversee the overall management of the station in terms of
revenues and expenses, staff recruitment, planning, profitability, forecasting, and
budgeting. The GM serves as the main link between the station and its corporate
ownership, the relevant regulatory agencies, the community, the federal and the state 
governments. He is the image of the station and all department heads are answerable to 
him.
3.5 The Nexus among Media Bias, Ethics And Structure  
Media bias, a phenomenon that has attracted the attention of various scholars (e.g. Burke, 
1983; Peh and Melkote, 1991; Al-
2000; Whitaker and Dyer, 2000; Sutter, 2002; Martin, 2005; Levasseur, 2008; Mathews,
2009) is the term used to describe a situation where the media show an unjustifiable
favouritism in their news contents. In such cases, the media present the audience with a
partial and an inaccurate, unfair picture of the social reality.  
44
a major theory
about media bias but three types of approaches to its explanation exist. The first approach
has to do with the issue of gatekeeping. This explains that journalists select few items
from a pool of potential stories, and by extension, deselect those stories that will never get 
to the mass audience. This type of bias is termed gatekeeping bias. This bias is located in
the domain of the levels analysis (McManus, 1995; Shoemaker et al., 2001; Barzinlai-
Nahon, 2008; Zeh, 2009) as first demonstrated
study (Watson, 2003; Sang, 2008). The second type is called coverage bias. This 
approach attempts to describe media bias by measuring the physical amount of coverage
either side of an issue gets from the media. In newspapers and newsmagazines, coverage
bias is usually measured in column inches, through photographs and headlines, whereas in 
television and radio reporting, the amount of airtime given to each side of the story is 
measured.
The third approach is described as statement bias. This occurs when journalists 
interject their own opinions, judgement or sentiments into the content of the coverage of
an issue. This is measured in terms of whether the media coverage is favourable or 
unfavourable. This type of media bias is more knowable and noticeable than the other two 
types. However, it is not just the presence of these personal opinions and sentiments that 
makes a story to be biased. When such personal opinions come in equal proportions on 
both sides of an issue being reported, the report is described as neutral. But when such 
opinions tilt to one side, then the story is described as biased. An objective story is the 
one that does not contain, in whatever proportion, traces of personal opinions and
structural because they have to do with the structure of the media content.
On the other hand, Levasseur (2008) identifies two taxonomies that broadly
underpin the concept of media bias. These are partisan bias and structural bias. The first 
type partisan bias involves media reports that are tilted in favour of a particular
political party. Media news that manifests a partisan bias favourably projects one political 
party at the expense of other political parties. Therefore, in political reporting, when 
people accuse the media of biased reporting, they are making reference to partisan bias. 
The second type of media bias structural bias springs from certain frameworks (e.g. 
customs, reporting routines, and commercial pressures) that operate within the news 
industry. For example, within any given media organisation, journalists face certain
pressures and incentives. As the journalists are driven by these pressures and incentives, 
45
they develop a particular routine practices. When reporters put a certain slant on their
stories to adhere to these industry pressures and incentives, their stories reflect the 
industry's structural bias. The media's structural bias favours negative news and conflicts. 
Naturally, negative information and conflicts attract human attention (Folarin, 1998; 
Uphuofu-Biri, 2006; Agbese, 2008; Alao and Osifeso, 2009; Anaeto, Solo-Anaeto and 
Tejumaiye, 2009). Therefore, the media, in their attempt to satisfy their audience, always
have bias for stories that portray individuals negatively and in a state of conflict.
The concept of bias is highly interwoven with media gatekeeping and 
newsworthiness decisions. This is because the journalists who determine what is 
newsworthy among the contending issues of almost equal status and importance are
always guided by some prescribed institutional and professional criteria. These criteria
always exert great influence on the editorial decisions of the journalists. This is where and 
Allen, 2000). From the perspective of political economy, the news media are directly or 
indirectly influenced by the social forces that frequently are the manifestations of 
dominant economic power. According to Martin (2005), media ownership, for example, is
always a powerful factor that exerts great influence on the content of the news. This 
happens directly through promulgation of a statute or indirectly through 
institutionalisation of certain ideological environment that shapes how the journalists
present their reports. Martin (2005:2) further asserts that: 
The for-profit orientation of media corporations also tends to 
result in a situation where the media try to aid their supporters
namely their advertisers and the wider business community. This
orientation can affect news content directly and indirectly. In 
terms of direct influence, we see journalists and editors bowing to
advertisers' requirements for a hospitable climate for their ads.... 
In terms of a more indirect effect on media content, observers
have noted a rise in upbeat, personality-based news stories. It is 
argued that these stories,... placed prior to going to commercial
where a story of poverty or war may cause the audience to react
negatively to an advertisement for unnecessary purchases.
The foregoing scenario suggests that as long as these factors continue to exist, 
the media actors will always have to contend with the inevitable reality that certain 
criteria will perpetually shape the structure of media gatekeeping and agenda setting 
business. Consequently, reporting unbiased, objective news may be impracticable as 
46
editors would always be compelled to tilt in favour of certain predominant forces at the 
expense of the social responsibility functions of the mass media.
Another significant variable in the news media business is the issue of ethics. 
often
unwritten , cited by Foreman
(2010), identifies two aspects of ethics: First, ethics involves the ability to discern right 
from wrong, good from evil, and propriety from impropriety. Second, ethics entails the
readiness to do what is right, good and proper. In summary, ethics is the pursuit of good 
when evil is a strong alternative; it is coping with the challenge of doing the right thing 
even when that will force one to pay some price or make some sacrifice. 
Media ethics is the moral principles that guide the media professionals in the 
discharge of their duties as agents of truths, who are expected to give accurate, objective, 
meaning to these events. Scholars have justified the emergence of media ethics. One of 
them, Coleman (2009:1), argues that:
The need for media ethics rises as news reporting becomes
driven more and more by the free market rather than the truth. As 
forms of communication evolve, avenues of news reporting 
increase, and the scope of media influence expands, media ethics
becomes an increasingly important issue in modern society.
People are exposed to television news, radio broadcasting,
newspaper articles, and now digital media as well. The mass
media is an intrinsic part of everyday lives. What exactly drives
the powerful Western media  government mandates, social 
responsibility and the quest for truth, or is it the financial goals of 
large media corporations?
 Though ethics explain the standard for acceptable conduct, there is hardly a
universally acknowledged code of ethics, especially for electronic media journalists.
What is accepted as professional code of conduct varies from one normative context and 
one media organisation to another. Even within an electronic media setting, code of
ethics may vary from one department to another (Albarran, 2010). For instance, the 
editorial personnel of a radio station in Nigeria always work under an entirely different
ethical situation in terms of newsrooms complex decision making and responsibilities
compared to personnel in the Marketing or Public Relations department, who are
expected to be creative, courteous and competitive in their dealings with the various 
publics of the organisation. Yet, irrespective of their departments, electronic media
47
personnel are obliged to observe the specific and general code of ethics specified by their
organisation. Journalists in particular, who directly process the primary product that the 
media organisation sells to the audience (Foreman, 2010), must always ensure as much
as possible that their personal moral beliefs do not conflict with the organisational code 
of ethics.
It is professionally desirable that journalists practise sound ethics because, like 
other professions such as medicine, law, business and engineering, actions of journalists 
have consequences for the mass audience to whom they are accountable. Journalists 
have some moral duties they must perform. Christians, Rotzoll, fickler, McKee, and 
Woods, cited by Albarran (2010), identify five basic ethical duties of news media
employees at all levels. These are summarised as (a) duty to self in terms of objectivity, 
individual integrity, and conscience, (b) duty to the audience by considering how their 
moral decisions will affect their audience, (c) duty to employer or organisation, (d) duty
to professional colleagues, and (e) duty to society by carefully considering the issues of
individual rights and confidentiality, while reporting news. Also, Foreman (2010)
identifies two core incentives for ethical behaviour among journalists. He categorises 
these incentives as moral and practical.
The moral incentive stipulates that journalists should be ethical because they, 
like other human beings, love to see themselves as decent and honest. They love to feel 
the satisfaction and psychic reward that they have tried to do what is morally acceptable
within the social order. For this reason, ethical journalists would not do what is capable 
of bringing disrepute to their persons.
The practical incentive has to do with the ethical responsibility imposed on the 
journalists by the institutional framework. Journalists are expected to promote their
for the organisation. Journalists have a commodity to sell, and this is news. The 
commodity will sell fast if the public have trust in it. If the news the journalists sell is 
not credible, nobody will be interested in such news. In this circumstance, the 
prime victim because it will lose the confidence of 
its audience. Therefore, an ethical journalist will always strive to write credible stories
that can promote the image of his organisation, while an unethical journalist brings 
disrepute to the corporate image of his media organisation through biased stories.
The sensitive debate on the justification for observation of ethical principles by 
media practitioners can be x-rayed by juxtaposing the perspectives of the Social 
48
Responsibility and the Libertarian Systems of news reporting. The two systems hold 
divergent views on the issue of ethical responsibility by journalists. While the Social 
Responsibility system holds that journalists should observe the principles of ethical 
behaviour because the press (the mass media) is socially responsible to, and expected to 
service the society, the Libertarian system contends that the press enjoys endless 
freedom, but is incapacitated by financial reliance, which makes it difficult for 
journalists to be socially and ethically accountable to the public (Mathews, 2009). This 
discussion is further explicated by Coleman (2009:1-3) as he captures in the following
submission that: 
In the social responsibility theory of the press, the media is
driven to benefit the public. It expects journalists to answer
society's need for truth, requires an open and diverse debate 
on public issues, and honest updates of current events. In this
model, media ethics is automatic because the press is free to 
serve its purpose for the public, as opposed to special interest 
groups or advertisers. Another condition of the social
responsibility model is that news reporting cannot be
dependent on groups that may encourage bias and unethical 
practices in exchange for financial support.
Coleman cites the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the American
NPR news as the best examples of Western media organisations that operate in the 
context of social responsibility system. The media outlets, according to him, are not 
worried about corporate interests as they rely on their public audience, rather than on 
advertisers, for corporate sustenance. Balancing his argument, Coleman asserts that the
converse holds in the phenomenon under the Libertarian system. He contends:
The Libertarian model is more popular in Western media than 
the social responsibility model. In this system, the freedom of
the press is endless; it is not constrained by the government, by 
society, or by media ethics. Instead of being a sea of different 
ideas, opinions, and voices however, news reporting in the
Libertarian system is indeed restricted. It may not be as limited
and biased as the media found in an authoritarian society, 
which would serve the government's interests, but it is still 
constrained by its financial dependence...Western media
outlets, particularly television stations, rely heavily on
advertisers for money, and therefore design their news
reporting to support and never conflict with the will of their 
financial supporters. Also, because of the deregulation 
movement of the past fifteen years, Congress and the FCC 
49
have allowed more freedom within the telecommunications
field, loosening laws that were at one time designed to ensure
social responsibility and ethics in the media. Today, a large
percentage of Western media outlets, especially those in
America, are part of a handful of media conglomerates,
companies which have to focus on increasing their profits
every year.
The Libertarian system scenario described above by Coleman is similar to the 
media terrain in the contemporary Nigerian communication industry. The 1992 
deregulation of the broadcast industry via Decree No. 38 (National Broadcasting 
Commission, 2009), and the 1999 neoliberal policy (Olorunnisola, 2009) of the Federal
Government of Nigeria have entrenched stiff competitions in the profit-driven economy.
The drive to survive in the commercially competitive media industry
combined with other predominant social forces (Martin, 2005), on the one hand, and the 
normative prescriptions where each media system is influenced by the prevalent social, 
political, cultural and economic factors in its operating environment (Folarin, 1998;
Watson, 2003; Sambe, 2005; McQuail, 2007) on the other hand, make it apparently
impracticable to set a universal ethical standard for all journalists across the continents. 
Although, journalism practice across the world is governed by the universal 
characteristics and common principle of truthful, accurate reporting, there are yet other
attributes of journalists that are context-bound (Ebo, 1994). This is one of the
circumstances that provoke the question of ethical dilemma a situation where the moral
agent faces conflicting ethical values. As journalists endeavour to be ethical in the 
discharge of their duties, they also have to contend with some local socio-economic
realities that may largely shape the structure of their news coverage and reporting. Day
it is inevitable 
seems to apply most to journalists given the complex nature of their job. Christians 
(2004:1) realises the complexity of making ethical decisions by journalists and he
submits as follows:
As a subset of professional ethics, media ethics, in terms of
its logic and rationale, is bilingual. It combines theory with 
actual events and real-life dilemmas. Even the most
sophisticated media ethics retains an interest in concrete 
moral judgments, in the way ethical decision making actually
50
functions in media practice. But integrating particular
knowledge into general ethical theory is considered crucial
as well. Work in the larger world of applied ethics 
demonstrates that if description of actual morality becomes
the exclusive aim, the results are superficial moralism. If
abstract theory dominates, the conclusions are out of touch 
with reality. 
Journalists, especially in Nigeria, always face the delicate task of striking a 
balance between ethical obligations and realities in their work environment. Truth is 
sacred and absolute, and it must be reported. Yet, reporting the absolute truth will 
naturally have some consequences for both the journalists and the audience. To cope with
the challenge of ethical dilemma, scholars like Foreman, (2010:22; 76-77) have
counselled that moral agents (journalists) should exercise some measure of caution and 
learn how to blend both deontological (also known as absolutism, rule-based or duty-
based thinking) and teleological (i.e. consequentialism, utilitarianism or ends-based
thinking) orientations when they are faced with the knotty task of making ethical 
decisions. Citing Josephson, Foreman therefore, concludes that:
Most decisions have to be made in the context of economic,
professional and social pressures which can sometimes
challenge our ethical goals and conceal or confuse the moral
issues. In addition, making ethical choices is complex because 
in many situations there are a multitude of competing interests 
and values. Other times, crucial facts are unknown or 
ambiguous. Since many actions are likely to benefit some 
people at the expense of others, the decision maker must
prioritize competing moral claims and must be proficient at 
predicting the likely consequences of various choices.
Bias and ethics are two inverse forces that largely shape the structure of media
content. The extent to which a media organisation adheres to the general ethical standard 
mostly determines the structure of its news content. A news organisation with a high 
ethical inclination is expected to produce news reports whose contents reflect objectivity, 
whereas a media outfit with low ethical adherence has high proclivity to feed its mass
audience with biased reports. For example, as Levasseur (2008) observes, media
corporations that place greater emphasis on profits motive will have their news coverage
 and 
51
almost absolutely financed by the ruling political parties are likely to have strong bias for 
the ruling parties, at expense of nonpartisan, objective news standpoints.
3.6 Code of Ethics for Nigerian Journalists
Codes, according to Dominick,
Codes set the expected standard of ethical behaviour in terms of what members should do 
and what they should not do, while discharging their professional duties. Therefore,
codes can be structured in a prescriptive or proscriptive language. At the prescriptive
d abide by all rules of copyright established by national and 
journalist should 
bodies such as journalism, pharmacy, engineering, medicine, and law have codes of 
ethics (codes of conduct) for their members. In most cases, government agencies or
professional associations are to enact and enforce these codes.
The Nigerian Press Council (NPC) is the body which ensures that Nigerian 
journalists conduct themselves and discharge their duties in accordance with the highest 
professional standards. Apart from promoting high professional standards among the 
Nigerian journalists, the Council also attends to complaints emanating from members of 
the public about the conduct of journalists in their professional engagements or 
complaints emanating from the press about the conduct of persons or organisations 
towards the journalists. As part of its statutory functions to ensure acceptable practice 
among journalists, the Nigerian Press Council prepares and enforces the code of ethics
for the Nigerian journalists.
The old code, which had been in existence since 1979, was considered
more of a gratuitous contrivance which could compound and obfuscate judgement of any
perceived wrong doing in jou Nigerian Press Organisation, 1998:5).
This propelled the Council to commence the review process in March 1996 with a 
national workshop in Otta, Ogun State in collaboration with the Nigerian Union of
Journalists (NUJ) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE). After the adoption of the 
amended version of the code by the central working committee of the NUJ, the NPC held 
52
a forum in Ilorin, Kwara State, from March18-20, 1998, where the Nigerian Press 
Organisation (NPO), comprising the NUJ, NGE, and the Newspapers Proprietors
Association of Nigeria (NPAN), eventually ratified the code.
  The code of ethics for the Nigerian journalists covers a broad spectrum of
matters such as editorial independence, accuracy and fairness, decency, reward and 
gratification, violence, plagiarism, as well as qualifications and registration of members.
Press as defined by the code includes radio, television, wire services, newspapers, 
magazines and such other media of communication involved in the collection and 
dissemination of information for the mass audience. Therefore, anyone, whose 
responsibility is to collect or disseminate information on behalf of a media organisation, 
is a journalist. The sections of the code, which is considered relevant to this study, are 
presented as follows:
1. Editorial Independence
     Decisions concerning the content of news should be the responsibility of a
professional journalist. 
2. Accuracy and Fairness
i. The public has a right to know. Factual, accurate, balanced and fair reporting is
the ultimate objective of good journalism and the basis of earning public trust 
and confidence.
ii. A journalist should refrain from publishing inaccurate and misleading
information. Where such information has been inadvertently published, prompt
correction should be made. A journalist must hold the right of reply as a cardinal 
rule of practice. 
iii. In the course of his duties, a journalist should strive to separate facts from
conjecture and comment.
3. Privacy
As a general rule, a journalist should respect the privacy of individuals and their
families unless it affects public interest.
A. Information on the private life of an individual or his family should only be 
published if it impinges on public interest.
      B. Publishing of such information about an individual, as mentioned above, should
be    deemed justifiable only if it is directed at:
      i. Exposing crime or serious misdemeanour;
53
      ii. Exposing anti-social conduct;
      iii. Protecting public health, morality and safety;
     iv. Preventing the public from being misled by some statement or action of the 
individual concerned. 
4. Privilege/Non-Disclosure
   i. A journalist should observe the universally accepted principle of confidentiality and 
should not disclose the source of information obtained in confidence.
   ii. A journalist should not breach an agreement with a source of information obtained as
-the-
5. Decency
     i. A journalist should dress and comport himself in a manner that conforms to public
taste. 
      ii. A journalist should refrain from using offensive, abusive or vulgar language.
     iii. A journalist should not present lurid details, either in words or picture, of violence, 
sexual acts, abhorrent or horrid scenes
    iv. In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries should be carried out and   
approaches made with sympathy and discretion.
ht to know, a journalist should
generally avoid identifying relatives or friends of persons convicted or accused of
crime.
6. Discrimination
group, religion, sex, or to any physical or mental illness or handicap.
7. Reward and Gratification
i. A journalist should neither solicit nor accept bribe, gratification or patronage 
to suppress or publish information.
ii. To demand payment for the publication of news is inimical to the notion of
news as a fair, accurate, unbiased and factual report of an event.
54
8. Violence
A journalist should not present or report acts of violence, armed robberies, terrorist 
activities or vulgar display of wealth in a manner that glorifies such acts in the eyes of 
the public.
9. Children and Minors
A journalist should not identify, either by name or picture, or interview children
under the age of 16, who are involved in cases concerning sexual offences, crimes
and rituals or witchcraft either as victims, witnesses or defendants.
10. Access to Information
A journalist should strive to employ open and honest means in the gathering of 
information. Exceptional methods may be employed only when the public interest is
at stake.
11. Public Interest
A journalist should strive to enhance national unity and public good.
12. Social Responsibility
A journalist should promote universal principles of human rights, democracy, justice,
equity, peace and international understanding.
13. Plagiarism
A journalist should 
attribution and/or consent.
14. Copyright
i. Where a journalist reproduces a work, be it in print, broadcast, art work or design, 
proper acknowledgement should be accorded the author.
ii. A journalist should abide by all rules of copyright, established by national and 
international laws and conventions
55
15. Press Freedom and Responsibility
     A journalist should strive at all times to enhance press freedom and responsibility
(Nigerian Press Council, 2009).
As noted earlier, Nigerian journalists, as their counterparts in other parts of the world, 
are always caught in the web of dilemma as to whether they should diligently adhere to
the provisions of the code that spells their ethical behaviour as professionals or to act 
within the whims of the normative realities in environment within which they operate. 
There are a lot of powerful and conflicting forces that always dictate what the journalists
should do even when such an action is an apparent dissonance with their code of ethics
(Levasseur, 2008). This is where the questions of bias and ethics become more complex
in media profession.
3.7 Forces in Media Gatekeeping
Forces in media gatekeeping are those factors or variables that have potential influence
on the decisions of the gatekeeper as to which news items he selects for transmission to 
the audience or which items he discards among the millions of competing issues. The 
channels of information flow is made up of gate sections that are manned by the 
gatekeepers whose actions are controlled by a number of forces that may be favourable
(i.e. positive) or unfavourable (i.e. negative) (Sang, 2006). These forces spread across the 
five-layer spectrum of gatekeeping analysis, and the degree to which they are applied by
the journalists in their editorial decisions have some fundamental connections with the 
questions of media bias and ethics.
3.7.1 News Values 
becomes news, however, are perhaps the news factors or news values, which are captured 
in the tenets of the theory of newsworthiness. Masterton, as quoted by Pearson, Brand,
Archbold, and Rane (2001), has assigned some labels to the attributes of what journalism
namely timeliness, interest and clarity. He extends these by adding other criteria of 
consequence, proximity, conflict, magnitude, human interest, novelty and prominence.
These criteria of newsworthiness fall within the media routines level of analysis
(Shoemaker et al. 2001), and they are used by journalists to determine which items pass
56
through the gate regions and become news.  Essentially, the classifications according to 
Masterton, are highly constructive, yet, they do not exclusively provide a scientific or an 
almighty formula for news selection. In fact, there are other forces possibly more
powerful that really influence the gatekeepers in their choice of what becomes news.
3.7.2  Proprietorial Interference
Influences of ownership on editors are pervasive. Either public or  private news media,
the news producers routinely receive orders from their publishers or media owners
concerning what is to be covered, what is to be reported, and how it should be reported. 
For instance, Donohew (2001), conducted a research, in Kentucky, to investigate what 
forces influenced the decisions by media gatekeepers to run certain news stories and not 
others. His findings show that publisher attitude is an important force in the news
channel. The prevalence of proprietorial interference has raised some ethical questions as 
to who really c
(2005:302), categorised within the organisational level of news forces analysis, the 
ownership influence or the self-interest of the organisation. He applied organisational 
-
soc
policy or organisational self-interest about what news should be negates journalistic
principle of objectivity.
3.7.3  The Internet
Indeed, the emergence of the new media the Internet is rapidly influencing and
changing the role of the traditional gatekeepers. One does not require a giant printing 
press or a broadcast license to control an army of journalists under an organisational 
bureaucracy to report current events. With the Internet, one does not need extensive
journalistic experience, ethical training or a huge amount of money to feed the audience 
with the latest reports. To become a blogger requires access to a functional computer, an 
Internet connection and an active Web address.  Howard Dean, former governor of 
Vermont, the United States of America, has described the Internet as the most democratic
invention since Gutenberg and the printing press (Fiedler, 2008:39). In effect, the Internet 
57
particular news item or pieces of urgent information that the audience ought to know or 
have, within the next few minutes, the bloggers would make it a public property. Once 
the piece of information is available on the Internet, it is there for the public, and the 
power to suppress it has been taken away from the traditional media gatekeeper. He can 
only make his best judgement to the news story on how to handle it (Shepard, 1999). The 
Internet is actually moving the gatekeeping business to the centreline. The consequence is 
that the old media newspapers, radio and television are swiftly scrambling for the new
medi
However, the emergence of the new media does not suggest the disappearance 
of the traditional ones. Rather, the convergence of the old and the new media has created
a complementary phenomenon where the strengths of one genre take care of the flaws of 
Internet promises to bring further change to the radio and recording industries. In fact, it 
promises to completely rei
The rise of blogs does not equal the death of professional 
journalism. The media world is not a zero-sum game.
Increasingly, in fact, the Internet is turning it into a symbiotic
ecosystem in which the different parts feed off one another and 
the whole thing grows. 
The multiplication of blogs on the Internet is what Barzilai-Nahon (2005) 
describes as network gatekeeping a multi-layer system where both the gatekeeper and 
the gated can create and produce information. By implication, it is possible for the gated 
to circumvent the gatekeepers and gatekeeping process. The cyberspace has thus
produced a new paradigm shift in the information flow by creating a more open channel 
that challenges the seeming monopoly of the traditional gatekeepers. 
3.7.4.  Public Relations Operatives and Commercial Interests 
Apart from proprietorial control, another strong force that may impinge on ed
choice of news is the influence of public relations and commercial interests. According to 
Pearson et al. (2001:27),
58
public relations have used a range of strategies and mechanisms for
getting access to journalists. These have included direct 
approaches in person and by telephone, the mailing of press
releases to target publications and journalists, the purchasing of 
coverage, the staging of press conferences.... Then, there are the
commercial influences upon journalists, particularly in the realm of
to light the fact that news and current affairs decision-making can 
be influenced by the power of the dollar.
The influence of public relations and commercial interests, as exemplified in the 
submission of Pearson et al. above, is undisputable. Research findings have shown that 
journalists across the world usually compromise journalistic ethics for pecuniary
advantage. As the power of the dollar influences news choice in America, so does the 
power of the naira in Nigeria. Journalism across the world is currently undergoing a 
dramatic transition from the age of objectivity to that of sleaziness. McManus(1995:301), 
corrobo
fundamental change a move away from reliance on craft norms defining what is 
Similarly, Schultz reported by Pearson et al. (2001), surveyed 247 American journalists 
and discovered that the fundamental subjective impediment to investigative reporting in 
their respective organisations was commercial considerations. She therefore, submitted
that journalists were caught in serious dilemma as to whether to maximise profit or to
fulfil their Fourth Estate obligations. This is in line with the submission of Whitney, 
Sumpter and McQuail (2004:1) that:
The single largest influence on the production of news is 
probably that of money in one way or another (Bagdikian, 
2000; Ettema & Whitney, 1994), especially where news 
organizations have a primary goal of making money. Even 
when that is not the case (there are nonprofit media and
publicly owned news services), the high costs of modern news 
production and distribution introduce economic criteria at 
every stage, from selection to distribution. News that meets
professional standards of originality and novelty value, as well
as embodying production and presentation values, is bound to 
be expensive, not only because of the necessary costs but also
because of market values under competitive conditions.
59
This trend of for-profit orientation of media corporations has forced journalists
to worship and aid the advertisers and the large business community at the expense of the 
public. Any journalist that fails to net profit for his media organisation is likely to be laid 
off. This has a serious implication for the media world as argued by Martin (2005:2):
The cutback in journalists usually means a reduction in
investigative reporting, pursuit of non-traditional sources,
and reliance on press releases, easy-to-locate officials, and 
media handlers. Focus is restricted to the same institutions
and sources and coverage tends to privilege pre-planned 
media events as opposed to spontaneous social problems.
Obviously, it is not completely possible for the news media to be absolutely free from the
influence of the advertisers. To remain and operate in the market-driven atmosphere, the 
media need to look for means of survival. Even the government-owned media that 
receive subventions from the public money still need to augment their resources with 
proceeds from commercials. Whitener, Sumpter and McQuail (2004:1) provide a more
realistic explanation thus: 
Where advertising is the main source of revenue, much the 
same applies, with the additional factor of seeking to please and 
also not offend key advertisers.... Although well-established
media companies, such as U.S. network news channels, could
afford up until the late 1980s to cross-subsidize their news 
operations for reasons of prestige, news is increasingly required 
paid for by advertising, hardly makes a pretence of applying
standards based on journalistic values and cannot claim
independence of judgment in commenting on news. Although 
minority and alternative media can still offer news, and now 
more easily by way of the Internet, their chances of gaining a 
significant public reach are very limited.
As long as advertising remains the main source of revenue for news media, there
will always be a continuous battle between social responsibility function of the media
and profit making. Obviously, neoliberal reforms have enthroned profit making drive 
among media managers, and generally in the media industry. As Ojebode (2009) asserts, 
the principal effect of the foregoing trend is a progressive suppression of social 
responsibility functions of the mass media.
60
3.7.5  Influence of Competitors and Audience Interests
Similar to the market force are the influence of competitors and audience interests. As 
much as the editors must strive to fulfil their Fourth Estate obligations, they are also 
bound to ensure that their organisations stay afloat in the face of stiff competitions a by-
product of market-driven journalism. One of the ways of ensuring this is to select and 
transmit or publish what the audience wants. The people at the other end of the channel 
have liberty to choose any message they prefer, and any media organisation that fails to 
satisfy the interests of its audience risks losing the patronage and loyalty of such 
audience. Most times, editors are not guided by what they think is right (individual 
routines factors), but by what their audience really want to know (Lyons, 2002). Citing 
 As mentioned earlier, the new technologies have empowered the media audience 
to choose from diverse information sources. By implication, the prerogative of 
information selection power is gradually moving away from the custody of the traditional 
news producers. Because the audience, to some extent, are now setting the pace for
selecting the information they consume on daily basis (Wright, 2005), the editors are now
eager or compelled to give audience what market findings indicate they prefer. If one 
media outfit fails to give what the audience really wants, other competing media
organisations are likely to make news available to the audience. And any media
organisation that wants to compete favourably must ensure that it always satisfies
majority of the audience segment.  As Whitney, Sumpter and McQuail (2004) argue, if 
the main source of revenue of a given media outfit is the paying audience, the audience
has to be large, and to attract large audiences, the media organisation must provide news
that will always follow audience-maximising strategies, with likely popularity guiding 
selection rather than judgments of significance.
3.7.6
 As asserted by White (Watson, 2003; Sang, 2008), to a certain degree, the news selection 
decision responsibility is controlled by an individual media actor (e.g. an editor, a 
journalist). Similarly, citing Bird and Dardenne, Norris and Carroll (1997:2) contend that
journalists are guided mostly by their routine experiences to select and frame certain
61
events that eventually make the news stories of the day. This, as they argue, creates some
element of bias in the news selection process. According to them, 
...routine journalistic practices may contribute more to systematic
biases in news reporting than any liberal or conservative leanings 
within the press. Decisions in the news-gathering process
determining what and how stories are covered may prove critical
here. Out of the myriad ways of describing events in the world,
reporters, editors, and producers rely upon frames to convey 
dominant cultural meanings, to make sense of the facts, to focus 
the headline, and to structure the story-line. Although the specific 
a
plane crash, a presidential speech, a local murder the way that 
journalists observe and report these occurrences has a lot to do 
with how similar events have been framed in the past.
Therefo
routine experiences and interest, values and role conceptions as well as his or her
capabilities can influence news selection decision. However, the journalist is not
independent of other forces from the media organisation, external institutions and society
at large while performing his news selection responsibility. A combination of these forces
shape what the media select and present as news.
3.8 Some Empirical Studies on Media Gatekeeping 
The first empirical study in media gatekeeping was done by David Manning White in
conducting a case study in the news selection process. White combined interview,
observation and non-quantitative content analysis in his study to examine the news
selection forces and how such forces
influences. Prominent among these forces were space, proximity, or redundancy issues. 
The study further revealed that the editor discarded a smaller group of news for
subjective reasons. White submitted that the latter finding suggested that Mr. Gates's
experiences and attitudes influenced both the selection and rejection of news stories.
  In 1956, Gieber conducted a multisite and multi-method study as an extension of
 study. He employed non-quantitative content analyses,
ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, an experiment, and self-reports to study wire editors
62
at 16 afternoon dailies in Wisconsin. His study proved that White had over-generalised in 
they exercised minimal news judgment in their story selections because of deadline
pressures. Gieber's series of content analyses revealed on the contrary that the wire 
editors used a quantifiable sample of wire traffic study. He observed a strong degree of
uniformity of behaviour among news editors across newspapers (Whitney, Sumpter and 
McQuail, 2004).
According to Whitener, Sumpter and McQuail, for two reasons,
 First, the 
studies allow the analyst simultaneously to make empirical statements at several levels of
analysis of gatekeeping.  These levels include individual and the organisational. In 
editorial decisions without consultation with others in the organization. For this reason,
individual and organisational behaviour are one and similar. However, when Gieber
observed a high level of uniformity of behaviour among editors and reporters across
newspapers, he incorporated the industrial level to the analysis. Second, the two studies
demonstrated the relevance and desirability of using multiple methods to analyse
and sources. 
Also, Storm (2007) used a multi-method approach (triangulation) to determine
how gatekeepers at one community newsroom were interacting with, and being
influenced by, Web-generated user contents. Through an analysis of the 986 randomly
selected editorial stories in the three newspapers, it was established that very little
attributed user content is penetrating from the Web and into print. Only 23 stories had 
evidence of Web-generated user content. This is 2.3% of the total 2004 and 2005 content
randomly sampled from the three newspapers. The study, however, reported a 
significantly larger proportion of Web-generated user content in the three newspapers in 
2005 than in 2004, with 19 (3.9%) occurrences of Web-generated user content of the total
contents in the three newspapers printed in 2005 and four (8%) occurrences of the three
newspapers printed in 2004.
The results of the study further revealed that Web-generated user content is not
evidence of a convergence of content creators but rather an avenue for a convergence of 
conversation within newsrooms. This suggests that impact of Web-generated user content
transcends the physical amount of user content making its way into print. It has a great 
63
implication for the cooperation and conversation the Web site facilitates between the 
newsroom and the public (audience). Findings of the study indicate that very little
attributed Web-generated user 
into their print editions. This, according to Storm (2007:19-20), implies that: 
...while Web-
primarily
audiences, are no longer passive consumers of news produced by a 
few privileged, arrogant reporters. They are active producers of the 
news they will consume.
In America, Clayman and Reisner (1998) conducted a study on how newspaper 
editors, in conference meetings, jointly determine which stories will appear on the front 
page. The researchers focused on the specific practices that usually guide gatekeeping 
decisions in the newsroom. They provided an overview of the primary phases of activity
in conference meetings, identified various practices for promoting stories as page-one
material, and analysed in detail one particular practice verbal assessments of
newsworthiness of competing events. Data for the study consisted of audio recordings of 
editorial conferences conducted in 1989 at eight daily newspapers. A one-week block of 
conferences were recorded and roughly transcribed. Findings of the study revealed that 
editors display a systematic preference for mildly favourable assessments over both
stronger and weaker ones, apparently because restrained support enables them to
maintain solidarity relations with reporters and their editorial colleagues in the 
newsroom. Also, assessment favourability is significantly associated with gate-keeping
outcomes.
Findings of the study further indicate that newsworthiness assessments constitute 
just one part of a multifaceted and complex gatekeeping process as the verbal assessment
a story receives from the editors has a strong relationship with its placement in the 
newspaper. For instance, of those stories that got strong favourable assessment by editors
during the review session, 78% eventually appeared on the front page. In only two cases, 
a strongly endorsed story failed to be placed on the front page. On the contrary, 
negatively assessed stories were never chosen to occupy front page.
The significance of this study is that it stimulates the
on news business that journalists work within a complex institutional and cultural 
64
environment that shapes how they make daily decisions on what they select from the
pool and what they report as news. The researchers sum this up that: 
...news is a social construct, but in a way that has not 
been appreciated previously in the context of editorial
gatekeeping. Not only do extra-journalistic,
organizationally driven considerations enter into the 
gatekeeping process (although that is undoubtedly so); 
gate-keeping itself is fundamentally a social and 
collaborative process. That process is negotiated by the 
editorial staff, each of whom promotes particular stories
for page one through a variety of discursive 
practices....When editors render explicit verbal 
assessments; these are intertwined with, and conditioned 
by, the framework of social relation-ships at the
newspaper. Thus, passing judgement on a story's
newsworthiness is not a purely intellectual task 
discharged by atomistic professionals; it is an observable 
social action, situated within interaction, and performed
with an eye toward its immediate relational implications
(p.197).
  The submission of Clayman and Reisner here suggests that, after all, news may
not be purely a judicious selection of the most newsworthy issues of the day. It negates 
the widely held assumption that journalists are independent professionals that are
protected from external forces because of their special training to gather and report news
objectively based on the stipulated standards of newsworthiness.
In Kentucky, Donohew (2001) conducted a study aimed at examining the forces 
that are related to the decisions by newspapers gatekeepers to run certain issues as news
and not the others, to promote certain news items and bury others. He employed an 
integrated research design combining analysis of content, administration of a 
questionnaire and collection of demographic data. The researcher selected the population
of afternoon newspapers (in Kentucky) subscribing to Associated Press (N = 7). This was 
to ensure that all gatekeepers were exposed to the same stimulus Medicare issue. 
-coverage responses to the stimulus were recorded through content 
analysis. Then, these responses were correlated with the indicators of attitudes, 
perceptions, and conditions that might be regarded as part of the environment where the 
gatekeepers operated.
The researche
perception of community opinion, and community conditions would be found to be 
65
systematically related to each of the measurements of gatekeeper behaviour (news
selection and reporting). Findings of the study, therefore, revealed that: (1) publisher
attitude is a significant force in the news channel; (2) perceived public opinion does not 
alter gatekeeping behaviour; and (3) community conditions are not related to coverage of
news (i.e. there is a little or no relationship between the coverage of the newspapers of
The findings generally nullify the research hypotheses.
Another study was conducted by Berkowitz (1991) to investigate the roles of four 
forces (news judgement, constraints on resources for covering stories, subsidised news, 
and electronic technology) on news selection process. Data for the study were collected 
through newsroom observation and quantitative coding of potential news items at
network-affiliate television in Indianapolis. The researcher identified the potential news
s at the news desk, and watching news
the major focus of the study. The study was piloted by three hypotheses: (1) News
judgement will be the most important of story selection, but not the only one; (2) 
resource constraints will be nearly as important a determinant as news judgement; and 
(3) the roles of electronic technology and information subsidy will have less impact on 
story selection than news judgement or resource constraints. 
Findings of the study confirmed the three hypotheses. Specifically, the study
revealed that news judgement was a significant force in news stories selection, but it was 
not the only criterion that was applied in news selection decisions. Rather, the editorial 
decisions were also influenced by resource constraints (e.g. the impact of available time,
e information. Constraints
on resources for covering news stories were nearly as important in shaping the structure 
of news content, but the impact of subsidised news and electronic technology was
comparatively less significant. Generally, the four forces identified in the study 
accounted for 51.8% of the variance in the news stories selection process.  Berkowitz,
therefore, recommended that further studies might consider exploring other forces, such 
as entertainment, business, and organisational policy, in the news business. 
A comprehensive analysis of press review with an emphasis on media selection
function, the daily schedule and selected communication models relevant to the selection 
66
of secondary media broadcasts was also conducted by Riedel (2008). The study also
discussed various characteristics of press review as a broadcast media format in relation
to process, media synergy and formatting the audience. Through content analysis method,
the study made comparative empirical examination of 200 press reviews between May
15, 2005 and June 15, 2008 from selected television stations (TVP, TVN, and TVN24), 
radio stations (RADIO TOK FM, POLSKIE RADIO), Internet portal (www.wp.pl,
www.onet.pl, www.wprost.pl),  Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), and one  weekly 
with re-prints of press texts from other newspapers. This made the analysis to encompass
all types of press review. The study aimed at proffering answers to the following research 
variables: (1) number of presented newspapers; (2) choice of topics; (3) subjects ignored; 
(4) phrases used by press review hosts; (5) topic areas most frequently discussed; (6) 
preferred news-papers; and (7) press review dynamics.
Findings of the study reveal that if a press review directly comes before a news
service, then the materials selected for it are not the same as the ones presented in the 
news brief. Also, in some cases, press reviews take place near midnight, or five to six
hours before the newspapers reach the stands. This is specifically the case on TVN24
where, after midnight, the headlines of major newspapers for the next day are presented. 
Furthermore, the study shows that press review styles differ according to media types.
For example, radio press reviews (as opposed to TV) use more citations of articles, while 
TV ones present a selection of photos, charts or other visual data. 
The researcher, based on his findings, therefore, concludes that (1) press review
as a media format presents an interesting synergy effect, where one press specificity
interpenetrates with other media specificity, that is, TV, radio or the Internet; (2) the 
observed mega trends, such as a diffusion of IT technologies or audience fragmentation
provide a conducive atmosphere for the interactions between different media subsystems;
(3) press review, being an information programme, plays an important role in creating
order of the day; (4) being based on the mechanism of gate keeping, the role of press 
review is the selection of key information, and by this, hosts of press reviews direct the
attention of public opinion toward certain events, while ignoring others, influence and 
form public opinion, strengthen the impact of the original media content by publicising it 
and increasing the audience base. Thus, press reviews are another stage in the selection of 
information (secondary gatekeeping), aiding in establishing which news is noteworthy
and talked about by the audience (agenda setting). However, Riedel observes, there is
67
also a weakness as press reviews give media content public acceptance through the 
mechanism of social credibility.
ducted by
the relative influence of diverse forces on how prominently U.S. newspapers covered
major legislation over two Congressional sessions. The researchers combined content
analysis and survey methods. Newspapers stories concerning 50 Congressional bills were
content analysed and two separate surveys were conducted among 10 editors and 214
staff writers who covered one or more of the 50 Congressional bills. The study tested the 
following hypotheses to compare the relative influence of individual and routine forces:
 be related to
how prominently a bill is covered. H1: The characteristics (preference) of the individual 
journalist will be related to how prominently a bill is covered.
To test the hypotheses, the researchers used Pearson correlation coefficients. 
Findings of the study support the first hypothesis but they reject the second one.
words covering a bill (r = .36, p < .05) and the number of articles covering a bill (r = .35, 
p < .05). This supports the first hypothesis. For the second hypothesis, findings show that 
none of the characteristics of journalists who covered a bill was significantly correlated 
summary, the study substantiates the proposition that media gatekeeping (newspaper in
the context of this study by Shoemaker, et al.) is influenced more by forces on the routine 
In summary, the findings of the foregoing studies have proved that news is a 
social construct and the news selection process is a collaborated, complex exercise that is
controlled by a number of forces. These forces go beyond the basic, routine news values:
they include other extra-journalistic, organisationally, and socially induced factors that 
determine what fragments of the competing social events escape the gate regions to 
become news, and which ones are prevented from reaching the mass audience. Also, 
most of the studies discussed above focused on primary gatekeeping. Furthermore, none 
of the studies is from Africa, let alone Nigeria. This trend further highlights the dearth of
68
scholarly attention on secondary gatekeeping a prevalent practice in the Nigerian
broadcast media.
69
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCEPTUALISATION OF SECONDARY GATEKEEPING
4.1 Introduction 
The primary focus of this chapter is to provide a conceptual framework for the study.
Basically, the chapter presents textual and diagrammatic explanation of the structure, 
process and likely effect of secondary gatekeeping as practised by radio stations in 
Nigeria.
4.2 Secondary Gatekeeping: A Conceptual Clarification
The conceptual framework for this study was inspired by
model as explained on pages 25 and 26. The focus of this study is gatekeeping at the 
secondary level. Consequently, the researcher constructed the conceptual framework for 
this study by adapting the Westley-McLean model. The model is modified and expanded
to accommodate the peculiar nature of the study. The conceptual framework for the study
can be diagrammatically represented as follows:
70
FEEDBACK
FEEDBACK/MONITORING
MESSAGES ( L )
X L MESSAGES (2)
X2 X L MESSAGES (3)
X3 X2 X L
X4 X3 X2
X5 X4 XX 36 X5
X7 X6
X8 I 2 X4
SOURCES PRIMARY GATEKEEPER SECONDARY GATEKEEPER O U T C O M E
C O N S U M E R
( A U D IE N C E )
FEEDBACK
FEEDBACK
FEEDBACK
Fig 4.1:  Secondary Gatekeeping Model
Source: Ojebuyi B.R. (2012).
71
AUDIENCE INTEREST, ETC.
MARKET FORCES
EXPERIENCES
DEMOGRAPHICS
ATTITUDES
ATTITUDES
DEMOGRAPHICS
EXPERIENCES
MARKET FORCES
AUDIENCE INTEREST, ETC.
PERCEPTION OF SOCIAL REALITY
EAGERNESS TO BUY OR READ NEWSPAPERS
EMPOWERMENT THROUGH DEVELOPMENT
CENTRED NEWS
AWARENESS OF LATEST EVENTS
TAKING POLITICAL DECISIONS
Explanation:
Sources (A) are the individuals that gather or provide the raw information for the mass
media. The reporters, correspondents and other sources of news stories fall in this
category. They pass the information to B1, which comprises the editorial teams and
other personnel. The B1 serves as the Primary Gatekeepers, who collect the pieces of
information from the sources (A). They perform their gatekeeping function by first
sieving the raw information from the sources. After that, they process and reconstruct 
the selected items that would escape the gate regions and get to the public outlets,
while they discard other items that are not selected. They constantly provide feedback 
to the sources. As the primary gatekeepers perform their news selection duty, their 
editorial decisions are always influenced by some criteria and forces, which
subsequently determine the composition of the media contents.
The secondary gatekeepers (B2) operate on the other stratum of gatekeeping 
terrain. This stratum also comprises the editorial teams and other personnel (reporters,
editors, producers and presenters) in the newsroom of the media organisation, 
especially the broadcast stations. At this level, the secondary gatekeepers may not get 
raw information directly from the sources (A). Instead, they monitor the media
contents already screened and packaged by primary gatekeepers (B1). At this stage, the
secondary gatekeepers further screen the media contents they get from the primary
gatekeepers by selecting some news items for mass communication, and discarding the 
rest. Those few items selected for mass communication are further repackaged before
they are finally reported as news stories to the consumer (C) audience. But the 
secondary gatekkepers may also provide feedback to both the primary gatekkepers and 
the sources. In the context of this study, the primary gatekeepers (B1) represent the
newspapers, while the secondary gatekeepers (B2) represent radio stations. As the 
messages (X) move in a linear pattern from the sources (A) through the primary
gatekeepers (B1) and the secondary gatekeepers (B2), to the consumer (C), their 
quantity continues to decrease because of the gatekeeping activities at the different
gate regions.
When the news items from the secondary gatekeepers (B2) eventually get to the
consumer (C), such news items are likely to produce some impact or outcomes (D).
social reality, eagerness to buy or read newspapers, empowerment through
72
development-centred news, awareness of latest events in the immediate and remote
environments, and taking political decisions.
Both the primary and the secondary gatekeeping procedures are similar:  The 
two are screening exercises whereby a few out of competing news items are selected
and packaged for mass communication. Also, as applicable at the primary stratum of 
gatekeeping, the secondary
expense of the others are always influenced by some forces such as the 
 news values, backgrounds, demographic variables, roles 
conception and evaluation, internal values, political alliances of the media
organisation, market forces, influence of competitors, audience interest, impact of 
ideology and culture. The major difference between primary gatekeeping and
secondary gatekeeping is that the items discarded by primary gatekeepers are not likely
the other hand, the items discarded by secondary gatekeepers may still reach the mass
audience through other outlets because the items have been published as news by other
news media.
73
CHAPTER FIVE
METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE 
5.1 Introduction 
The specific methodological approaches and procedures adopted for this study are
discussed in this chapter. The methodology is discussed under the following sub-
headings: The Research Design; Conceptual Framework; Population; Sampling;
Sample Size; Research Instruments; Validity and Reliability; Method of Data 
Collection; Method of Data Analysis.
5.2 The Research Design 
Research design, which is a pattern of decisions that are made explicitly or implicitly
in the course of designing and conducting a study, eventually determines what can be 
claimed as the findings of the research (Riley cited by McTavish and Loether 2002). 
This study employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches. To be specific, the
study employed survey, in-depth interviews, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), and 
content analysis to answer the research questions constructed for this study.
The combination of research approaches like this is tagged triangulation (Berg,
2001). What informed the choice of eclectic approach here was the nature of this 
study, which involved quantitative and qualitative analysis of radio audience
responses, and the contents of the news reviews by the selected radio stations on the
one hand; 
editorial decisions, on the other. Some scholars (for example, Dabbs, cited by Berg
2001; Travers, 2009) have contended that both quantitative and qualitative approaches 
are mutually exclusive and extremely incompatible, thus, the two approaches must not 
be combined. This notion is described as incompatibility thesis (Howe, cited by 
Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004). Contrarily, combining quantitative and qualitative 
research methods in a study usually allows the researcher to have better in-depth
understanding of the issue being investigated as well as to achieve sharper data 
reduction and verification than what is achievable using only one research approach.
74
This combination of the two seemingly exclusive research paradigms has the ultimate
advantage of producing better and more valid results (Kaplan and Duchon, 1988; 
García-Álvarez and López-Sintas, 2002). Both quantitative and qualitative research
methods have their exclusive values, and when the two are used to complement each 
other in a study, the researcher exploits their strengths and minimises their limitations
to generate findings that would be richer, better, and present a more functional picture
of fact as well as more complete body of symbols and theoretical perceptions (Sieber,
1973; Berger, 2000; Berg, 2001; Abawi, 2004; Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004).
Maxwell (1998:3), shares a similar view as he posits that combination of qualitative 
and quantitative methods provides a greater range of insights and perspectives, and 
permits the researcher to confirm findings of his study. This improves the overall
validity of results and makes the study to be very useful to the constituencies at which
it was targeted. However, in order to generate results that are valid and reliable, the
researcher must ensure that possible extraneous variables are properly controlled.
In this study, content analysis was used to examine the composition of the 
content of the news review programmes by the radio stations selected for the study. 
Content analysis, according to Kerlinger, cited by Wimmer and Dominick (2000:135),
is ing communication in a systematic, objective, and
on certain principles that ensure strict adherence to explicit and consistently applied
rules; unbiased method of sample selection; and uniform coding and analysis process. 
Survey and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were used to measure, in 
quantifiable terms, and explore, in qualitative terms, the responses of the audience of 
the radio stations in respect of their attitude towards news review, the impact of the 
programme on the listeners, and their choice of media type.
In-depth interviews were conducted with the news editors of the radio stations 
to explore the structure of their roles as gatekeepers and the forces that influenced their
routine newsroom decisions. Journalists were also interviewed to gauge their
perspectives on possible impact of news review on the sale of newspapers. According 
to Poindexter and McCombs, cited by Storm (2007), in-depth interviews are most
relevant and beneficial as a research tool when the issue being investigated has to do 
with change, novelty, or uniqueness and the interviewees perform influential or unique 
responsibilities. In this study, the people that were interviewed (news decision-makers)
play significant roles in the process of what items are selected for the news reviews. 
75
Both survey and content analysis are quantitative in orientation, while in-depth
interview and Focus Group Discussion are qualitative. The combination of the 
different methods (eclecticism) was directed towards answering the following research
questions that guided this study:
(1) What criteria are applied in the selection of items for broadcast in news review
programmes?
(2) What topic areas are most frequently discussed in news reviews by the radio    
stations?
(3) To what extent do the contents of news reviews by the radio stations satisfy the 
audience expectations and urge to be informed of the daily happenings in their
environments?
(4) How well do radio stations set public agenda by their secondary gatekeeping?
(5) What is the extent of eagerness of radio audience to read the news contents of 
newspapers after listening to the daily broadcasts of news review by radio 
stations?
Question 1 aimed at examining the procedure followed in performing secondary
gatekeeping, the forces, and the factors that usually influenced the editorial decisions
of media gatekeepers (producers, news editors and presenters of the selected radio 
stations) in terms of what they considered newsworthy enough to pass through the gate 
region and form contents of the news review programmes. These factors also include
formulated to answer this research question:
H 1.1: News editors always demonstrate bias for some news values in their editorial 
decisions, while selecting items for news reviews.
Question 2 aimed at examining the structure of radio
contents in terms of the issues that always feature prominently at the expense of others.
The question also aimed to investigate if language format and ownership factor would 
play significant roles in shaping the structure of the news review programme contents.
Therefore, the following specific null hypotheses were tested here:
Ho 2.1: In terms of themes, there is no statistically significant difference in the
contents of news reviews by federal, state and private radio stations.
76
Ho 2.2: In terms of proximity, there is no statistically significant difference in the
contents of news reviews by federal, state and private radio stations.
Ho 2.3: In terms of the frequency of duration, and extraneous comments added by the 
presenters, there is no statistically significant difference between the news reviews
presented in the English Language and those presented in the Yoruba Language.
Since it is naturally impossible for man to be everywhere at the same time, he 
cannot know simultaneously all the events that are happening at different places. But
the mass media gather, process, and bring most of these happenings to the audience.
Consequently, the audience always rest assured that the mass media would feed them 
with news about the latest events. The research question 3, therefore, was constructed
to examine if the radio stations, through their secondary gatekeeping function (news
reviews in this context), actually attract interest of the audience and help them to be 
aware of the significant events as they happened in their immediate and remote
environments
  The mass media have the power, through repeated coverage and emphasis
is established by the theoretical framework for this study. Question 4 aimed at
investigating the extent to which radio stations, through their news review
programmes, influence the respondents to see and interpret societal issues in the same
way the mass media (the selected radio stations in this context) present such issues. 
There had been claims by newspapers proprietors that newspapers review by 
broadcast media adversely affects the sales of their newspapers. Research Question 5 
aimed at establishing whether or not listening to news reviews on radio stations would 
drive the radio audience to read the contents of newspapers. This took care of outcome
as one of the core variables in the study. Therefore, the specific null hypotheses tested 
here are: 
Ho 3.1     There is no statistically significant re
frequencies of listening to news review programmes on radio and their willingness to 
read newspapers. 
Ho 3.2
frequencies of listening to news review programmes on radio and their frequencies of
buying newspapers. 
 Forces, structure, and outcome are the three core variables that feature most
prominently in the central theme that this study explored. Research question 1, 
77
therefore, aimed at examining the procedure of secondary gatekeeping and the forces 
editorial decisions while performing the secondary
gatekeeping act. Questions 5 and 4 aimed at establishing the actual outcome (effect) of 
the news review programmes by radio stations in terms of how the programmes affect
the programmes.
Question 2 took care of both structure and forces, while question 3 aimed at exploring
structure and outcome in terms of how the programme is packaged and delivered to 
attract audience interest and raise their consciousness about events in their immediate
and remote environments.  
Basically, in-depth interview was used for research question 1. For research
questions 5, 3 and 4, survey method was predominantly used, while content analysis
was primarily employed for research question 2.  However, for some of the research 
questions, both quantitative and qualitative data were combined to complement each 
other in order to strengthen the findings of the study.
5.3 Population
The study had two broad types of population human population and non-human
population. The human population comprised news-decision makers (the news editors
and producers), journalists, and the audience of radio stations in Oyo State, Nigeria. 
The non-human population comprised the radio stations in the state and the contents of
news review programmes by the radio stations. The titles and schedules of the  reviews 
by the selected radio stations, as at the time of this study, were as follows: Premier
FM: Day-Break Gist, 6:30-7:00am, and 8:00-8:30am; Radio O-Y-O
(BCOS): News Update, 6:45- 7:00 am, and Koko Iroyin, 8:45-9:00am; Splash FM:
Top-Stories, 7:30-8:00am, and Tifun-T do, 9:00-9:30am.  
What informed the choice of the population was the focus of this study
secondary gatekeeping in radio stations. The radio stations in Oyo State performed this 
function through their news review programmes. Besides, majority of the radio 
audience were believed to be aware of and listened to this programme and, therefore,
possessed the knowledge to provide insights into the impact the programme had on 
them (the audience). The editors/producers/presenters were also believed to possess 
the professional competence that would enable them to provide answers that would 
help to identify and explain how their editorial decisions were made, and the 
predominant forces that always influenced these editorial decisions.
78
5.4 Sampling Techniques
The research design adopted for this study required a combination of multiple
populations and sampling techniques. Table 5.1 below presents an overview of the 
categories of population and the sampling techniques that were applied to them:
Table 5.1: Population Types and Sampling Techniques
Population Sampling Technique 
Radio Stations Purposive
Days of News Reviews by Simple Random Balloting  (without replacement)
Radio Stations
Editorial Personnel of the Radio Purposive
Stations
Journalists Purposive
Radio Audience (for Focus Purposive Sampling Technique. 
Group Discussions)
Radio Audience (for Survey) Stratification; Simple Random Balloting
Technique; and Convenience Sampling
Technique.
  The purposive sampling technique was used to select the radio stations to be
studied  because, as at the time of the study,  the selected radio stations performed the 
secondary gatekeeping function, and reflected divergent ownership patterns, which 
constituted a core variable in this study. Besides, the radio stations are located in the
geographic coverage of the study.  
A Simple random balloting (without replacement) technique was used to select
the days of the news review broadcasts that were content analysed. The 2010 almanac
was used as the sampling frame. The simple random sampling method was used 
because it allowed the researcher to achieve the principle of Equal Probability of 
Selection Method (EPSEM), where bias and subjectivity were reasonably minimised,
and all members of the population were given an equal chance of being chosen for the 
study (Wimmer and Dominick, 2000).  For the English version of the news reviews, 
six (6) days in a month (excluding weekends) for each of the radio stations were 
randomly selected (through balloting) across the eleven months (February
79
December, 2010, making a total of 240 working days) that constituted the study
period. This made sixty-six (66) days for each of the three radio stations. The recorded 
news reviews that fell on the randomly selected days were, therefore, selected and 
content analysed for the study. This was done separately for each of the three radio
stations Splash FM, Premier FM, and Radio O-Y-O that were chosen for the study.
Consequently, for the English version, a total of 198 news review broadcasts were
content analysed.
For the Yoruba version of the news reviews, two (2) working days in each 
month were randomly picked from each of the six working days already selected for 
the English version. The news review broadcasts that fell on the selected days were
content analysed. However, only two radio stations Splash FM and Premier FM
were selected for the Yoruba version. This made a total of 22 broadcasts for each
station, and 44 for the two radio stations (see appendixes for these distributions of the
randomly selected days over the period of eleven months that the study covered).
The reason for selecting the Yoruba version was to complement the English
version, and establish the basis of comparison between the two versions in terms of
duration and occurrence of banters (extraneous comment by on-air personnel). 
Therefore, fewer days were selected for the Yoruba version. Further, Radio O-Y-O, in 
its English version of the news reviews, did not include any commercials, and the
presenters hardly introduced any extraneous comments in their presentations whereas 
the other two stations did. Also as at the time of this study, Radio O-Y-O had not 
started the Yoruba version of the programme. Therefore, in selecting the content 
matters of the Yoruba version of news review, the radio station (Radio O-Y-O) was
excluded.
News editors and producers of the review programmes of the radio stations 
were purposively selected. The purposive sampling method was considered
appropriate here because the news editors and news producers were responsible for the 
selection of the news items, and they were believed to possess professional 
experiences considered to be relevant to the focus of this study.
Similarly, purposive sampling technique was used to select the Focus Group 
Discussions (FGDs) participants and the newspaper practitioners that were 
interviewed. The researcher considered this method appropriate here because the
individuals selected for the FGDs were only radio audience who admitted that they
persistently listened to news reviews by the radio stations selected for the study. That 
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is, merely being a radio audience did not make an individual to be qualified as a
participant, the people selected were considered eligible because they were constant 
listeners of news reviews. Also, the method was considered appropriate for selecting 
the journalists because they were believed to possess the cognate professional
experiences that would enable them to provide insights into the impact of newspaper
reviews on the sales of newspapers. 
Since it would be impractical to study all audience of the radio stations in Oyo
State, a representative sample of the population were chosen. First, the geographic 
study area Oyo State was stratified according to its senatorial districts, comprising
Oyo-North (Oke-Ogun/Ogbomoso); Oyo-Central (Oyo/Afijio/Akinyele); and Oyo-
South (Ibadan/Ibarapa). These districts were further stratified according to Local 
Government Areas. Four (4) local government areas each were randomly selected from
the senatorial district, with the exception of Oyo-North (Oke-Ogun/Ogbomoso) district
which has the largest number of local governments. Given its size, five (5) local 
government areas were picked from the district through simple random balloting
technique. This made a total of 13 (10%) of the 33 local government areas in all the 
senatorial districts of the states.  This distribution is presented in table 5.2 below.
Table 5.2: Randomly Selected Local Governments from the Three Senatorial 
Districts
Senatorial No. of Local Governments Selected
District Local
Govt
Oyo-North 13 Ogbomoso South, Ogbomoso North, Kajola, Itesiwaju, 
Iseyin,  (5)
Oyo-Central 11 Oyo East, Atiba, Akinyele, Afijio (4)
Oyo-South 09 Ibadan North, Ibadan South-West, Ibadan North-East,
Ibarapa East (4)
TOTAL 33
81
 Convenience sampling technique was consequently used to select the radio 
audience that responded to the questionnaire. Any individual who admitted that he/she 
listened to the selected radio stations, and was willing to respond to the questionnaire,
was chosen for the study. Convenience sampling technique was considered most
appropriate in this circumstance because the target population audience of the radio 
stations in Oyo State were scattered and relatively heterogeneous.
5.5 The Samples
It would be difficult to study the entire population for the study. Therefore, the
following representative samples of the different study populations were selected.
5.5.1 The Sample Sizes
Three (3) radio stations Premier FM, Radio O-Y-O, and Splash FM were selected 
for this study. From each of the radio stations, two news-decision makers (news
editors/news producers/news presenters) were selected and interviewed. The reason for
their selection for the interview was that these categories of personnel were believed to
be usually involved in the gatekeeping business. This is shown in table 5.3 below.
Table 5.3: Editors/Producers of the News Review Programmes 
RADIO STATION NUMBER
Premier FM, Ibadan 2
Splash FM, Ibadan 2
Radio O-Y-O, Ibadan 2
TOTAL 6
As shown in table 5.4, 574 copies of the questionnaire were distributed in the
three senatorial districts Oyo-North (Oke-Ogun/Ogbomoso); Oyo-Central
(Oyo/Afijio/Akinyele); and Oyo-South (Ibadan/Ibarapa) using ratio 39:33:27 
respectively as the approximated percentages of the total number of local governments
in the state. The ratio was considered necessary because of the varying sizes of the
three senatorial districts in the state. For instance, out of the 33 local governments in 
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Oyo State, Oyo-North has 13 (39.4%), Oyo-Central has 11 (33.3%), while Oyo-South
has 9 (27.3%) local governments respectively (http://oyostate.gov.ng/media/oyo-state-
profile, May, 2010).
Table 5.4: Number of Questionnaire Copies Distributed and Retrieved
 Senatorial District No. of Local No. of No. of 
Governments Questionnaire Questionnaire
Copies Copies
Distributed Retrieved
Oyo-North (Oke- 13 (39.4%) 226 203 (89.8%)
Ogun/Ogbomoso)
Oyo-Central 11(33.3%) 191 176 (92.1%)
(Oyo/Afijio/Akinyele)
Oyo-South 09 (27.3) 157 141 (89.8%)
(Ibadan/Ibarapa)
Total 33 (100%) 574 520 (90.6%)
The copies of the questionnaire were, therefore, distributed as follows: Oyo-
North with 13 (39.4%) Local Governments got 226 copies; Oyo-Central with11
(33.3%) Local Governments got 191 copies; while Oyo-South with nine (27.3%) Local 
Governments received 157 copies.  However, five hundred and twenty (520) copies
were retrieved eventually and this made the sample size. This means that 90.6% of the 
copies distributed was retrieved while the attrition rate was just 9.4%. Out of these 520 
respondents finally selected for this study, 203 respondents came from Oyo-North
District; 176 respondents came from Oyo-Central District; and 141 respondents came
from Oyo-South. To complement qualitative data collected through the questionnaire,
five FGD sessions were conducted with 43 listeners of news reviews programmes who
were purposively selected. Also, to determine the impact of newspaper reviews on the 
sale of newspapers, 12 newspaper practitioners in Oyo State were purposively selected 
and interviewed. 
83
For the English Version of content analysis items, a total of 66 days (for each
radio station) were selected through simple random balloting as explained earlier. This 
made a total of 198 day for all the three radio stations. News reviews that fell on the
selected days were content analysed. For the Yoruba version, a total of 22 days each 
(for two radio stations) was selected.  All the items of the news reviews that fell within
the selected days formed the total sample that was content analysed. This made a total 
of 198 news reviews for the English version, and 44 news reviews for the Yoruba 
version as presented in table 5.5.
TABLE 5.5: Sample Size of the News Reviews for Content Analysis
   RADIO STATION                 LANGUAGE FORMAT
English Yoruba
Premier FM. Ibadan 66 22
Splash FM, Ibadan 66 22
Radio O-Y-O, Ibadan 66 -
TOTAL 198 44
5.5.2   Description of the Samples
Table 5.6 below shows demographic analysis of the audience respondents. Two
hundred and ninety-seven (297) constituting 57.1 of the respondents were males, while 
223 (42.9%) were females. Description based on age shows that 236 (45.4%) of the 
respondents were between ages 21 and 30 years; 126 (24.2%) respondents were
between ages 31 and 40; 74 (14.2%) were teenagers. Only 31 (6.0%) respondents were 
above 50 years, while 53 (10.2%) were between the ages of 41 and 50 years. The age
distribution shows that absolute majority 436 (83.8%) of the respondents were below
the age of 41, while those above the age of 40 were just 84 (16.2%).  Based on 
84
educational qualifications, 40 (7.7%) of the respondents did not have formal education; 
only 29 (5.6%) respondents had primary education; 83 (16.0%) had secondary
education; and 368 (70.8%) possessed post secondary school qualifications. The 
implication of this is that majority of the respondents were educated and were likely to
have interest in public affairs that affected their welfare. Three hundred and twenty-
seven (327, 62.9%) of the audience respondents were yet to marry; 174 (33.5%) were 
married; three (.6%) were cohabiting; only one (.2%) was widowed; while 15 (2.9%) 
of the respondents remained silent on their marital status. One hundred and ninety-
three (193; 37.1%) of the audience respondents were Muslims; 324 (62.3%) were 
Christians; and only three respondents were adherents of traditional religions. 
Table 5.6: Composition of Questionnaire Respondents According to Demographic
Variables
S/N ITEMS FREQUENCY PERCENT
1 GENDER
Male 297 57.1
Female 223 42.9
Total 520 100.0
2 AGE
Below 20 74 14.2
21-30 236 45.4
31-40 126 24.2
41-50 53 10.2
Above 50 31 6.0
Total 520 100.0
3 LEVEL OF EDUCATION
No formal education 40 7.7
Primary school 29 5.6
Secondary school 83 16.0
Post secondary school 368 70.8
Total 520 100.0
4 MARITAL STATUS
No response 15 2.9
Single 327 62.9
Married 174 33.5
Widowed 1 .2
Cohabiting 3 .6
Total 520 100.0
5 RELIGION
Islam 193 37.1
Christianity 324 62.3
Traditional religion 3 0.6
Total 520 100.0
85
The editorial personnel selected from the three radio stations were of different
status. They comprised three news editors; two presenters; and one producer of the 
news review programme. Mr Bimbo Akanbi is an Assistant Producer of news review
at Radio O-Y-O. He has an OND and a HND in Mass Communication from The 
Polytechnic, Ibadan. Mr. Yemi Ogunyemi trained as an agriculturalist at the University
of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife), but his natural talents in, and 
passion for, journalism encouraged him to change to broadcasting. He had worked
with the FRCN before he eventually retired from the National Television Authority 
(NTA), Ibadan. He now works as a part-time presenter of news review at Radio O-Y-
O, Ibadan. Mr. Yemi Ogunyemi was selected for the interview because he was also
part of the editorial team that usually selected news items to be reviewed. The 
selection, as explained by Mr. Bimbo Akanbi, was done collaboratively by everybody
on duty, irrespective of whether the person belonged to the Yoruba or the English 
group. The news items reviewed in the English Language were also translated for the 
Yoruba version. Mr. Kunle Thomas is the News Editor at the Splash FM, Ibadan. He 
started his career in journalism in 1971, with the Radio Nigeria, Ibadan. He left the
station to work with the Daily Times newspaper. On creation of new states, he moved
to join Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation as a pioneer staff. Some years later after
his retirement, he joined the Splash FM as the pioneer editor. He has an OND and a 
HND in Mass Communication. Mr.Abolade Salami is a veteran news presenter. He 
retired from Radio Nigeria, Ibadan, in 2007 after about 30 years in the broadcasting 
industry. On retirement, he joined Splash FM, Ibadan, and later as a free lance 
presenter at Radio O-Y-O, Ibadan. He trained as a journalist at the Institute of 
Journalism, Ibadan, and he later had some professional training in journalism. Mr 
Tunde Oluwanike is a news editor with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria 
(FRCN), Ibadan. He is a graduate of Mass Communication. Mr Olaolu Fawole is the
Sub-editor and presenter of news review, FRCN (also called Premier FM), Ibadan. He
has over five years of professional experience in journalism. His had his Higher
National Diploma (HND) in Mass Communication from The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
5.6 Research Instruments 
Four separate instruments were constructed and used for this study. The instruments
were questionnaire, coding sheet (content categories), in-depth interview guide, and 
Focus Group Discussion guide. The instruments are described as follows:
86
5.6.1 The Questionnaire
The questionnaire, an instrument for survey, was designed to answer research 
questions 2, 4 and 5. The questionnaire contained 44 items in all, and had four main
sections A, B, C and D. Part A contained 17 items that helped the researcher to
and attitude towards news review programmes, their urge for information, and their 
eagerness to read or buy newspapers after listening to the news reviews; section C, 
with 9 items, was used to collect data on impact of the news review programmes on 
audience perception of , and decision about, social reality; while section D contained 6
items on demographics such as age, sex, religion and marital status.  The main sections 
of the questionnaire contained both closed-ended and open-ended items. The open-
ended items gave the respondents some level of liberty to provide responses they
considered appropriate without being restricted to some lists of options. This type of 
questionnaire items helped researchers to generate richer and quasi-qualitative
responses by exploring ed-ended items
would not have permitted.
5.6.2 Categories and Unit of Analysis
Content categories and Unit of Analysis are relevant to content analysis. They are
described as follows:
5.6.2.1 Categorisation and Operationalisation (The Coding Sheet)
The coding sheet is the basic instrument used to gather data when content analysis is 
the chosen research design for a study. It is employed to analyse the contents of a 
given communication material. In this study, the coding sheet, comprising the content
categories was used to analyse the contents of news review programmes of the selected 
radio stations.
To meet the principle of mutual exclusivity and exhaustiveness, two broad
categories Proximity and Themes were constructed. Proximity, in this context, 
means the level of geographical contiguity or placement of the issues discussed in the
story, while themes mean the focus or subject-matter of the news stories. For each of 
the two broad categories, other sub-categories were, therefore, created. The categories
are explained below.
87
5.6.2.1.1 Proximity: Three sub-categories were created for content-analysing
proximity as a major category. These are briefly explained as follows: 
Local News: This refers to news type that affects and or originates from the grassroots
and less-city areas; news that has its content in the metropolis but treats 
local issues such as divorce, domestic theft, assault, battery, crisis, and 
politics.
National news: This refers to news that discusses national issues, or issues that go 
beyond the local constituency. 
Foreign news: News whose content and focus relate to countries other than Nigeria
falls into the category foreign news category. However, setting is given 
priority over focus in this context. For example, news that talks about
Nigerian President but which is set in America is categorised under
foreign news.
5.6.2.1.2 Themes: There were eight sub-categories used in content-analysing themes
in the content of news review programmes. They are explained as follows:  
Politics: News items about issues such as election, political campaigns, political 
parties, political rallies, parliamentary debates, judicial matters,
constitution and administrations are categorised under politics. To take 
care of the variable of ownership as a factor in gatekeeping, news stories 
in the category of politics are further polarised into ruling party,
opposition parties, and neural.
 Religion: This is news about all forms of religion Islam, Christianity, and African 
Traditional Religions (ATR).
 Crimes: This refers to news about armed robberies, burglary, theft, and other related
issues.
Crises: This is news about issues such as riots, protests, industrial action (strike), fuel
crisis, and communal clashes.
 Development-centred news: These are news items about health, agriculture, economy,
education, environment, science and technology, and other similar issues 
that can empower the audience, or contribute to the overall improvement
of their general wellbeing.
Disaster: News about earthquakes, floods, drought, accidents, and other forms of
disaster falls under disaster.
88
Sports: This covers news about football, volley-ball, athletics, and other forms of 
sports generally.
 Society: This is news about entertainment, birthdays, music, coronation, burial
ceremonies, and other social functions.
Apart from the foregoing broad categories, other supplementary categories were also
constructed as they were relevant to the study. These are as follows:
Duration: This is the length of the entire daily news reviews per radio station in terms
of the number of minutes the review covered.
Language Format: This is the language in which the reviews were done. Two major
languages (the English and the Yoruba languages) applied here.
Commercials: Commercials are the sponsored advertisement jingles that were 
included in the news reviews.
Banters: These are the extraneous comments that the presenters were likely to infuse
into the news reviews. These comments came in the form of adlibs because 
they were not contained in the news contents being reviewed. 
5.6.2.2 Unit of Analysis 
In respect of the two broad categories of theme (politics, religion, crime, development-
centred news, disaster, crisis, sports, and society), and locality (local, national, and 
foreign news), the Unit of Analysis was each item of news in the whole review each
day for each radio station. For example, on each day, the whole review of a radio
station had an average of 18 to 20 rounds/news segments of the news review. Each of
these segments (i.e. each news item including its headline, lead and other details) 
formed the Unit of Analysis that was actually content analysed. For other
supplementary categories such as, commercials and extraneous comments, the
occurrence of each of these categories was the Unit of Analysis, while duration was 
measured in minutes per an entire daily review by each station.
5.6.3 In-depth Interview and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) Guides
There were two sets of in-depth interviews one for the editorial personnel of the
selected radio stations and another for the newspaper practitioners. The first set of in-
depth interview guide contained a list of open-ended questions (17) that were used to
elicit information from the editors of the selected radio stations. The second set of in-
depth interview contained five open-ended questions that were administered to the
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newspaper practitioners. The FGD guide contained 12 open-ended questions. The 
qualitative information collected through the first set of interview guide was used to 
primarily answer research question 1, while the qualitative responses generated 
through the second set of in-depth interview were used to complement the responses
elicited from the FGD guide to largely answer research question 5. The interview and
the FGD guides were flexible enough to accommodate unscripted follow-up questions 
that arose during the interviews and the discussions.
5.7 Validity and Reliability 
As regards the questionnaire, a pilot study was conducted in Agbowo, Ibadan, with 45 
purposefully selected radio listeners who claimed they listened to the news reviews. 
The pilot study helped the researcher to modify the questionnaire by eliminating items
that were considered irrelevant, and adding some items that catered for some
inadequacies that were noticed after the pilot study. 
Also, to ensure reliability and validity in respect of the coding sheet containing 
the content categories, the researcher took three major steps, as suggested by Wimmer
and Dominick (2000). First, boundaries of the categories were carefully constructed 
and clearly defined with maximum details in order to make them copiously exhaustive
and mutually exclusive. Two, coders were well trained and were each given a copy of
the coding sheet to study closely. Three, the researcher conducted a pilot study and 
measured inter-coder reliability on the categories. To do this, the two independent 
coders already trained were engaged. The independent coders were undergraduates 
(one in the third year, and the other in the fourth year) in the Department of 
Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan. The researcher himself
joined as the third coder. The two independent coders, including the researcher
himself, used the coding sheet to content analyse some items of news reviews 
randomly selected from the recorded broadcast of news reviews. The reliability index 
of the decisions of the independent coders was tested for inter-coder reliability using 
-154).
The reliability index was calculated separately for the two major categories (proximity
and themes) contained in the content categories. The procedure for the inter-coder
reliability is summarised as follows:
90
Reliability    =           3M_____ 
N1 + N2 + N3
Where M is the number of coding decisions agreed upon by all the coders, N1
is the total number of decisions by first coder; N2 is the total number of decisions by 
second coder; and N3
formula is     2M_. Based on choice, the researcher made it          3M_____.
       N1 + N2                            N1 + N2 + N3
Therefore, we used the following calculations to determine the inter-coder reliability 
for the categories of proximity and themes:
(A)  Proximity:            _3M_____         =               3 (15)____
                      N1 + N2 + N3   17 + 17+ 17
Proximity =    45 =  0.882 
      51
(B) Themes:                        _3M_____    =               3(14)___ 
                        N1 + N2 + N3 17 + 17+ 17 
Themes =       42       =    0.824
                     51
As shown in the calculations above, for the category of proximity, the three
coders agreed on 15 items (M) out of a subsample of 17 units they judged; while for
the category of themes, the three coders agreed on 14 items (M) out of a subsample of 
17 units. The index for proximity was 0.882, and the index for theme was 0.824. These 
indexes were judged high enough. Therefore, the instrument was considered reliable 
enough to generate valid results. 
For scrutiny, quality, and approval, all the instruments were submitted to the 
supervisor, and they were appropriately corrected before they were used. Ultimately,
the panel of examiners at the pre-field seminar (proposal defence) examined, corrected 
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and approved all the instruments used in this study. The instruments also got inputs of 
some senior academic staff in the Department and the Faculty.
5.8 Method of Data Collection
The news review broadcasts of all the radio stations selected for this study were 
recorded. The researcher used the combination of an MP4 device, a laptop, and a tape 
recorder to record the news reviews. The recording covered an eleven-month period 
(February to December, 2010). However, all the weekends were skipped. The reason
for skipping the weekends was that virtually all the radio stations selected for this 
study did not feature the regular English versions of the news reviews on weekends.
The researcher recruited and trained seven research assistants. Five of them
assisted the researcher to administer the questionnaire, while two of them joined the
researcher to recruit the FGD participants. One of the research assistants was a
postgraduate student, and six of them were undergraduate students of the Department
of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan. The students were
chosen because they had offered a core course in Research Methods. It was, therefore,
believed that the knowledge they had gained in research methods lecture sessions and 
practical assignments, and the training they had received before going to the field 
would significantly assist them to administer the questionnaire efficiently, and recruit, 
with a relative ease, the Focus Group Discussion participants. The questionnaire copies 
were administered personally by five of the research assistants and the researcher. In
some cases, we waited to retrieve the copies of the questionnaire, while in some cases
we had to go back some hours later or on the following day to retrieve copies of the
questionnaire. Only the respondents that admitted they listened to radio, and were 
willing to respond to the questionnaire were involved. The contents of the 
questionnaire were orally interpreted into the local language of the people (Yoruba) for 
few audience respondents, who said that they could not read, but had adequate 
knowledge to respond to the questionnaire. Respondents in this category were only 
7.7% as the overwhelming majority (92.3%) of the respondents had formal education.
The researcher thoroughly supervised the whole exercise. The administration of the
questionnaire spanned a period of one and a half months (January to middle of 
February, 2011). The reason for this was that the senatorial districts were covered one 
after the other, and this took some time to complete.
92
The qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews and Focus 
Group Discussion (FGD). Six news-decision makers (editors, producers, and 
presenters) selected from the three radio stations were interviewed. Twelve journalists
were also interviewed. Besides, four FGDs were conducted with 43 purposively
selected listeners of news review programmes. A manual tape recorder and a midget
were used to record the interviews and the FGDs on each occasion. Writing materials
were also used as backups to complement the recording gadgets. It, however, took four 
months (February to May, 2011) before the interviews were completed because some
of the interviewees cancelled appointments several times before the interviews
eventually took place. The interview sessions and the FGDs were flexible as the 
interviewer and the participants were able to raise other relevant issues not directly
contained in the interview and the FGD guides.
5.9 Method of Data Analysis
 Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data in
this study. The descriptive statistics were used to present the responses from the survey 
in terms of frequencies, percentages and tables. Also, appropriate inferential statistics
were employed to test each of the hypotheses. For instance, in testing for relationship 
stening to newspaper reviews on radio, and their 
level of willingness to read newspapers, the chi-square method was used to measure
the two cross-tabulated variables
reviews and level of willingness to read newspapers.
Similar analytical technique applied to the test of the relationship between 
frequencies of buying newspapers. That is, the chi-square method was used to measure
the cross-tabulated variables of listening to news reviews and buying newspapers by
the audience.
Furthermore, the hypothesis on the relationship between the ownership factor 
and themes of the contents of news reviews by radio stations was tested through the 
chi-square. The same technique was used to test the hypothesis on the relationship 
between radio stations and proximity of news reported. The data here were mainly
from content analysis. 
Finally, in testing for the significant difference between the news reviews
presented in English Language and those presented in Yoruba Language, the
93
researcher used the technique of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to measure the
frequency of extraneous comments added by the presenters.  In each case, for testing 
the hypotheses, significance was tested at the 5% level of significance (that is, p<0.05) 
The researcher transcribed the qualitative data (responses from the in-depth
interviews with the editorial personnel and newspaper practitioners on the one hand, 
and the Focus Group Discussion with listeners of news review programmes on the
other hand), and analysed them using the emerging themes technique. After reading
through the transcribed responses from the interviewees and the FGD participants, the 
researcher generated some themes that were prevalent across the data. These themes
guided the sorting of the qualitative responses to answer the appropriate research
questions.
94
CHAPTER SIX
DATA AND FINDINGS
6.0: Introduction
This chapter presents detailed analysis of data collected through the research
instruments constructed for this study. The chapter also contains a comprehensive
discussion of the findings of the study. To achieve clarity, appropriate tables are used
to present the data. A total of five research questions, five null hypotheses, and one 
alternate hypothesis were constructed to guide this study. The data are presented and
the findings are, therefore, discussed as they answer the research questions, and 
validate or reject the hypotheses.
6.1: RESEARCH QUESTION 1: What criteria are applied in the selection of items 
for broadcast in news review programmes?
Qualitative responses from the in-depth interviews with the editors, producers and
presenters of news reviews were used to answer this research. The following alternate 
hypothesis was formulated to answer this research question.
H 1.1: News editors always demonstrate bias for some news values in their editorial
decisions, while selecting items for news reviews. 
6.1.1: Rationale for News Reviews by Radio Stations: Towards Increased
Audience Patronage and   Commercial Gains
It was considered expedient to first examine the primary objectives of news review 
programmes of the selected radio stations. Responses from the news editors, producers
and presenters of news review programmes interviewed showed a similar pattern of
objectives. The primary reason for floating this programme, according to the 
interviewees, was to satisfy the radio audience. By extension, this would increase the 
listenership for the stations and expand their profit margins in the market place. The 
respondents obviously held a consensus in this respect. For instance, Mr Tunde 
Oluwanike, news Editor with Radio Nigeria, Ibadan, put the goals of the programme
95
educate, and to inform the listeners by keeping them ab
gathering is about reporting events that happen in the environment, and by extension
(at the secondary level), news review is also about reporting issues that affect the 
News review has to do with 
presenter of the Yoruba Version of news review at Radio O-Y-O, Ibadan, gave more
insight into the objectives of the programme. This is his response:
Basically, we run the news review because of our 
listeners. We want news to reach the people. It is not 
everybody that is able to buy newspapers; it is not 
everybody that listens to VOA or watches CNN. 
Therefore, it is the basic interest of this programme (news 
review) to put the world in the hands of everybody.
Mr. Bimbo Akanbi, one of the producers of news review programme at Radio O-Y-O,
gave a similar justification for the programme, but he added the angles of language and 
humour as factors that c When the 
programme is presented in the local language of the people and humour is added, 
listeners would enjoy the programme and be encouraged to always tune in for the 
programme little bit of humour for the people to enjoy as
they listen to the programme. This, we believe, encourages the audience to continue to 
Thomas of Splash FM added another dimension to this. The two shared similar opinion
as they argued that wider coverage and depth of news review would make it appeal to 
the listeners better than the normal news bulletin that is limited in scope and length. Mr 
Kunle Thomas, for instance, justified the programme thus:
The review is necessary. It serves the listeners better than the
conventional news bulletin. For instance, the philosophy of 
of local issues in the content of our news. Out of this 60% of 
local news content, we have sports, crime news, religion
politics, and the rest. The news review is for 30 minutes, and 
this can accommodate more stories. You can cover larger
areas than what you have in news bulletin which normally
lasts for ten minutes. Within the ten minutes, you cannot cover
96
much interesting stories that will satisfy the people especially
when you still have more government activities that are 
competing for space in the bulletin.  But the news review 
accommodates more stories from different sources.
In addition, the news personnel interviewed did not deny the fact that 
money also played some roles in determining what they considered as news. Even 
government-owned stations would jump at any opportunity to run commercials in the
reviews. After all, the interviewees claimed, there is nothing bad in making money for
is to serve the people. But if we have sponsors, we will not mind. With commercials,
we are making
Bimbo Akanbi of Radio O-Y-O clarified. Supporting the opinion of his colleague, Mr 
Yemi Ogunyemi, also of Radio O-Y-O, explained as follows: 
This is a government station. Radio broadcast should be for
When we started, there were programmes that were basically
community-based.  But, you see, in Nigeria today, every other
thing has been commercialised. Government itself would tell us 
t
I will not blame any station that decides to sell their airtime.
Generally, in an ideal situation, there are some things that
should be done as service to community.
Also speaking from the perspective of government-owned media enterprise, Mr Olaolu
After all, FRCN is to generate revenue
To ensure perpetual survival, private radio stations are more likely to lean 
on proceeds from commercials than government stations are. The position of Mr Kunle 
Thomas confirms the assumption that commercial interest is a stronger force in private
radio stations. He confessed:
Of course, we carry stories that are not sponsored, but we
enjoy it when people come to sponsor stories. Ours is a
private and commercial radio station. We enjoy patronage 
97
from advertisers and members of the communities
generally. For example, if the people of a community
approach our station that the road in their area is bad and 
they want to appeal to government to repair it, as long as 
they pay for an advertorial, we will write the story for them
and run it in our news review or other relevant 
programmes. Some radio stations, which are of course 
government-owned, may not collect money for some types
of advertisement, but here, we would take some money and 
run the story. We must make money to service the station. 
The single largest influence on the medi
money, Whitney, Sumpter and McQuail (2004) have argued. Similarly, McManus
(1995) posits that journalism in America is drifting towards serving the marketplace.
The situation presented in the finding above shows that money is no less a significant 
force in secondary gatekeeping of the selected radio stations. Although the 
interviewees did not put the issue of commercials first, it is evident from their 
responses that the stations still consider money as an imperative factor for the stations 
to survive.
In summary, the foregoing findings have shown that the fundamental
rationale for secondary gatekeeping by the selected radio stations is to win more
audience by giving them a wide range of news contents that the conventional news 
bulletin does not and cannot accommodate. The underlying covert motive, however, as
hinted by the interviewees in their responses, is to gain more audience (listeners) for 
the stations and make more money. As observed by Ojebode (2009), the profit-driven 
-liberal ideology has increased competition
and stiffened the market. Any news organisation that really wants to survive in the 
present media and communication industries in Nigeria must devise further means of
winning more audience and increasing its profit margin. This, perhaps, is what the 
radio stations intend to achieve through their news review programmes. This secondary
gatekeeping practice is what Pearson, Brand, Archbold, and Rane (2001:27) describe as 
contents of the other media purposely not to miss out the important news of the day 
that would really interest the people.
 Apparently, this phenomenon of profit-driven media industry has some
serious implications for responsible journalism. The sacred principle of truth and
objectivity may be compromised by editors in their bid to satisfy their financial 
98
benefactors. When interviewed by the researcher, Mr Segun Olatunji, former Managing 
Director of The Nigerian Tribune, Ibadan, and Mr. Olaoluwa Ajayi of Vanguard 
Newspaper provided some insights into how monetary consideration usually compels
journalists to abdicate their duties as apostles of truth. According Mr. Segun Olatunji,
the sharp drop in the sales of newspapers as a result of economic hardship and audience
dependence on radio has forced newspapers to depend too much on commercials to
 there
is a serious scandal and the person involved has been giving adverts to the media
organisation, the editors will not be able to publish the scandal objectively, that is, if
tted that 
commercials are really helping newspapers to survive, but he was quick to mention that 
heavy reliance on these commercials by media houses to survive is killing responsible
journalism. It is difficult to write anything that may negatively affect somebody who is
6.1.2: Sources of Contents for News Reviews: Newspaper Leads the Pack
Various sources where news producers and editors got contents for the news reviews 
were identified. These sources are categorised into two: the primary and the 
secondary sources. The primary sources are other national and international news
media. The prominently mentioned sources, of course, are the newspapers, the
internet, and other foreign giant news media (CNN, BBC, and so on), but the 
ne
we gather news from newspapers of national coverage and look for stories that we 
think our listeners will want to hear. The only input we have is to select for the news
readers. The content and figures are intact, but our presenters can introduce some
Fawole was quick to mention the relevance of the Internet as a complementary
irst go through the Internet. Obviously, most of these
newspapers have websites where we can first get their contents. Then we reach out 
explained. In his own response, Mr. Olakunle Thomas of
Splash FM put it this way:
We monitor foreign news media such as BBC, CNN, and 
Euro News. We also monitor national stations NTA,
99
Radio Nigeria, BCOS, and all broadcast stations within our
reach. We make use of the newspapers to get the top 
stories. That is the name of our programme (Top-Stories).
  Additionally, press releases from government or other agencies form the secondary
sources of items for the news reviews. Mr. Yemi Ogunyemi summarised this as
follows:
Basically, we get information from newspapers. Next is the
radio. Sometimes we get news from CNN, Voice of Nigeria 
(VON), and other news media. These are the major sources of 
news for the programme. And at times, government releases
serve part of the sources for the programme. 
However, Mr Abolade Salami reminded us of other important sources that contribute to 
the contents of the news reviews. These are community-based events, that is, news that 
break around or within the community. News stories from these events form the local 
news and they are always supplied by some human agents called stringers. In an 
interview with Mr. Adenrele Ajisefini, General Manager of Amuludun FM, Moniya,
he added.
 As evident from the findings above, sources of news stories that form contents 
of news reviews are diverse, ranging from local sources to international news media.
The Internet is not left out. But a close look at the pattern of the sources identified
above shows that significant portions of news stories in the news review programme
come from other news media with newspapers as the leading sources. What this pattern 
implies is that news review as a broadcast programme is really a secondary gatekeeping
exercise where news selection activities and news selection criteria (forces and news 
value factors) are applied again at the secondary level by the broadcast media (radio in
this study). News items that had obviously escaped the gate regions of other news 
media are again subjected to other rounds of screening and selection procedure by the 
news editors of the radio stations running the news review programmes. At this stage,
some news items are allowed to pass through the gates, while some are prevented.
100
6.1.3: Procedure for Selecting News Content for News Reviews: A Collaborated
Secondary Gatekeeping Exercise
Selecting items for news reviews is always a team work a collaborated news 
selection exercise  but with some degree of division of labour, among reportorial,
editorial and on-air personnel. The reportorial team first singularly selected the news 
contents, which were further collectively screened by all the personnel. The editorial
gate approved tiny inlets of content matters. About three or more people are usually
involved. All of them are focusing on different categories of news local, national,
foreign, politics, crimes, society and so on. However, the news items so selected must
pass through a central gate the editorial gate headed by a chief gatekeeper, who
must screen all items selected by the team of gatekeepers and certify the stories
newsworthy. Thereafter, the editorial team would transfer the screened items to the
on-air personnel to include the items
gatekeepers here are the editors or the producers as the case may be. Presenters and 
some other staff members on duty in news department form the team of gatekeepers.
Mr Kunle Thomas, the News editor, Splash FM, summarised the picture of this
procedure:
It is team work. Those staff members in the shift
including the presenters are all involved. Some
individuals source for local stories. Some source for 
foreign news, some politics, and some human angle
stories. Ultimately, everything still has to pass through 
me. It is like we have about 50 or more stories, whereas, 
all we need might just be a few stories. So, my job as the
editor now comes in to assess the newsworthiness of the
stories and pick the few ones to be used for the day. We 
discard the others that do not meet our criteria. 
The foregoing description of news selection procedure given by Mr Kunle Thomas is 
or four people are always on night duty. We all go through the newspapers available
for the day. We pick the stories after thorough screening and take them to the 
selection procedure as follows:
101
The people on duty for each day select the stories. The other 
people that help in the selection are the editor and the 
producer. The producer is the boss of any programme. He 
must always have his input. During our selection, our 
producer can point some news items to us to pick. Basically, 
we get our stories from the newspapers. The newspaper is 
very voluminous, but we have to look out for stories that 
have to do with the people. We make sure that our selection
cuts across all important news segments. We select 
information that is useful to the people.
Mr Yemi Oguny  make some allusion to a collaborative job in
the news selection process. But, the following scenario painted by Mr Bimbo Kanbi, a 
producer of news review programme, Radio O-Y-O, Ibadan, clearly presents selection
of items for news review as a collaborative exercise:
Most times, we are four or more engaging in the selection 
exercise. I am a producer; I have the Chief Producer. We are 
two. When the newspapers for the day arrive, we sit down 
together. We read through together, and we align. We have two 
presenters for the programme, and they are also involved. I 
might see a story which is not interesting to me, but the Chief
Producer may say the story is good. Then, we would use that 
story. We might not see a story, but he would see. He might not 
see a good story, but we would see. We are all involved, not 
that someone would just pick a story unilaterally. No. 
Everybody would be there; my Chief Producer would always be
there to screen news items. Our routine experiences play a 
significant role. We put heads together and say this and that are 
stories we would use; stories that would interest members of the 
public.
As contained in literature, Watson (2003), and Sang (2008) both asserted that, to some 
extent, news selection decision is influenced by some individual media actors. Also,
journalists are mostly guided by their routine experiences to select and frame those 
events that escape the media gate and make news of the day (Bird and Dardenne, cited 
by Norris and Carroll, 1997). The pattern of news selection procedure, as established by
the finding above, 
ar to what obtains in America, as reported 
by Clayman and Reisner (1998), in a study on how newspaper editors, in conference,
jointly determined which stories would be given a space on the front page. The 
102
implication of this finding, therefore, is that, ultimately, what is considered as news
may not be exclusively a cautious choice of the most newsworthy events of the day but 
a product of routine editorial judgement of some media gatekeepers; the verbal 
assessment and approval a news story gets from the collaborative decisions of the 
editors or the producers of news reviews have a strong correlation with its inclusion in 
the broadcast for the day. 
6.1.4: Criteria for Selecting Items for News Reviews
In selecting items for inclusion in the content of news review, a number of criteria
(forces) determine what is considered as newsworthy and what is discarded. In terms
of the prime factors that guide their editorial decisions, consensus of opinion from the
editors, producers and presenters interviewed for this study suggests, to a large extent, 
a uniform trend in all the radio stations selected for the study. However, as expected, 
ared to be at
variance, especially between the private and the state-owned radio stations. These
criteria are presented as follows:
6.1.4.1: Audience Interest Stories Come First
The criterion that is always considered first by the editorial team in their news
selection decisions is the interest of the audience. The interviewees claimed that since
one of the core objectives of the programme was to satisfy the audience, news that
would really interest the people should always come first. News stories in this
category are issues about politics, sports, economy, health, and all other human angle
interest of the audience comes first in deciding what goes into the news review. He 
said:
Interest of the audience affects our judgement because 
we have to think of what the people want to hear. Often,
Interest of the people would judge what we must include
in the news review. For example, there was the issue of 
the tussle within the ranks of the National Union of 
Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Ibadan, Oyo
State; they had factions and there were serious crises. 
There were frequent killings. You cannot ignore this 
like you are deliberately leaving out crucial information;
103
and you know the implication of this. There are news
stories we always look out for: A place like Cocoa
House, Dugbe Ibadan, cannot catch fire and you refuse 
to report the story. We always take care of human
interest stories. People want to hear what really has
impact on them, or affects them, their neighbour, or their 
relatives.
Also, Mr Abolade Salami recognised human angle stories as a major force that always
determined editorial decisions to select audience interest news. He explicated:
We give priority to political and human angle stories the
stories that concern the masses. My belief is that when you 
want to handle this kind of programme, you should give 
prominence to what people want to know, not just what a 
government or its agents want the people to hear. We have to 
strike a balance between the two.
   Further, the editorial teams usually considered proximity factors while 
selecting audience interest stories. Issues that had social implications for the people, 
issues that were current, and issues that were geographically close to the people were 
usually considered. These are social, topical, and physical proximities in news value 
when local 
issues affected the people, especially people within our coverage areas. We select 
stories that would interest our listeners stories that are strange; stories that have 
responded. Mr Tunde Oluwanike gave more
indications of proximity in the selection process. Here is his explanation: 
Basically, we cannot have ten items on foreign matters; we 
want to report issues about Nigeria, we want to talk about what
is happening around the people. We should let people know 
what is happening in the North and in the South, let them know 
about a cholera outbreak nearby so that they can take 
precautions. We should let them know there were accidents 
along Ore-Benin road. This would help them drive with
caution...
He further gave instances of topical proximity as a factor the editorial team also 
considered while selecting items to be included in the news reviews:
104
We select news depending on the mood of the nation and the 
happenings in the country. You know for now (April, 2011 
when this interview was conducted), politics is the main thing. 
People want to hear more about politics. Therefore, when we 
select stories for our readers, political news comes first, 
followed by some other interesting stories like economy,
crises, and so on. Sports can even come first depending on the
time. Generally, we look at the angle of human interest to pick 
stories that would really interest the public.
Based on the foregoing evidence, the alternate hypothesis (H1.1) that news 
editors always demonstrate bias for some news values in their editorial decisions,
while selecting items for the news reviews is valid. News reviews editors had bias for
stories that have elements of oddity, conflict, human interest, and news that would 
always have impact on the audience (consequence). The editorial teams of the different 
radio stations selected for this study considered the angle of audience interest stories as
the key criterion for news selection. From the aggregate opinions of the interviewees, 
we can conclude that news is news when it is about current issues; news is news when 
it has some element of unusualness; news is news when it has some geographical 
nearness to people it affects; ultimately, news is news when it has implications for the 
audience . The theory of newsworthiness holds that journalists use professional
guidelines called news values to select what they report as news (Lasorsa, 2008). 
Leading among these news values, as confirmed by the editorial personnel interviewed 
for this study,  are impact, conflict, human interest, timeliness, proximity, and oddity,
because news stories selected based on these criteria are more likely to attract audience
than others that lack them.  As Folarin (2006), Ufuophi-Biri (2006), and Alao and 
Osifeso (2009) all agreed, events that are fresh, simple and odd; that contain a high 
degree of sensationalism and identification or relevance for the audience are
newsworthy and are most likely to be selected as news ahead of others that do not have 
the characteristics. This is what the finding of this study has confirmed here. The news
personnel interviewed clearly agreed that they usually demonstrated strong bias for 
news that satisfied the news values identified above.
6.1.4.2: Who Pays the Piper Dictates the Tune
Although all the news personnel interviewed confirmed that they gave priority to
human interest stories more often than other news values, they were quick to admit
that in some cases, interest of the proprietors or owners of the stations overrode other
105
criteria. According to them, they were at times helpless and had to give in. However,
ownership influence seemed to be more pronounced in Radio O-Y-O, the radio
station owned by the State Government than in other radio stations. Mr Bimbo
Akanbi is a producer of news review, Radio O-Y-O. His experiences really painted 
the picture. He recounted:
news selection decisions some times. We might have read a 
news story in our news bulletin earlier at 6:30 am, and the 
same story would still come up in our news review at 6:45 am
if such story is in-house and affects the interest of the 
management or the State Government. Our Chairman may just 
6:30 am, he would scream at me and s
management wants.
In his effort to justify the phenomenon, Mr Bimbo Akanbi painted a comparison
between situations in government and private radio stations. He continued:
I just want people to know that a government-run station is 
different from private station. In state-owned stations, we are
working for the Government, and we have to do their wishes. 
When Lam Adesina was there, we shouted Lam, Lam; when 
Ladoja was there, we shouted his name. When Bola Ige was 
there, the same thing happened. Alao Akala is there now
(April, 2011, when this interview was conducted), we are 
shouting Akala. Even, at NTA and FRCN, the first name they
always mention is Jonathan. That is sure! But Splash FM too
cannot say anything negative about Chief Akande. It is not 
possible. It is the same thing everywhere.
  Ironically, the privately-owned station appeared to enjoy a relatively higher
Mr Kunle Thomas, News Editor, Splash FM, had this to say:
I must be honest; the Proprietor of this station does not interfere
in our job. He has left everything to us the professional to
determine what goes in as news. And the Management too has
not been really disturbing us. Although, you know, we cannot 
106
run away from the realities of organisational policy and 
ownership. There are usually some times that our Chairman
how significant or newsworthy the story is, we just have to obey
the Chairman and kill the story after we must have used it once. 
But, honestly, this is not that kind of censorship that would not 
allow you to use the story at all. 
As shown above, the study has further confirmed that influence of 
ownership is a universal phenomenon in media gatekeeping, either public or private 
media outfits. The degree of this influence may, however vary according to country or 
ownership type as stated in the finding above. The finding here presents a Nigerian 
scenario similar to what Donohew (2001) discovered in Kentucky, when he conducted 
a study to investigate forces that influenced decisions by news editors to run certain
are major instances of the major forces in news room decisions. As contained in 
literature, Epstein, cited by McManus (2005), says the ownership influence is 
categorised within the organisational level of news forces analysis in gatekeeping 
theory. The implication of the finding here, therefore, is that what the editors give the
public as news may not be true mirror of social reality after all,  but a distorted picture 
as dictated by the media owners. Consequently, journalistic principle of objectivity
may remain a mirage, to a large extent, as long as the news media proprietors continue
to wield their influence in the news selection business.
Finally, we have been able to establish here that even though the
interviewed gatekeepers claimed that the fundamental rationale for embarking on the
news review programme is to satisfy their audience, the ultimate goal, as manifested in
their responses, is to compete favourably with other media types and win more segment
of the market. Further, as the study has revealed, radio stations in their secondary
gatekeeping exercise (news reviews) adopted a collaborative news selection strategy to 
get news stories for their reviews from various sources, with newspaper as the most
frequently consulted primary source. Ultimately, in answering the research question 
one above, findings have shown that a number of criteria are always applied by the 
gatekeepers while selecting items for the news reviews. Evidently, the editorial teams
of all the selected radio stations demonstrated strong sentiments for audience interest 
stories. For instance, as shown in table 4.15 and figure 4.1, audience respondents
107
demonstrated preference for news about politics (n=390; 33.5%), sports (n=343; 
29.5%), and crises (n=132; 11.3%) in that order, above other issues. These same issues
(politics, sports, and crises) were reported more frequently than other issues by all the
radio stations in their news reviews. Interest of the proprietors and commercial
consideration also affected editorial decisions of the editors. Sang (2006) says that the
gatekeeping channel of information flow comprises gate sections that are controlled by 
the gatekeepers. A number of forces both negative and positive influence the news 
selection decisions of these gatekeepers, and construct the structure of news contents 
they give to the public. As already explained in the literature, the gatekeeping theory
specifies some levels of selection mechanism where the various forces operate. This 
study has proved that these news selection mechanism phases are also present in the 
secondary gatekeeping of the radio stations. 
6.2: RESEARCH QUESTION 2: What topic areas are most frequently discussed in 
news reviews by the radio stations? 
6.2.1: Association between Radio Station Ownership and Themes
This section attempted to establish the nature of relationship that was likely to exist 
between the ownership factor and the types of issues that dominated the contents of
news items selected for reviews by the radio stations. That is, effort was made to
examine if the dominant issues (themes) reported in the news reviews were affected by
whether the station is a private or a government-owned.
As presented in table 6.1, out of the total 81 news items on religious matters,
representing 2.2% of the total issues (3,689) that were content analysed, Splash FM, 
Ibadan, a private radio station, recorded 48 items, representing 2.9% of all the themes
covered; Premier FM, Ibadan, a Federal Government-owned radio station, selected 42 
items standing for 3.5% of total news items it reviewed; and Radio O-Y-O Ibadan, a
State Government-owned station, reported three (3) news items on religious matters,
representing just 0.3% of the entire issues it reported during the period under study. 
On crime issues, out of the 481 (13.0%) items reported by the selected radio stations, 
Splash FM had 153 items, representing 11.4% of the total issues it reported across all 
themes; Premier FM recorded 139 (11%); while Radio O-Y-O recorded 189 items, that
is 16.8% of its total news reviews. 
108
Table 6.1: Association between Ownership and Themes Reported in the News
Reviews
SUB- THEMES RADIO STATIONS TOTAL
CATEGO Splash Premier Radio Overall Sub-total
RIES FM, FM, O.Y.O, Total
Ibadan Ibadan Ibadan
Religion 36 (2.7) 42 (3.5) 3 (.3) 81 (2.2) 
Crime 153 139 189 481
(11.4) (11.4) (16.8) (13.0) 2382
(64.6%)
Developmen 87 (6.5) 135 211 433
t-centred (11.1) (18.8) (11.7)
news
Disaster 100 (7.4) 66 (5.4) 40 (3.6) 206
(5.6)
Crisis 215 177 46 (4.1) 438
(15.9) (14.5) (11.9)
Sports 211 188 254 653
(15.7) (15.4) (22.6) (17.70
Society 39 (2.9) 43 (3.5) 8 (.7) 90 (2.4) 
Ruling party 100 (7.4) 147 209 456
(12.1) (18.6) (12.4)
Opposition 115 (8.5) 69 (5.7) 43 (3.8) 227 1307
party (6.2) (35.4%)
Neutral 292 211 121 624
(21.7) (17.3) (10.8) (16.9)
Total 1348 1217 1124 3689 3689
(100.0) (100.0) (100.0) (100.0) (100.0)
Note: percentage within frequency of themes in brackets 
All the three radio stations reported a total of 433 (11.7%) development-based
issues in their entire news reviews. Out of these development-based news items,
Splash FM reported 87, that is, 6.5% of its total news reviews; Premier FM reported 
135 (11.1%); and Radio O-Y-O had 211 development-based news items, standing for
18.8% of all the issues it reported in the news reviews. News about crises accounted
for 438 (11.9%), out of which Splash FM reported 215 news items, standing for 15.9% 
of its total news reviews; Premier FM reported 177 (14.5%); whereas Radio O-Y-O 
reported only 46  crisis-related news items representing 4.1% of all its news reviews. 
109
POLITICS OTHERS
Out of sports news (n=653; 17.70%), Splash FM reported 211 items amounting
to 15.7% of its total news reviews.  Premier FM had the lowest frequency of sports 
news (188), representing 15.4% of all its news reviews; while Radio O-Y-O had the 
highest frequency of sports news (254 items) which represented 22.6% of its entire 
news reviews.
The foregoing pattern, however, does not mean that Premier FM paid greater 
attention to religious news than it did to other news, or Radio O-Y-O gave more
emphasis to crime issues than it did to other news in their respective news review
programmes. The implication, rather, is that Premier FM had more religious news 
(n=42; 3.5%) than other radio stations, while Radio O-Y-O reported more crime issues
(n=189; 16.8%) than other stations did. Furthermore, Radio O-Y-O, among the three 
stations, had the highest frequency of development-centred news (n=211; 18.8%); 
while Splash FM reported news about development issues least (n=87; 6.5%). Also, 
Radio O-Y-O reported more sports news (n=254; 22.6) than other stations. News about 
society (n=90; 2.4%) is the least reported of all of issues in the news reviews. Premier
FM had more society news (n=43; 3.5%) than other stations, while Radio O-Y-O had
the least (n=8; 0.7%).  These patterns show that the extent of attention given to the 
various themes in the news reviews varies according to radio stations. For example,
Splash FM, the only private radio station among the three stations selected for the 
study, reported lesser development-centred news (n=87; 6.5%) than Premier FM 
(n=135; 11.1%), and Radio O-Y-O (n=211; 18.8%), which are government-owned
stations.
To achieve clarity, politics as a theme in this study was presented in three sub-
categories ruling party, opposition party, and neutral. Political news that favoured
the ruling party in Oyo State where the radio stations are located, and at the federal 
level accounted for 456 (12.4%) of all issues reviewed. Out of these, Splash FM
reported 100 news items accounting for (7.9%) of its total news reviews; Premier FM 
reported 147 items, that is, 12.1% of all issues it reported in the news reviews; whereas
Radio O-Y-O reported 209 items, representing  18.6% of its total reviews. News about 
opposition parties featured least (227). This accounted for 6.2% of the total issues 
reported by the three radio stations. Out of these, Splash FM reported 115, which stood
for 8.5% of its entire news reviews; Premier FM got 69 representing 5.7% of its
reviews; While Radio O-Y-O reported only 43 standing for 3.8% of its news reviews. 
News about non-partisan political issues had a frequency of 624 items, standing for
110
16.9% of the total news reviews. Splash FM reported most of the neutral political 
issues (292), which represented 21.7% of its total news reviews; this was followed by 
Premier FM with 211 items standing for 17.3% of its entire news review. Radio O-Y-
O reported least of neutral political news (121), which accounted for 10.8 of all its 
news reviews.
The findings here show that political issues (n=1307; 35.4%) were the most
frequently reported of all the themes identified in this study. Next in the ranking were
news stories about sports (n=653; 17.70%), crimes (n=481; 13.0%), crises (n=438; 
11.9%), development-centred issues (n=433; 11.7%), disaster (n=206; 5.6%), society
(n=90; 2.4%), and religion (n=81; 2.2%), in that order. When all the frequencies for 
other seven categories of themes  were added, the result gave a total of 2382 (64.6%)
news items, whereas, the summation of subcategorises of political news gave a total of
1307, representing 35.4% of the total issues in the news reviews. This is well above 
one-third of all the issues covered in the news reviews by the selected three radio 
stations in Oyo State.
However, themes that were reported in the news reviews varied according to
each radio station. For example, on the aggregate, Splash FM reported more political 
news (n=507; 38.8%) than Premier FM (n=427; 32.7%), and Radio O-Y-O (n=373; 
28.5%). Table 4.2 further shows the variation in the level of attention each of the radio
stations gave to news about politics.
111
Table 6.2: Association between Ownership and Political Content Categories
Reported in the News Reviews
POLITICAL                                RADIO STATION 
CONTENT Splash FM Premier FM Radio O-Y-O 
CATEGORY
Ruling party 100 (19.7) 147 (34.4) 209 (56.0) 
Opposition Party 115 (22.7) 69 (16.2) 43 (11.5) 
Neutral 292 (57.6) 211 (49.4) 121 (32.4) 
TOTAL 507 (100) 427 (100) 373 (100) 
As evident in table 6.2, ownership factor apparently influenced the extent of
attention given to political news in the news reviews by the radio stations. Radio O-Y-
O, which is owned by the  Oyo State Government, allowed more passage of news 
the time of the study than news related to the opposition parties (n=43; 11.5%). 
Premier FM, a station owned by the Federal Government, also reviewed more contents 
about the ruling party (n=147; 34.4%) than the opposition parties (n=69; 16.2%). 
However, Splash FM, a private radio station, approved passage of contents about non-
partisan matters (n=292; 57.6%) more than it did about the ruling party (n=100;
19.7%).
112
 To further establish the relationship between radio station ownership and 
themes frequently reported, a null hypothesis was formulated and tested:
Ho 2.1: In terms of themes, there is no statistically significant difference in the 
contents of news reviews by federal, state and private radio stations. 
To prove this null hypothesis, a chi-square test was conducted on the association 
between radio station ownership and issues reported. This is shown in table 6.3. 
Table 6.3: Summary of Chi-Square Test for Association between Radio Station 
Ownership and Themes Reported in the News Reviews
THEME Splash Premier Radio Total Chi-sq
FM, FM, O.Y.O (P-value ) 
Ibadan Ibadan Ibadan
Religion 36 (2.7) 42 (3.5) 3 (.3) 81
(2.2)
Crime 153 (11.4) 139 (11.4) 189 (16.8) 481
(13.0) 397.4
Development- 87 (6.5) 135 (11.1) 211 (18.8) 433 (.000)
centred news (11.7)
Disaster 100 (7.4) 66 (5.4) 40 (3.6) 206
(5.6)
Crisis 215 (15.9) 177 (14.5) 46 (4.1) 438
(11.9)
Sports 211 (15.7) 188 (15.4) 254 (22.6) 653
(17.7)
Society 39 (2.9) 43 (3.5) 8 (.7) 90
(2.4)
Ruling party 100 (7.4) 147 (12.1) 209 (18.6) 456
(12.4)
Opposition 115 (8.5) 69 (5.7) 43 (3.8) 227
party (6.2)
Neutral (others) 292 (21.7) 211 (17.3) 121 (10.8) 624
(16.9)
Total 1348 1217 1124 3689
(100.0) (100.0) (100.0) (100.0)
Note: percentage within frequency of themes in brackets.
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From the findings as presented in table 6.3, it is evident that each of the three
stations demonstrated some apparent bias for certain themes in the news reviews. For 
instance, Radio O-Y-O, out of the three radio stations, reviewed least religious issues 
(n=3; 0.3%), but most crimes (n=189; 16.8%); sports (n=254; 22.6%); and 
development-related issues (n=211; 18.8%). On the other hand, Splash FM reviewed 
most disaster-related issues (n=100; 7.4%) and crises (n=215; 15.7%). This confirms
the submission of Mr Kunle Thomas, News Editor of Splash FM. He explained that to
win the interest of the audience, his station always focused more on stories that would 
appeal to the audience. Prominent among issues in this category, according to him, are 
news stories about crises and disaster. His following statement reflects this: 
We have to think of what the people want to hear.
Often, Interest of the people would judge what we must
include in the news review. For example, there was the 
issue of the tussle within the ranks of the National Union
of Road Transport Workers in Ibadan, Oyo State; they 
had factions and there were serious crises. There were 
frequent killings. You cannot ignore this type of story. If
deliberately leaving out crucial information; and you
know the implication of this. A place like Cocoa House, 
Dugbe Ibadan, cannot catch fire and you refuse to report 
the story. People want to hear what really have impact
on them, or affect them, their neighbour, or their 
relatives.
Also, as shown in table 6.2, Radio O-Y-O, a station owned by the State
Government reported most news about the ruling party (n=209; 56.0%), and least news 
about the opposition parties (n=43; 11.5%). For instance, news about the ruling
Radio O-Y-
April 20, 2010 are instances of such pro-ruling party political news: (1) How PDP 
Presidential Candidate Will Emerge; (2) Aide Condemns Defacement of 
 Part of the content of the latter headline contained the
following excerpts:
No matter how the oppositions try, the roads in Oke-Ogun; the structures in 
Ogbomosho Land; the face lift in Ibadan Land; and the rehabilitation in Oyo
114
Town and Ibarapa cannot be erased away (Radio O-Y-O, Ibadan, [News Update]
April 10, 2010). 
The content analysis shows that stories of this nature really dominated the 
contents of news reviews by the radio Station. The explicit objective of editorial
approval of stories like this is to give information, but the implicit goal is to project the 
image of the ruling party and protect the interest of the State Government. This is 
understandable. The station is owned by the State Government, and it is bound to serve
the interest of its owner.  The response of Mr Bimbo Akanbi, a Producer of news 
review programme (News Update) at Radio O-Y-O, explains this phenomenon aptly. 
He asserts: 
....a government-run station is different from a private station. 
In state-owned stations, we are working for the Government,
and we have to do their wishes. When Lam Adesina was 
there, we shouted Lam, Lam; when Ladoja was there, we
shouted his name. When Bola Ige was there, the same thing 
happened. Alao Akala is there now (April, 2011, when this 
interview was conducted), we are shouting Akala. Even, at 
NTA and FRCN, the first name they always mention is 
Jonathan. That is sure! And Splash FM too cannot say 
anything negative about Chief Akande. It is not possible. It is 
the same thing everywhere.
On the contrary, as contained in table 6.2, Splash FM, a private radio station in 
the state, reported most news about the opposition parties (n=115; 22.7%); most news 
about non-partisan political issues (n=292; 57.6%); but least news about the ruling
party (n=100; 19.7%). Examples of such news about the opposition parties and non-
partisan political issues by Splash FM are evident in the following headlines of its
news reviews: 
    *Action Congress Calls for Probe of Alleged Failed Kidnap 
           Attempt on Journalists in Oyo State (April 16, 2010) 
    *Fresh Crisis over New Constitution (June 25, 2010) 
    *EFCC Raids House of Reps again (June 25, 2010) 
Premier FM, a Federal Government-owned radio station remained in-between
the two extremes except when it reported most news about social issues (n=43; 3.5%).
Finally, the chi-square value of 397.4 at p greater than 0.05 (p<0.05) shows that, in
115
terms of issues (themes) reported, there is a statistically significant difference in the 
contents of news reviews by the three radio stations. That is, the three radio stations, 
with some uniqueness in terms of ownership types (Federal, State, and Private) had
preference for different themes in the selection of contents for their news reviews. 
Hence, we reject the null hypothesis (Ho2.1).
.
6.2.2: Association between Ownership and Proximity of Issues Reviewed
The aim here was to explore the nature of relationship between proximity of news 
stories in the reviews and ownership of the radio stations. To examine this, a null 
hypothesis was formulated and assessed using the chi-square test: 
Ho 2.2: In terms of proximity, there is no statistically significant difference in the 
contents of news reviews by federal, state and private radio stations. 
Table 6.4 shows that, out of 1348 news stories reviewed by Splash FM, Ibadan, 114 
(8.5%) were local news; 273 (20.3%) were foreign news; whereas, 961 representing 
over two-thirds (71.3%) of its entire news reviews were national news. Premier FM 
reviewed a total of 1217 news stories. Out of these, 234 (19.2%) were local news; 247 
(20.3%) were foreign news; while 736 (60.5%), more than two-thirds, were national 
news. Out of 1124 news items reviewed by Radio O-Y-O, only 21 (1.9%) were local 
news; 140 (12.5%) were foreign news, whereas a very high proportion (n=963; 85.7%) 
of its entire news reviews belonged to the subset of national news.
116
Table 6.4: Summary of Chi-Square Test for Association between Proximity and 
Stations
PROXIMITY SPLASH PREMIER RADIO TOTAL Chi-sq
FM, FM, O.Y.O (P-
IBADAN IBADAN IBADAN value ) 
Local News 114 (8.5) 234 (19.2) 21 (1.9) 369
(10.0)
National News 961 (71.3) 736 (60.5) 963 (85.7) 2660
259.5
(72.1)
(.000)
Foreign News 273 (20.3) 247 (20.3) 140 (12.5) 660
(17.9)
Total 1348 1217 1124 (100.0) 3689
(100.0) (100.0) (100.0)
Note: percentage within frequency of themes in brackets 
The result of the chi-square test shows that in terms of proximity, there is a 
statistically significant difference in the structural composition of the contents of news
reviews by federal, state and private radio stations selected for this study. This is 
because the chi-square value of 259.5 at p greater than 0.05 (p<0.05) is an indication of
a strong difference among the contents of the news reviews by the three radio stations, 
in terms of whether the news stories were local, national or foreign. Although, national
news stories (n=2660; 72.1%) were most frequently reported by the three radio
stations, Radio O-Y-O reported this category of news most (n=963;85.7%), but 
reported foreign news (n=140;12.5%), and local news (n=21; 1.9%) least among the 
three radio station. Premier FM reported local news most (n=234; 19.2%) of all the
three stations, but Splash FM, among the three stations, reported foreign news most
(n=961; 71.3%). However, in terms of foreign news, both Splash FM (n=273; 20.3%) 
and Premier FM (n=247; 20.3%) devoted the same attention in their news reviews. 
Generally, according to the findings above, there is a significant variation in the degree 
of attention the three radio stations devoted to the three categories of proximity in their 
gatekeeping business of selecting contents for their news reviews. Therefore, the null 
hypothesis (Ho2.2) is rejected.
117
6.2.3: Association between Language Formats/Stations, and Frequency of 
Extraneous Comments in the News Reviews
Apart from playing a significant role as regards meaning and effect in any 
communication encounter, language may also determine the level of formality, the 
nature, and the structure of syntactic elements present in any symbolic exchange of 
ideas or information. Therefore, attempt was made here to examine if language formats
used in the news reviews by the radio stations had any effect on the volume of
extraneous information or adlibs, in the form of banters, which were allowed into the 
contents of news reviews. In order to test for this likely variance, a null hypothesis was 
formulated.
Ho 2.3: In terms of the frequencies of duration, and extraneous comments added by 
the presenters, there is no statistically significant difference between the news 
reviews presented in the English Language and those presented in the Yoruba 
Language.
To test the relationship between the variables of language formats and frequencies of 
duration, commercials, and extraneous comments introduced by the presenters, the 
technique of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used. This was done through an F-
test and a T-test as presented in the tables 6.5 and 6.6 respectively.  First, the F-test, as
presented in table 6.4, was used to examine the variation in the frequencies of banters 
by presenters of news reviews, the duration (per minutes) of the news review 
broadcast, and the number of commercials in the programme. Table 6.4 shows that all 
the 4 items are significantly different among the radio stations. Taking the total 
number of stories presented by all the radio stations for instance, Splash FM had the 
highest average number of stories (approx 21), followed by Premier FM (approx 19),
while Radio O-Y-O had the least (approx. 18). The F-value of 404.5 at p greater than 
0.05 (p<0.05) shows that this difference is significant.  The table also shows that the
frequencies of banters by the news review presenters of the radio stations are 
significantly different. If the total number of extraneous comments is taken, for 
instance, Splash FM had a higher average number of banters (approx 7), while Premier
FM had a lower average of extraneous comments (approx 5). Presenters of Radio O-Y-
O did not include any extraneous comments in the review. The F-value of 964.1 at p 
greater than 0.05 (p<0.05) shows that the difference is significant. This means that
118
Splash FM has more of extraneous comments (approx 7 per daily news review 
broadcast) than Premier FM (approx 5 per daily news review).
The difference in the number of commercials each of the radio stations had in
the programme is also significant. Splash FM had an average of three (3) commercials,
while Premier FM had approximately two (2) commercials per day in their news 
reviews. Radio O-Y-O did not run any commercial in the programme. The F-value of 
4418.7 at p greater than 0.05 (p<0.05) shows that the difference in the number of 
commercials each station had in the programme is significant.
119
Table 6.5: Test of Differences in Number of Stories, Duration, Commercials and 
Banters among Stations
Items Radio Stations Mean Std. F-test P-
Deviation value
Splash fm Ibadan 20.6a 3.6
404.5 .000
Total no. of 
stories Premier fm Ibadan 18.7
b 1.9
Radio O.Y.O Ibadan 17.9c 1.8
Splash fm Ibadan 26.8a 1.6
18786.4 .000
Duration Premier fm Ibadan 23.7b 2.4
 (per min)
Radio O.Y.O Ibadan 13.6c 1.4
Splash fm Ibadan 2.5a 0.5
Total number 
of commercials 4418.7 .000
in the news Premier fm Ibadan 2.0
b 1.0
review
broadcast Radio O.Y.O Ibadan 0.0c .00
Splash fm Ibadan 6.5a 4.7
Frequency of 
extraneous 964.1 .000
comments Premier fm Ibadan 4.5b 4.2
(banters)
Radio O.Y.O 0.0c 0.0
Note: The superscripts are to show the order of prominence with a>b. Scheffe mean separation test
In table 6.6, the result of T-test conducted is presented to establish the
relationship between language formats and the frequencies of extraneous comments
the presenters introduced into the contents of the news. This variation was also
considered in relation to duration of daily news reviews measured in minutes. The 
120
table shows that frequencies of banters are significantly different between news
reviews presented in English language and those presented in the Yoruba Language. 
The Yoruba version of the news reviews has more occurrences of banters (13 on the 
average) than the English version which has only 3 banters on the average. 
Table 6.6: Test of Differences in Duration, Commercials and Banters between 
English and Yoruba Reviews 
Language Mean Std. T-test P-
Deviation value
Duration English 25.9 2.2
(per min) -17.0 .000
Yoruba 27.4 1.3
Total number of English 2.3 0.9
commercials in 1.2 .240
the news review 
broadcast Yoruba 2.2 0.8
Frequency of English 3.3 1.6 -125.6
extraneous .000
comments
(banters)
Yoruba 13.4 2.7
For the duration of the daily news reviews, the T-value of -17.0 at p greater
than 0.05 (p<0.05) shows that the difference in the duration of the two versions 
(English and Yoruba) is significant. Simply put, the Yoruba version of the news 
reviews takes a longer duration (approx 27 minutes, 36 seconds) than the English 
version (approx 25 minutes, 9 seconds).  Furthermore, for frequency of extraneous 
banters, the T-value of -125.6 at p greater than 0.05 (p<0.05) confirms that that there is
a significant variation in the frequencies of extraneous comments contained in the
English and the Yoruba versions of the news reviews. Therefore, the converse of the 
null hypothesis (Ho 2.3) holds. The Yoruba version of the news reviews has a greater 
number of extraneous comments (approx 13) than the English Version (approx 3); and 
121
a longer duration (approx 27 minutes, 4 seconds) than the English version (approx 25
minutes, 9 seconds).  Apart from this, the Yoruba version of the extraneous comments
is more wordy and prolonged than the English version. This probably is one of the
factors that account for the longer duration of the Yoruba version of the news review.
.  The following dialogue between the Yoruba presenters is an instance of this 
extraneous comments as contained in the news review by Premier FM ( Gbe e Si Mi 
; July 27, 2010). The comments came shortly after a foreign news story about 
disaster, and just before commercial jingles were played:
EXTRANEOUS   ENGLISH TRANSLATION
COMMENTS/BANTERS
Presenter A (Mr Olasunmade Akano): 
Olorun o maa ko wa yo o. God will continue to protect us.
Presenter B (Mrs Abisola Oluremi):
  Amen. Please, let us take some
commercials.
Presenter A:
Are you ready for business?
Presenter B:
Bee ni. Yes.
The foregoing examples of extraneous comments are a common feature of the of news 
review. This feature is more prominent in the Yoruba version than in the English 
the use of these extraneous comments by the presenters provided comic relief and 
made the audience to prefer the Yoruba version of the programme to the English 
version.
In summary, the foregoing findings have been able to confirm that there existed
a statistically significant difference in the degree of attention each of the three radio
stations gave to physical proximity as a news value. Although the radio stations
122
demonstrated bias for national new stories in their news reviews, Radio O-Y-O
reported national news most (n=963; 85.7%), and reported foreign (n=140;12.5%) and 
local news (n=21; 1.9%) lesser than the other two stations did. Premier FM reported
local news most (n=234; 19.2%) among the three stations, while Splash FM reported 
foreign news most (n=273; 20.3%) among the three radio stations. Also, language
format had impact on the structure of news reviews by the radio stations. News
reviews presented in Yoruba Language had more occurrences of extraneous comments
(an average of 13 per a daily review) than those presented in English Language with 
just an average of three (3) per a daily review. While both Premier FM and Splash FM 
had banters (extraneous comments) in their reviews, Radio O-Y-O did not include 
such comments in its English version of the news reviews. The inclusion of banters in 
the news reviews by radio stations may raise some questions of ethics, but the FGD 
participants explained that these banters provided some entertainment that sustained 
e Yoruba version.
Ownership factor, as confirmed in this study, suggests a discernible variance in 
how the radio stations covered and demonstrated bias for certain categories of public 
issues. The chi-square value of 397.4 at p greater than 0.05 (p<0.05) proves that there 
exists a statistically significant difference in the ideological perspectives of the stations
in terms of their thematic sentiments. News stories about politics are the most
prominently affected. For instance, government-owned radio stations demonstrated
sentiment for political news about the ruling party in Oyo State and the nation at large, 
whereas the private radio station (Splash FM) reported more of neutral political issues 
(n=292;21.7%); less of political news about the ruling party (n=100; 7.4%), and most
news about the opposition parties (n=115; 8.5%). The trend here lends more credence
to part of the findings in research question one that proprietor or ownership factor is a 
significant force that determines what the editors consider as news. Since the 
government-owned stations are directly responsible to their respective owners (State or 
Federal Government), they are naturally expected to report political news that support 
the ruling party. On the other hand, Splash FM is naturally expected to be pro-
opposition or remain neutral in reporting political issues since it is not answerable to
the government of the day. In addition, this pattern of reporting issues suggests that the
radio stations considered topical proximity as a significant news value guiding their
editorial judgement. The period of this study was proximate to the general elections in 
the country; and this could explain the rationale for prominence received by political
123
news. The radio stations actually gave priority to current issues that would interest the 
audience.
These patterns of coverage identified above suggest media bias. As already
established in literature, Levasseur (2008) identifies two types of media bias
structural bias and partisan bias. How the radio stations demonstrated sentiments for 
different news categories based on physical proximity describes structural bias. Media 
are the forces that usually predispose structural bias. The other structure of coverage 
by these radio stations is partisan bias a situation whereby a media content 
favourably projects one political party at the expense of other political parties. We can 
attempt an explanation for this phenomenon by applying one of the five-level analyses
of news forces in gatekeeping theory as expatiated by McManus (1995), Shoemaker, 
Eichholz, Kim, and Wrigley (2001) and Barzinlai-Nahon (2008). The relevant level
here is the institutional level which refers to the external characteristics of media
organisations and their external ties (political alliances, market forces, and other social 
institutions) that affect their news selection decisions. The radio stations, like all other
media organisations, are organic parts of the social system; therefore, they cannot
function independent of these diverse internal and external forces that have
implications for their corporate operations and survival.
6.3: RESEARCH QUESTION 3: To what extent do the contents of news reviews by 
the radio stations satisfy the audience expectations and urge to be
informed of the daily happenings in their environments?
Because of the nature of this research question, the researcher used data generated
through both the questionnaire and the content analysis. The two categories of data 
were used to complement each other.
6.3
Here, we examined the degree of confidence or belief the audience had in the news 
reviews, that is, the extent to which the audience believed the information they got 
from the programme.  As shown in table 6.7, a predominant percentage (n=416; 
80.0%) of the audience respondents submitted that they always believed the 
authenticity of information they got through news reviews by radio stations. On the 
124
other hand, only 104 (20.0%) of the audience respondents expressed doubts the
genuineness of information they received through the news reviews.
Table 6.7
QUESTION RESPONSE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
Yes 416 80.0
Do you always 
believe the No 104 20.0
information you 
get through the 
news reviews by 
radio?
Total 520 100.0
The finding above shows that news review programme by radio stations is
popular among the radio audience, and the audience have accepted it to be a reliable
source through which they can be informed of the significant currents events that
happen daily in their environments.
6.3.2: Audience Knowledge of Events through News Reviews
Through news reviews, radio stations broadcast information about public issues. These 
messages are targeted at the heterogeneous audience, who also rely on the media to be 
informed of daily happenings.  Therefore, it is examined here if the selected radio 
stations, through their secondary gatekeeping operations, actually helped the audience 
to be abreast of the happenings in their environments. As presented in table 6.8, an 
overwhelming percentage (n=398; 76.5%) of the audience respondents admitted that
the information they received from news reviews by radio stations really kept them
abreast of the events in their environments, whereas, only 122 (23.5%) of the audience
respondents accepted that the programme enhanced their knowledge of daily
happenings.
125
Table 6.8: R  Events by Listening to News Reviews
QUESTION RESPONSE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
Yes 398 76.5
Does the 
information from 
news reviews keep No 122 23.5
you abreast of 
current issues in 
your
environments? Total 520 100.0
What the findings suggest here is that radio stations, through their news review
programmes, are helping the masses to be aware of the events that happen far and near.   
Oyero (2003:191), while citing FAO, asserts that, with direct reference to rural segment
of society, radio has unique potentials to fulfil a number of crucial roles. One of these 
roles is that radio is a means of raising public awareness and motivation among the
masses. This is what the findings of this study has justified here, as majority of the
audience respondents (n=398; 76.5%) admitted that through news reviews, the medium
actually informed them of new events that happened daily.  
6.3
The researcher further measured the extent to which the contents of the news reviews
by radio stations satisfy the audience expectations and the urge to have knowledge of 
the daily events in their environments. To do this well, the researcher, therefore, 
juxtaposed the issues that the audience preferred to listen to, and the issues that the
radio stations actually reported more frequently in their news reviews. 
126
Table 6.9: Juxtaposition of Audience Preference for Issues and Issues Actually   
Reported in the News Reviews
AUDIENCE PREFERENCE FOR ISSUES REPOERTED IN THE 
ISSUES NEWS REVIEWS
ISSUE Freq. of Percentage ISSUE Freq. of Percenta
Prefere Coverage ge
nce
Religion 25 2.1 Religion 81 2.2
Crime 70 6.0 Crime 481 13.0
Development- 156 13.4 Development- 433 11.7
Centred News centred News
Disaster 36 3.1 Disaster 206 5.6
Crises 132 11.3 Crisis 438 11.9
Sports 343 29.5 Sports 653 17.0
Society 12 1.0 Society 90 2.4
Politics 390 33.5 Politics 1307 35.4
Total 1164* 100.0 Total 3689 100.0
*The total here exceeds 520 because multiple responses were allowed.
Table 6.9 presents this relationship. However, for the sake of clarity, the 
contrast is further presented in figure 4.1. This brings out the comparability more
clearly at a glance.
127
FIG. 6.1:  Comparability of Audience Preference for Issues and Issues Actually 
Reported in the News Reviews
Audience Preference for Issues
Issues Reported in the News Reviews
As presented in table 6.9, and further represented in figure 6.1, politics (n=390;
33.5%) is the most preferred issue by the respondents. This is followed by sports 
(n=343; 29.5%); development-centred news (n=156; 13.4%); crises (n=132; 11.3%); 
and crimes; (n=70; 6.0%) in that order. The audience displayed less preference for 
news about disaster (n=36; 3.1%) and religion (n=25; 2.1%); while they demonstrated
least preference for news about society (n=12; 1.0%). Similarly, the radio stations 
apparently gave priority to political news (n=1307; 35.4%) in their news reviews. Next 
to political issue are sports (n=653; 17.0%); crimes (n=481; 13.0%); crises (n=438;
11.9%); and development-related issues (n=433; 11.7%). News about disaster (n=206; 
5.6%), society (n=90; 2.4%) and religion (n=81; 2.2%) featured less in the news 
reviews of the three radio stations.
If we compare the frequencies of audience preference for news themes with 
how the radio stations reported the issues in the news reviews, the result shows that 
radio stations, to a very large extent, reported most frequently issues that the audience 
also preferred most; while issues that the audience preferred least also featured least in
the news reviews. For instance, the audience showed the highest preference for politics
(n=390; 33.5%) while the radio stations also reported political issues most (n=1307; 
128
35.4%). Again, after politics, the next theme the audience preferred most was sports
news (n=343; 29.5%), while at the same time, sports news (n=653; 17.0%) featured
more frequently than any other themes excluding political issues. On the other extreme, 
the respondents demonstrated least preference for news about religion (n=25; 2.1%) 
and society (n=12; 1.0%), while the radio stations also reported news about society
(n=90; 2.4%) and religion (n=81; 2.2%) least. The only obvious deviance is the area of 
news about crimes for which the audience demonstrated less significant preference
(n=70; 6.0%), but which received a relatively higher attention (n=481; 13.0%) in the
news reviews. The pattern of audience preference for issues as shown in the foregoing 
findings is similar to the pattern of preference for issues as revealed by the Focus 
Group Discussion participants. The participants unanimously confirmed that news 
about politics was the topic area they preferred to listen to most in the news review.
The reason FGD participants gave was that politics was one of the contemporary public
matters as at that time (i.e. the time was proximate to the 2011 general elections in
Nigeria). Other issues they preferred to listen to were sports, crimes, crises and general 
human interest stories in that order. Generally, therefore, the findings here show that, to
a large extent, the preference of the audience and the emphasis of the radio stations are
similar. The discernible implication of this is that the radio stations in their news 
reviews satisfied the audience expectations and urge to get the latest information that 
happened daily in their environments.
6.3.4: Audience Degree of Satisfaction with Contents of News Reviews
To further answer the research question four above, the researcher examined the extent 
to which the audience derived satisfaction from news reviews, and agreed or disagreed 
with the assumption that the news reviews met their (audience) desire to get news
about current events in their environments. Table 6.10 shows that 88 (16.9%) of the
audience respondents strongly agreed that they always got from the news reviews all 
information they needed about current events in their environments; 292 (56.2%) 
agreed with the proposition; while 125 (24.0%) respondents disagreed. Only 15 (2.9%)
strongly disagreed. Also, 106 (20.4%) of the respondents strongly agreed with a similar
assumption that after listening to the news reviews, the audience always felt satisfied 
with the contents of the reviews; 281 (54.0%) agreed; while 116 (22.3%) respondents 
disagreed, and just 17 (3.3%) strongly disagreed with the proposition.
129
Table 6.10
Reviews
S/N STATEMENT RESPONSE/PERCENTAGE TOTAL
Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly
agree disagree
1 I always get from 88(16.9) 292(56.2) 125(24.0) 15(2.9) 520(100.0)
the news reviews
all information that 
I need concerning 
current events in 
my environment.
2 After listening to 106(20.4) 281(54.0) 116(22.3) 17(3.3) 520(100.0)
the news reviews, I 
always feel 
satisfied
  If the percentages of respondents that agreed and strongly agreed with the first 
proposition contained in table 6.10 are added, the result shows that well above 73% of 
the audience always got from the news reviews all the information they expected 
concerning current events in their environments, whereas only 26.9% of the audience 
did not get all the information they needed. Also, 387 (106+281) respondents,
representing a predominant 74.4% (20.4+54.0), agreed that after listening to the news
reviews, they always felt satisfied. Only about 25.6% (22.3+3.3) of the respondents
claimed otherwise. What the findings suggest here is that, to a very large extent, that 
is, an average of 73.8% (73.1+74.4), the respondents derived satisfaction from the 
news reviews, as the programme provided them with news about current happenings in 
their immediate and remote environments.
Similarly, the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) participants confirmed that they
the participants said. Other major factors the participants said attracted them to the 
programme is the timing, comprehensiveness, convenience and the mode of delivery
employed by presenters. A discussant summarised it all as follows:
I have developed a strong passion for the programme. I
like it because it is presented in a more dramatic style that
adds fun to the whole exercise. The timing is right and 
convenient; if you miss the English version around six to
130
the Yoruba version that comes later. You can listen to the
programme while you are eating; while you are driving; or
while you are trekking. It saves time and money, and it
brings news to everyone whether they are literate or not; 
whether they are in the city or in the village.
Specifically, mode of delivering the gate-kept contents has been identified as a 
devices of delivery that the on-air personnel employed to sustain audience interest
include proverbial translations, dramatisation, paraphrasing, voice modulation
and mimicking, analogies, humour and suspense. For example, the presenters of the 
Yoruba version of news reviews always introduced extraneous comments in the form
of humorous, dramatic dialogue just after some interesting stories or before they
played commercial jingles. At the beginning of every daily broadcast of the news 
review, the presenters of the Yoruba version of the review always engaged in an 
exchange of a lengthene
trademark in respect of the Yoruba version of news review. The version of 
dramatisation employed by Splash FM is more hilarious and extended than that of 
Premier FM. An example from the Splash FM Stat
provided as follows:
DRAMATISATION (Yoruba)   ENGLISH TRASNLATION
Presenter A (Akolawole Olagoke):
Bayo ooo!!!.
name)
Presenter B (Adebayo Faleke):
Ooo. Se o si nkan? Yes. I hope there is no problem?
Presenter A:
rush-    There is!! This is it: Do you know that 
rush  ni yio fi mu rifaasi pada o? it will hurriedly turn back?
131
Presenter B:
Ta a ni o? Who is that? 
Presenter A:
Honestly, a lizard that strays into a 
enikan ko ni yio so fun un ti yio fi mu ori hurry back when the stinging insect 
pada ni - attacks.
The foregoing dialogue is used as a delivery device to stimulate audience interest 
towards the programme. This is one of the unique characteristics of news review 
Newspapers do not have this unique advantage.
Paraphrasing and suspense are other delivery devices often combined by the 
this by first running the headlines of the most interesting stories of the day and playing
some commercials before the main review. Sometimes, the presenters even paraphrase
the headlines and create some suspense either by concealing names of the central 
characters or leaving out important settings of the stories. They also introduce some 
rhetorical questions to cap the suspense. After running the headlines in this manner,
the presenters go for the first commercial break and come back to start the review in
Examples of paraphrasing and suspense are found in the Yoruba versions of Premier
FM and Splash FM, Ibadan, as presented in the following headlines read by their 
presenters:
132
SUSPENDED HEADLINE    ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Presenter (Abisola Oluremi):
Awon kan ti n pe fun idasile ajo awon Plans are underway for 
Premier FM ( ), July 27, Association.... Where? Details coming
2010 shortly.
Presenter (Folake Otuyelu [Omoluabi])
Won ni awon meji ni won ti ba ara won Reports say two people have been 
dragged to court... What crime did 
gbo tifun-tedo re laipe. they commit? We shall give you the 
Splash FM (Tifun-T edo), May 11, 2010 details soon.
Presenter (Abisola Oluremi)
Awon kan ma ti n pe fun ki Abenugan Ile   Some groups are calling for
Asofin lo roo kun sile o... Awon wo ni suspension of Speaker of the House of
awon egbe ohun? E o gboo laipe. Representatives.... Who are these 
Premier FM ( ), June 10, people?  You will know them shortly.
2010
for example, in the English and Yoruba Versions (Daybreak Gist and Gbe e si Mi 
) occasionally read headlines from some selected newspapers. At this point, the 
presenters mention the names of the newspapers being reviewed, but by the time the
presenters resumed after the first commercial break, they no longer mention the 
newspapers throughout the review. Perhaps the implicit motive for this is to create
suspense and encourage the audience to go and read, and possibly buy the reviewed
newspapers.
Translation is another major strategy that the radio stations adopted to sustain 
-linguistic
ion is a communication
133
process where an attempt is made to render, comprehend and re-code in another 
language a message or an idea coded in one language.  While translating news stories 
to the local language (Yoruba Language), presenters of the radio stations usually
introduced some proverbial analogies in order to concretise the stories. That is, the on-
air personnel used proverbial translation to create imagery and help the listeners to
comprehend the story in the context of their socio-cultural experiences.  Examples of
such proverbial translations are provided in the following excerpts:
PROVERBIAL TRANSLATION   ENGLISH EQUIVALENCE
Presenter (Adeleke Faleke):
Won ni ona tooro naa lo kuku ja si ona   Narrow is the way, they say, that leads
iye. Oun naa si ni ona eleyii ti o ogbe to salvation. It was the same narrow 
Akunyili de oke agunla nitori pe won ni path that took (Dora) Akunyili to
victory as it was reported that she 
Splash FM (Tifun- ), April 1, 2010 almost lost a ministerial appointment. 
Presenter (Akolawole Oladoke):
Irohin eleyii ti o wa lowo mi nibi yii lo n   The news I have with me here is
mi tupe-tupe bi eni ti o bo lowo oniwe-ile panting nervously like a fleeing tax 
ti o wa n so wipe won ti pari ayewo fun evader saying that screening for new
awon alokoso tuntun lai si awon asoju lati ministerial nominees have been 
ipinle Ebonyi ati Taraba nibe. concluded without representatives
Splash FM (Tifun- ), April 1, 2010 from Ebonyi and Taraba states. 
In the examples above, the translator created a metaphorical proximity between the 
news content (messages) and the relevant proverbial expressions peculiar to the socio-
cultural template of the indigenous language (Yoruba Language). The on-air personnel 
of the radio stations, while doing these translations, also modulated their voices either 
to capture the mood and tone generated in the story being reviewed or to mimic the 
dramatis personae (characters) quoted in the story. These strategies were used to
produce some imaginative effect and enable the listeners to visualise the action,
actor(s), time and setting of the story being reviewed.
134
In summary, findings here have shown that audience really embraced news 
review as a reliable source of current information. This high level of interest,
acceptance and belief that the audience have in the news reviews by radio may be 
partly attributable to the unique characteristic of radio as identified by Dominick,
Messere, and Sherman (2004) that radio news reports possess an element of
immediacy that sets them off from items in the newspapers. Really, as it is claimed by
most of the editorial personnel of news reviews interviewed in this study, radio stations 
rely heavily on newspapers to generate contents for their news review programmes, 
yet, the style of presenting these reports by radio adds excitement, life and sense of 
immediacy that may enhance audience interest in, and preference for, radio to get news
of the day.  Therefore, in answering the research question five above, findings have 
proved that the selected radio stations really satisfied the audience expectation and
urge to be informed of the events in their environments. Issues that the audience
preferred most (politics, sports, crimes, crises, and development-centred news) are also
given prominence by the radio stations in the contents of their news reviews ahead of
others (news about society and religion) for which the audience demonstrated lesser 
preference. To further prove this, a predominant percentage (73.8%) of the respondents 
confessed that they really got news about events around them through the radio
cation for what the study
already established in answers to the research question one above. As revealed in the
responses of the editorial personnel, the radio stations run the news reviews purposely
to expand their market shares of the audience, and ultimately increase their net profits.
Thus, the findings here imply that really, the radio stations are gaining more audience,
as majority of the audience reveal that they derive real satisfaction any time they tune 
in to listen to the news review programme.
Yet, finding, as presented in table 6.8 and figure 6.1 that the radio stations, to a 
very large extent, reported most frequently issues that the audience preferred most, and 
reported less issues that ranked low in audience scale of preference, suggests that the 
audience also have influence in determining what the mass media present as news.
concerned one might say that the overt agenda is synonymous with public agenda; that 
is,
setting, thus, is not unilaterally done by the mass media; it is a cyclical process. The
public, to a large extent, dictate what the mass media should present as news, while the
135
mass media too sets the public agenda by presenting issues for public discussion 
through the degree of emphasis attached to such issues.
6.4: RESEARCH QUESTION 4: How well do the radio stations set public agenda   
by their secondary gatekeeping?
As the preceding research question 3, this research question required a combination of
two categories of data. Therefore, the researcher used data from both the questionnaire 
and the content analysis to answer it.
6.4.1: Issues the Respondents Considered to Be Significant 
To answer the research question properly, the researcher first examined how the 
audience respondents perceived the public issues discussed in the news reviews in
terms of the level of importance they attached to specific categories of the news
contents, or which issues they considered to be more significant than the others. This is 
presented in table 6.11.
Table 6.11
S/N CATERGORY FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
1 No Response. 24 4.6
2 Issues that most news media do not 36 6.9
report well.
3 Issues that people in the 104 20.0
neighbourhood talk about.
4 Issues that are reported by 65 12.0
newspapers.
5 Issues that are reported and given 291 56.0
much emphasis by almost all radio 
stations in their news reviews.
Total 520 100.0
136
Majority (n=291; 56.0%) of the respondents admitted that the most significant
issues to them were the issues that received most emphasis by all the radio stations in 
their news reviews. In the opinion of some respondents (n=104; 20%), the most
significant issues were those that people in the neighbourhood talked about. Some
respondents (n=65; 12.0%) claimed that when certain issues were reported by 
newspapers, such issues were significant. Only 36 (6.9%) respondents surprisingly
claimed that issues which most news media reported less prominently were the most
significant, while 24 (4.6%) respondents declined response.
What this finding suggests is that issues that receive more media emphasis get
the peo
media attention. The finding has further proved here that when the mass media (radio
in this context) give more emphasis to certain issues in their contents, such issues 
become significant public issues that audience in turn consider to be significant.
The foregoing claim is further reinforced by the findings presented in table 
6.12. For instance, the table shows that the most significant factor that made the 
respondents attach importance to certain issues is when majority of the radio stations 
reported such issues in their news reviews (n=245; 47.1%). The next most significant
factor that would make the respondents attach importance to certain public issues is
when radio stations gave such issues longer duration of coverage than others in the
news reviews (n=98; 18.8%).
137
Table 6.12
S/N CATEGORY FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
1 No Response 27 5.2
2 When majority of radio stations 245 47.1
report the issue in their news reviews
3 When most radio stations mention 79 15.2
the issue as part of the main gist of 
the review
4 When radio stations give the story 98 18.8
wider coverage
5 When the issue comes briefly in the 30 5.8
review
6 When the issue comes first in the 41 7.9
main review
Total 520 100.0
Other factors that would determine the degree of significance the audience would
attach to issues are inclusion of such an issue in the main gist of new reviews (n=79; 
15.2%); and placement of such issues first in the news review broadcast (n=41; 7.9%). 
Only 30 (5.8%) considered brevity as a factor that made them consider certain issues
to be significant. Twenty-seven (5.2%) respondents remained silent as to factors that 
made them to see some issue as being important. If the percentages in items two, three, 
four and six are added (47+15+19+8), the result shows that a predominant segment
(89.0%) of the audience respondents saw the degree or intensity of media coverage of
certain public issues an indication that such public issues must be significant.
138
6.4.2: Level of Prominence Public Issues Got in the News Reviews versus
To verify the veracity of the second assumption above, and to answer the research 
question five further, the researcher compared the audience rating of issues and the
level of prominence these issues received in the news reviews of the radio stations 
selected for this study. This comparison would make it possible to establish the 
patterns of relationship between the structure of the contents of news reviews and the 
outcome of this secondary gatekeeping exercise (news reviews) in terms of what issues 
the audience thought or talked about after listening to the news reviews. 
To do this, the researcher created two windows; first, the window that shows 
what the radio stations broadcast most frequently, and second, the window that
presents what issues the audience discussed most frequently after listening to the news
reviews. As presented in table 6.13  and re-presented in figure 6.2, news stories about
politics (n=1307; 35.4%) is ranked as the most reported issue by the radio stations in 
their news reviews, while politics is also ranked first (n=347; 35.9%) among the public 
issues that audience always talked about after listening to news reviews. Again, sports 
news (n=635; 17.0%) is ranked second among the news stories reported in news 
reviews, while the same issue (politics) is the second most discussed issue (n=154;
15.9%) by the audience after they must have to the news reviews.
139
Table 6.13: Comparison of Degree of Prominence Radio Stations Accorded Public
Issues and Degree of Recognition Audience Gave to the Issues
S Degree of prominence Public Issues Degree of Prominence Audience
/ Get in the News Reviews Accord Public Issues after 
N Listening to News Reviews
News Freq/Perce Ranking News Freq/Perc Ranking
Theme ntage Theme entage
1 Religion 81 (2.2) 8th Religion 12 (1.2) 7th
2 Crimes 481 (13.0) 3rd Crimes 98 (10.1) 5th
3 Development 433 (11.7) 5th Developm 111 (11.5) 4th
-centred ent-
News centred
News
4 Disaster 206 (5.6) 6th Disaster 95 (9.8) 6th
5 Crises 438 (11.9) 4th Crises 143 (14.8) 3rd
6 Sports 653 (17.7) 2nd Sports 154 (15.9) 2nd
7 Society 90 (2.4) 7th Society 06 (0.6) 8th
8 Politics 1307 (35.4) 1st Politics 347 (35.9) 1st
Total 3689 (100.0) Total 966*
(100.0)
*The total here exceeds 520 because multiple responses were allowed.
The public issues that received lesser emphasis from radio stations in their
news reviews also received lesser attention from the audience. Although there are
140
some variance in the ranking of these issues under two categories of media emphasis
and audience attention, these discrepancies are marginal. For instance, news about 
religion is ranked 8th (n=81; 2.2%) as the least reported issue in the news reviews, 
while the same theme (religion) is the second least discussed issue (n=12; 1.2%) by the 
audience after the news reviews. News about society (n=90; 2.4%) is the second least 
reported issue in contents of the news reviews, while the same news about society is 
the least discussed issue (n=06; 0.6%) by the audience. 
Fig.6.2: Parity of Extent of Prominence Radio Stations Accorded Public Issues
and Degree of Recognition Audience Gave to the Issues
Degree of Media Attention in News Reviews
Consequent Public Perception of Issues
However, there is a discernible variance between the degree of emphasis the 
radio stations gave to news about crimes and the extent of attention the same issue 
usually received from the audience after they must have listened to the news reviews. 
The issue is ranked as the third  most reported news focus by the radio stations in their
news review programmes (n=481;13.0%); while the same issue got comparatively
lesser attention from the audience as it is ranked fifth (n=98; 10.1%) among the issues 
the audience always remembered and discussed after the news review broadcasts. 
What this pattern suggests is that the news editors of the radio stations had 
higher preference for news about crimes than the audience did for the news category 
141
(crimes). News editors generally have special preference for events that make
reference to something negative. As already discussed in the literature, Galtung and 
Ruge, in their model of selective gatekeeping as expatiated by Watson (2003) and 
Schwarz (2009), said that if it bleeds, it leads. Damage, disaster, conflict, and negative 
consequences increase the chance of an event to be considered as news by editors. The 
finding here, as evident in table 6.13 and figure 6.2, further affirms this submission.
For example, apart from politics (n=1307; 35.4%) and sports (n=653; 17.0%), news 
stories that featured more frequently in the contents of the news reviews are news 
about crimes (n=481; 13.0%), crises (n=438; 11.9%), and disaster (n=206; 5.6%), 
ahead of news stories about society (n=90; 2.4%) and religion (n=81; 2.2%).
Findings here suggest some perceivable phenomena. First, not all public issues 
are accorded equal degree of significance, either by the mass media or by the audience. 
Because of some forces or factors, as identified earlier in answers to the first research
question, news editors have preference for certain issues over the other. Second, issues 
that receive more media attention become significant public issues that audience
remember and talk about. 
Generally, the findings here show that, to a large, the selected radio stations 
used their secondary gatekeeping function (news reviews) to set public agenda for the 
audience. The findings have established the fact that there is a direct relationship 
between the degree of attention the radio stations in their news reviews gave to public 
issues and the level of importance the audience attached to such public issues after
listening to news reviews. Issues that were reported more frequently by the radio
stations in their news reviews (politics, sports, crises, crimes, development-related
news, and disaster) were the same issues that the audience respondents admitted they 
remembered and talked about more frequently than those issues that the radio stations
reported less frequently (society and religion). Therefore, as established by the
findings here, the selected radio stations, through their news review programmes, have 
constructed the windows through which the audience always perceive public issues. 
What this means is that issues that got prominence in the news reviews, either through
placement, frequency of occurrence, or intensity of coverage, became significant in the 
opinion of the audience while the converse holds. This supports the central tenets of
agenda setting theory of the mass media as espoused by McCombs and Shaw in their 
Agenda-Setting Model of media effect (Watson, 2003:128) that what the mass media
define and present 
142
by the mass media is given emphasis in public perception; what is amplified by media
through which the public perceive and interpret social reality. 
6.5: RESEARCH QUESTION 5: What is the extent of eagerness of radio audience
to read the news contents of newspapers after listening to the daily 
broadcasts of news review by radio stations?
In order to answer this research questions, the researcher constructed some sub-
themes. These are discussed as follows:
6.5.1: Audience Preference for Media Genres, and Justification for their 
Preference
The aim here was to examine the media type the audience preferred to listen to most
frequently as the source of information about daily occurrences. The findings here
would serve as the premise for proving the veracity of the audience claims regarding
their frequency of listening to the newspaper reviews by radio stations. As presented in 
table 6.14, an overwhelming majority, 346 (66.5%), of the respondents preferred to 
listen to radio most frequently to get information about daily events; 91 (17.5%) relied 
most on newspapers; 
Table 6.14: Audience Preference for Media Types to Get News about Daily 
Occurrences
S/N MEDIA TYPE FREQUENCY OF PERCENTAGE
PREFERENCE
1 Radio 346 66.5
2 Newspaper 91 17.5
3 Television 83 16.0
TOTAL 520 100.0
143
while 83 (16.0%) showed preference for the television as the media type they most
frequently relied on to be abreast of the latest information daily. This shows that radio
is the most preferred of the three media types identified above. It was considered
relevant to examine the reason for this high audience preference for radio as a medium
of mass communication; therefore, table 6.15 presents the factors the respondents
advanced as motivation for their preference for the different mass media.
   Table 6.15
S/N RESPONSE FREQUENCY PERCENTA
GE
1 Radio listening saves time 51 9.9
2 Radio is affordable  122 23.4
3 Radio is portable and convenient 102 19.6
4 Radio has wide coverage 21 4.0
5 Radio uses battery 40 7.7
6 Newspapers can be stored for future 57 11.0
references
7 Television combines voice and motion 65 12.5
8 No Response 62 11.9
Total 520 100.0
The pattern of audience response here presents radio as the most preferred
news medium. This is probably attributable to the unique characteristics of the
medium. As contained in table 6.15, a number of the respondents, 122 (23.4%), who 
144
preferred radio most, said they did so because they considered the medium to be 
affordable; while 102 (19.6%) preferred it because the medium is portable and 
convenient to operate. Also, 51 (9.9%) of the respondents preferred the medium
because, unlike newspaper and television that may require total attention of the 
audience, the audience can listen to radio and do other things simultaneously. One of 
the characteristics of radio is that electricity outage may not affect it as it can battery-
powered.
As discussed in literature, radio is cheap to procure; convenient to listen to;
local; found almost everywhere; personal and mobile; easy to operate; and battery-
powered, among others (Baran, 2002; Ojebode, 2003; Oyero, 2003). These unique 
qualities, as established here by the finding of this study, endeared radio to the 
audience, and make it the most preferred medium of mass communication, especially
when the mass audience are the targets of its message.
6.5.2: Audience Frequency of Listening to News Reviews
Attempt was made here to examine how frequently the audience listened to newspaper 
reviews by the radio stations in Oyo State. As shown in table 6:16, majority, 356 
(68.5%), of the audience  revealed that they listened to the newspaper review
programmes everyday; while only 38 (7.3%) respondents listened just only once a 
week. This shows that generally, only 49 (9.4%) respondents never listened to the
programme whereas an overwhelming majority (n=471; 90.6%) of the radio audience
respondents listened to the newspaper reviews programmes.
145
Table 6:16 quency of Listening to News Review   Programmes 
QUESTION   RESPONSE FREQUECY PERCENTAGE
Every day 356 68.5
Two days a week 25 4.8
Three days a week 33 6.3
Four days a week 19 3.7
Once a week 38 7.3
Never 49 9.4
Total 520 100.0
The implication of this finding is that the newspaper review programme is popular
among the audience, and majority of the radio audience have created habits for
listening to the programme regularly, even though newspapers and the television are 
also likely to provide similar information as to events that happen daily in the near and 
far environments.
6.5.3: Audience Frequency of Reading Newspapers
It was considered necessary to examine audience frequency of reading newspapers as 
this would make it possible to further establish the patterns of media patronage by the
respondents. Table 6.17 shows how often the respondents read newspapers to get 
information.
146
How often do you listen to newspaper reviews
on radio stations? 
Table 6.17
S/N RESPONSE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
1 Every day 162 31.2
2 Twice a week 56 10.8
3 Three times a week 38 7.3
4 Four times a week 14 2.7
5 Once a week 125 24.0
6 Never 125 24.0
520 100.0
Total
From table 6.17 above, it is shown that 162 (31.2%) of the respondents claimed
they read newspapers every day; 56 (10.8%) said they read newspapers two times in a 
week; 38 (7.3%) read newspapers three times in a week; and 14 (2.7%) claimed they
read newspapers four times a week. One hundred and twenty-five (125; 24.0%) of the 
respondents said they read newspapers just once a week, while the same number, 125 
(24.0%) of respondents claimed they did not read newspapers at all. If the percentages
of the respondents that read newspapers just twice a week, those who read only once in
week, and those who never read newspapers at all are added, this would suggest that a 
significant proportion (58.8%) of the total respondents had poor attitudes towards 
reading newspapers.
This finding implies that although people read newspapers, there was a great 
discrepancy between their frequency of listening to radio and their rate of reading
newspapers. That is, people listened to radio quite more frequently than they read
newspapers as earlier findings in this study had established that 66.5% of the audience 
147
preferred to listen to radio most frequently whereas only 17.5% preferred to read 
newspapers to get information.
6.5.4: Audience Level of Eagerness to Buy and Read Newspapers after Listening
to News Reviews
Attempts were made here to establish the truism of the claims by newspapers 
proprietors that newspaper reviews by broadcast media adversely affected the sales of
their newspapers. Therefore, to do this, the researcher explored the impact of listening 
to newspaper reviews by radio stations on audience acts of buying and reading
newspapers.
148
Table 6.18: Audience Radio Listening Habit, Urge for Information and Eagerness 
to   Buy/Read Newspapers after Newspaper Reviews
S/N STATEMENT RESPONSE/PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly TOTAL
agree disagree
1 Contents of news review 136(26.2) 337(64.8) 42(8.1) 5(1.0) 520(100.0)
programmes are very rich
and interesting
2 I always get from the news 88(16.9) 292(56.2) 125(24.0) 15(2.9) 520(100.0)
reviews all information
that I need concerning 
current events in my
environment.
3 After listening to the news 106(20.4) 281(54.0) 116(22.3) 17(3.3) 520(100.0)
reviews, I always feel 
satisfied
4 I have formed a habit for 129(24.8) 280(53.8) 99(19.0) 12(2.3) 520(100.0)
listening to the news review
programmes.
5 Listening to the news 121(23.3) 254(48.8) 124(23.8) 21(4.0) 520(100.0)
reviews is already part of 
my daily routine, and I 
programme.
6 135(26.0) 212(40.8) 142(27.3) 31(6.0) 520(100.0)
miss the programme, I 
have secured a portable
radio transistor.
7 Radio stations do not give 82(15.8) 194(37.3) 195(37.5) 49(9.4) 520(100.0)
details of news they review
as reported by newspaper. 
8 After listening to the news 73(14.0) 205(39.4) 179(34.4) 63(12.1) 520(100.0)
reviews on radio, I still 
have the urge to read the 
newspapers.
9 Actually, when I listen to 105(20.2) 270(51.9) 119(22.9) 26(5.0) 520(100.0)
the news review, I 
recognise the sources of the 
information in news
review.
10 I go as far as buying 41(7.9) 118(22.7) 256(49.2) 105(20.2) 520(100.0)
newspapers to read the 
details of news already
reviewed by radio stations.
11 As long as radio stations 87(16.7) 142(27.3) 233(44.8) 58(11.2) 520(100.0)
continue to review contents
to buy or read newspapers.
12 Even without any direct 113(21.7) 284(54.6) 98(18.8) 25(4.8) 520(100.0)
reference to the
newspapers, it is clear that
radio stations review
contents of newspapers.
Note: Percentage within items in brackets 
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Item 4 of table 6.18 above shows that 24.8% of the respondents strongly
claimed that they had formed the habit of listening to the newspaper review 
programmes, while 53.8 simply made the same claim. This suggests that 
overwhelming majority (78.6%) of the respondents had formed the habit of listening to
newspaper reviews by radio station as against just 21.3% of the respondents who
claimed otherwise. Similarly, as shown in item 5 of the table, 72.1% of the respondents 
claimed that they could not afford to miss the news reviews, while only 27.8% of the
respondents submitted otherwise. This means that not less than 75.35% of the 
respondents had formed strong habits of not missing the programme every day.   
As contained in item 6 of table 6.17, 135 (26.0%) and 212 (40.8%) of the 
respondents strongly and simply claimed respectively that because of their urge for the
news reviews, they had gone as far as procuring personal transistor radio sets to enable
them to listen to the programme. This means that 66.8% of the respondents had at least
got personal radio sets to satisfy their urge for the news review programme. 
Furthermore, if the percentages of those that indicated strongly agree and
agree  in table 6.18 above for each of items 1, 2, 3 and 9 are added, in each case, well 
above 70% of the respondents were of the opinion that  they enjoyed the news reviews.
Even though  many of the respondents (53.4%) still saw the reason to read newspapers
after news reviews (as shown in items 8), item 10 shows that only about 30.6% 
(7.9+22.7) actually accepted they went as far as buying the newspapers. The foregoing
findings, therefore, show that less than half of those that listened to, and enjoyed the 
news reviews, actually claimed they bought newspapers after satisfactory reviews. The 
implication is that news review programme encouraged the audience to read
newspapers, but the programme is less effective in driving the audience to buy 
newspapers. To further investigate this, two null hypotheses were constructed and Chi-
Square Tests were conducted to prove the validity or otherwise of the hypotheses:
Ho 3.1:
frequencies of listening to news review programmes on radio and their 
willingness to read newspapers. 
Table 6.19 shows that 121 (34.9%) of those that listened to reviews everyday
also read newspapers every day; 36 (10.1%) read twice a week; 23 (6.5%) also read 
newspapers three times a week; only eight (2.2%) read four times in a week; 89 (25.0) 
respondents read just once in a week; while 79 (22.2%) of the respondents never saw 
150
the need to read newspapers anymore after listening to newspaper reviews. Only 6 
(18.2%) of respondents that listened to news reviews three times a week also read 
newspapers everyday; four (12.1%) of them read newspapers twice a week; while
seven (21.2%) of such respondents never bothered to read newspapers after the news
reviews.
Table 6.19: Summary of Chi-
Reading Newspapers after Listening to News Reviews
Reviews
Everyday Twice a Three Four Once a Never Total Chi- P-
frequency of week times time a week sq value
Listening to a week week value
News
Reviews
Everyday 121(34.9) 36(10.1) 23(6.5) 8(2.2) 89(25.0) 79(22.2) 356(100.0)
Twice a 6(24.9) 5(20.0) 1(4.0) 2(8.0) 4(16.0) 7(28.0) 25(100.0)
week
Three time a 6(18.2) 4(12.1) 6(18.2) 0(0.0) 10(30.0) 1()21.2 33(100.0)
week
57.5 0.000
Four times a 1(5.3) 2(10.5) 0(0.0) 4(21.1) 4(21.1) 8(42.1) 19(100.0)
week
Once a week 10(26.3) 5(13.2) 2(5.3) 0(0.0) 11(28.9) 10(26.3) 38(100.0)
Never 18(36.7) 4(8.2) 6(12.2) 0(0.0) 7(14.3) 14(28.6) 49(100.0)
Total 162(31.2) 56(10.8) 38(7.3) 14(2.7) 125(24.0) 125(24.0) 520(100.0)
Note: percentage within frequency of listening in brackets 
. In addition, 18 (36.7%) of the respondents who did not listen to news reviews
read newspapers. Four (8.2%) read twice a week; six (12.2%) read three times a week; 
seven (14.3%) read once in week; and 14 (28.6%) of this category of respondents did
not read newspapers.  The implication of the foregoing statistics is that after listening
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to news reviews, a good numbers of the audience actually went ahead to read 
newspapers.
The chi-square value of 57.5 at p greater than 0.05 (p<0.05) shows that there is
news reviews on radio and their level of willingness to read newspapers. Hence, we 
reject the null hypothesis (Ho3.1). This means that there is a significant relationship
read newspapers. News reviews inspired the audience to develop eagerness for reading
newspapers.
Ho3.2: There is no statistically significant relationship between 
frequencies of listening to news review programmes on radio and their 
frequencies of buying newspapers.
Table 6.20 shows that only 41 (11.5%) respondents out of 356  respondents that
listened to news reviews every day also bought newspapers every day; while a high 
percentage 206 (57.9%) of respondents that listened to news reviews every day did not 
buy newspapers at all after listening to the news reviews. Furthermore, out of the
respondents that listened to news review three times a week, nobody bought 
newspapers every day; only two (6.1%) bought twice a week; just three (9.1) bought 
three times a week; eight (24.2%) respondents bought newspapers just one time a
week; while 20 (60.6) never bothered to buy newspapers after listening to news 
reviews. Only four (10.5%) of the respondents that listened to news reviews one time a
week bought newspapers everyday; while 22 (57.9%) respondents never bought 
newspapers.
The message from the finding above is that the rate at which the audience read 
newspapers daily (n=121; 34.9%) after listening to news reviews (see table 6.19) is
higher than the frequencies of buying newspapers (n=41; 11.5%) every day, as shown 
in table 6.20. Overall, the audience frequency of listening to news reviews every day is 
significantly higher than their frequencies of reading and buying newspapers after
listening to the programmes.
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Table 6.20: Summary of Chi-
Buying Newspapers after Listening to News Reviews
Frequency of  Buying Newspapers after News
Reviews
Everyday Twice Three Four Once a Never Total Chi- P-
frequency of a week times time week sq value
Listening to a week a value
News week
Reviews
Everyday 41(11.5 20(5.6) 11(3.1) 5(1.4) 73(20.5) 206(57.9) 356(100.0)
Twice a week 4(16.0) 1(4.0) 0(0.0) 1(4.0) 5(20.0) 14(56.0) 25(100.0)
Three time a 0(0.0) 2(6.1) 3(9.1) 0(0.0) 8(24.2) 20(60.6) 33(100.0)
week
Four times a 0(0.0) 0(0.0) 0(0.0) 0(0.0) 4(21.1) 15(78.9) 19(100.0)
week 34.8 0.1
Once a week 4(10.5) 0(0.0) 1(2.6) 0(0.0) 11(28.9) 22(57.9) 38(100.0)
Never 8(16.3) 0(0.0) 1(2.0) 0(0.0) 2(4.1) 38(77.6) 49(100.0)
Total 57(11.0) 23(4.4) 16(3.1) 6(1.2) 103(19.8) 315(60.6) 520(100.0)
Note: percentage within frequency of listening in brackets 
Finally, chi-square value of 34.8 less than 0.05 (p>0.05) shows that the
relationship between 
their frequencies of buying newspapers after listening to the programme is not
significant. Therefore, the Null Hypothesis (Ho3.2) is accepted. This means that there
is no statistically significant correlation between audience frequency of listening to
news reviews and their frequency of buying newspapers. Respondents frequently 
listened to the newspaper reviews but they rarely buy the reviewed newspapers after
listening to the programme.  
The predominant trend in the responses of the Focus Group Discussion (FGD)
participants further substantiates the hypotheses Ho3.1 and Ho3.2. Most of the 
153
participants confirmed that after listening to news review, they usually developed the 
urge to read newspapers because they wanted to get specifics of some interesting news,
to see pictorial illustrations or read detailed explanation of some reports that are 
get more details of the stories always moves me to go out and read the newspapers
programme drives me to read newspapers. After listening to the programme on radio,
if you are literate, you will develop the curiosity to read the newspapers even if it is 
just going through the headlines or front-
of the participants were more specific as to what drove them to read the reviewed 
newspapers after listening to the programme. The urge to correlate the authenticity of
the stories in the news review on radio with the news contents of the reviewed
newspapers, especially when the presenters translated the stories to the local language 
(Yoruba Language) and seemed to have exaggerated the stories, was specifically 
reviewed newspapers so that I can correlate what the radio has said with what the 
newspapers have actually reported
another participant explained that:
Most times, the presenters do exaggerate the stories. 
Because of this, I always want to read the newspapers to
confirm the stories. Apart from exaggeration, there are
usually some cases of misinterpretation of stories by these 
Yoruba presenters. Because they are translating from the 
English Language to the local language, there is the
tendency for them to misinterpret the stories. Therefore, to
clarify, I have the urge to read the reviewed newspapers.
Another participant added: 
Really, the way the radio presenters run the stories raises
some curiosity. They are funny and dramatic with their
additional comments. You will want to read newspapers
that day to get more details about the stories. Every day
after listening to the programme, I have to go to the 
newspaper stand to read and see more pictures, which are
naturally absent in the radio presentation.
The foregoing positions held by the FGD participants, that radio presenters while
translating the news usually exaggerated and were likely to misinterpret the stories,
154
news translation. Such inadequacies, according to her, are omissions, additions, 
verbatim translation, and distortion, among others. Unless the translation is done by a 
competent presenter, the primary meaning contained in the original story may be
completely lost or distorted when it is rendered in another language. Li
consciousness of these inadequacies may explain the reasons for their desire to read 
the reviewed newspapers after listening to the news reviews on radio. 
Although few of the discussants said that after listening to the news review on 
radio, they felt satisfied, and they did not have the urge or go further to read the
newspapers, majority of the discussants said that listening to the programme
encouraged them to read the reviewed newspapers. They agreed that modes of 
presenting the stories by radio presenters created some curiosity to read the 
newspapers. They even added that if they did not listen to the programme, they would 
not develop the strong urge to read the newspapers compared to when they listened to 
the newspaper review. Indeed, the FGD participants described the newspaper review 
stimulated them to read more about such stories as reported in the newspapers.
However, we could not establish the veracity of these claims as there were no 
evidences to prove that the discussants translated their urge to real action by actually
going to read the reviewed newspapers.
On the other hand, majority of the participants revealed that it was not their 
habit to buy newspapers. The few participants that claimed to buy newspapers said 
they bought because they sometimes needed to look for adverts or keep some
important information for future references.  They attributed this to various factors. 
Interestingly, the participants revealed that listening to news reviews discouraged them 
from buying newspapers. They explained that after listening to the news reviews, they
no longer had the urge to buy newspapers because they must have got the most
important news of the day in
and spend one hundred and fifty naira (#150.00) on a copy of newspaper if I can
conveniently get almost the same stories published by different newspapers when I 
any sense in buying newspapers again unless there are certain stories or some
155
her aggressive and rhetorical tone, a participant
retorted:
In spite of the curiosity I develop after listening to the 
After buying and reading it, what happens to the 
newspaper? After all, I feel that I have listened to the most
important stories of the day. I read because I want to satisfy
fine. Unless there is a memorable story I want to keep, I
t even 
remember the last time I bought a copy of newspaper ever 
since I started to listen to news review on radio stations. 
This is the position of another participant:
Before this programme (newspaper review) started on radio,
I could remember that I used to buy newspapers. But now, 
anymore because I have the opportunity to listen to news 
stories on radio stations, and I have more access to 
newspapers now than then. I can go to the Internet or the
vendors to read.
Poverty or low purchasing power is another factor that the discussants said 
access to the newspapers the participants said that they sometimes went to the library
to read.  As the participants confirmed, the best they always did, however, to read the
newspapers was to go to the newspaper vendors and read as a group of free readers, or 
pay a sum of twenty naira (#20.00) to the vendor to allow them read the newspapers. 
Mr Olaoluwa Ajayi, the Ibadan Correspondent of Vanguard newspaper, speaking from 
his experience as a practising journalist, made a similar submission:
Free readers association is also really killing the sale of
newspapers because once the people had listened to most parts
of the stories in the newspapers through the radio, what they
usually do is just to go to the newspaper stand and give the
vendor maybe twenty naira (#20.00). With this, a group of 
readers would be allowed to glance or read through the 
156
newspaper and return it to the vendor. That means that many
copies that these readers would have bought will be returned
unsold. You can see that this practice is really having a 
negative impact on the economy of the newspapers.
Asked if their attitudes towards buying and reading newspapers would remain the
same if radio stations stopped to run the programme, the participants unanimously said
that their attitudes would definitely be differen
forced to go any length to know what is happening around me. This may even force 
participants was that without the newspaper review programme by radio stations, their
urge to buy and read newspapers would be stronger than when they could conveniently
get top stories of the day through the radio. 
  The foregoing findings suggest that listening to newspaper reviews on radio
stations significantly encourages audience to read or be willing to read newspapers 
(n=121; 34.9%), but the programme lacks the power to drive audience to buy
newspapers as only 11.5% of the audience respondents said they actually buy
newspapers every day after listening to the programme. People prefer to, and actually,
listen to news on radio. They have some urge to read newspapers, but they do not buy
newspapers.  Thus, if the news reviews make audience willing to read newspapers but 
significantly unwilling to buy newspapers, it is safe to conclude that the audience read 
newspapers through other means without buying. For instance, most of the audience
claimed they usually read newspapers in the school libraries, at newspaper stands, 
through other people that bought newspapers, or through the Internet.
Although Ojebode (2009) observes that some individuals have claimed that
news reviews inspire them to buy newspapers, the current findings have proved that 
the programme does not really drive listeners to buy newspapers after listening to the
daily reviews. Instead, the programme in reality has a negative impact on the sale of 
newspapers. Newspaper practitioners that were interviewed confirmed this. For 
instance, Mr. Segun Olatunji, former Managing Director of The Nigerian Tribune
newspaper said that newspaper review by radio stations in Oyo State had significantly 
reduced the sales figure of newspapers in the state. According to him:
Newspaper review by radio stations has a negative impact on 
the sale of newspapers. Most people depend on the reviews to
get information. Some of these radio stations read almost all
157
the major stories from the beginning to the end. Therefore,
newspapers anymore. Even Mama H.I.D. Awolowo, the
Chairman of Tribune Newspapers, sometime ago told me that 
when she listens to the newspaper reviews on radio, she no 
longer has to read newspapers except The Nigerian Tribune,
though she gets free copies of all the newspapers in the 
country every day. You can see the impact of the programme.
It is terrible. It has made sales of newspapers to nosedive 
seriously. Most newspapers can no longer make profit through
newspaper sales because of the newspaper reviews. They 
survive through commercials.
He went further and quoted some statistics to substantiate his claims that newspaper
review has significantly reduced sales of newspapers. He said that the volumes of 
newspapers that were circulated and sold were much higher in the pre-review era than
what are being recorded now that broadcast stations are reviewing the newspapers. He 
submitted:
Members of the public are no longer buying newspapers. 
Before the newspaper review, at least newspaper sales were up
to one million (1,000,000) copies daily on the average. But
now, all the circulation figures of all Nigerian newspapers 
every day are below five hundred thousand (500,000) in the 
population of about one hundred and fifty million
(150,000,000) people. The copies that are actually being sold 
on a daily average are not more than about three hundred
thousand (300,000) now. But before the review, newspapers
were selling up to between seven hundred thousand (700,000)
and seven hundred and fifty thousand (750,000) copies daily. 
Now that the reviews are being done, people will prefer the 
elite, who have money, to buy. Most of the few people that 
read at all also have access to the electronic versions of the 
newspapers on the Internet. All these factors combined have 
really killed the sales of newspapers.
Corroborating the position of Mr Segun Olatunji, another journalist, Mr
Olaoluwa Ajayi, the Ibadan Correspondent of Vanguard newspaper, while responding 
to the interview said that until the controversies on the effect of the programme
became pronounced, he had believed that newspaper review by broadcast stations 
would help the newspapers to sell well. His conviction was based on the notion that
after listening to the newspaper reviews on the radio stations, listeners would be 
motivated to go for the reviewed newspapers and buy copies to read. However, he 
158
confessed that his interactions with the audience and his experience as a professional 
journalist had revealed that newspaper review by broadcast stations, especially radio
stations, have really negatively affected the sale of newspapers. He asserted that:
So many people are eager to listen to newspaper review on 
radio stations, and immediately the newspapers are reviewed,
the listeners may not feel that urge to go and buy the 
newspapers again. They would say anyway they have got 
what they want to hear. Except for those who are literate and 
who really know the importance of books which can be kept 
for a long time for a reference purpose, ordinary Nigerians
d that is 
the end of it. Take for instance, this Splash FM Yoruba news 
review -
morning, go to some popular areas in Ibadan. You will see
about 10 to 15 people glued to a radio set listening to the
programme. If you ask whether they buy newspapers, you
will not find anyone that buys newspapers. They all depend 
on the radio to give them the top stories of the day. 
Therefore, if we look at it from this aspect, and from my
experience as a journalist, I would tell you the programme is
really affecting the sale of newspapers negatively.
Some similar studies had earlier prophesied the end of conventional 
newspapers in Europe and America. For example, Ken Goldstein, a communications
consultant based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, observed that sales of newspapers in Canada,
Great Britain, and the United States of America have significantly dropped since 1950.
Quoting Ken Goldstein, Tennant, (2011:1) says that
...daily newspapers' paid circulation as a percentage of 
households in all three countries has steadily declined since 
1950. For national dailies in Great Britain, the fall has been
from nearly 150% of households to 40%; from 100% to 
30% or paid dailies in Canada; and in the United States, 
from just over 120% in 1950 to nearly 40% in 2010.
suggest that secondary gatekeeping by 
Nigerian radio stations have some negative implications for the future of newspapers 
in the country: the sale of newspapers is rapidly declining. If news reviews will 
continue, then free reading should stop for newspapers to sell more and continue to
survive. Unless some measures are taken to encourage people to buy newspapers, the 
159
gloomy future that researchers predicted for newspapers is gradually creeping into 
Nigeria.
4.6: SUMMARRY
In this chapter, the researcher has presented and analysed the data, and equally 
discussed such data as they answered the research questions, proved or refuted the
hypotheses. Five research questions, five null hypotheses and one alternate hypothesis
were constructed to guide the study.  
Findings show that numerable forces influence news how the editorial teams of
the selected radio stations make their news judgement. The most significant factor the 
editorial personnel consider while selecting items for the news reviews is audience 
interest angle of the story.  The study has thus established that editorial teams of the 
radio stations have a strong bias for audience interest stories. The justification for their
bias is that most human angle stories and stories about conflicts or crises are more
likely to interest the listeners and consequently win more segment of the market place. 
Also, findings show that newspaper stands out as the most reliable, and most consulted 
source of all the news media from which the radio stations get contents for their news 
reviews.
News about politics gets most attention from all the radio stations in their news
reviews. Sports news is the second most reported theme, followed by crimes, crises
and disaster. News stories about society and religion receive a comparatively lesser
media attention in the news reviews. Government-owned stations reported more
political news about the ruling political parties and less about the opposition parties, 
while Splash FM, a private radio station, reports more news about the opposition 
parties, and neutral political issues than the other two radio stations Premier FM and
Radio O-Y-O. In addition, Radio O-Y-O reports more of national issues than all other 
stations, but least of local issues, whereas Premier FM reports more of local issues.
Splash FM on the other hand reports foreign issue more than any other stations. The
foregoing facts prove that ownership factor is also one of the significant forces that 
influence the structure of the content of the news reviews. 
Really, the radio stations, through their news review programme, satisfy the 
audience in terms of reporting current public issues. Presenters of the radio stations
employ various delivery devices to present gate-
interest. The radio stations also use the news reviews to set public agenda. Findings 
160
show that issues that the radio stations report most frequently in their news reviews are
the issues that the audience always remember and discuss most after listening to the 
programme. 
Findings also show that language format is a significant factor in shaping the 
structure of the news reviews. For example, news reviews presented in the English
Language have lesser occurrences of extraneous comments, while the Yorba version of 
the news reviews contains significantly higher occurrences of banters. 
Majority of the audience respondents choose radio as the most preferred
medium of information about current events. Also, listening to news reviews does not 
drive the audience to buy newspapers. Some of the respondents express the urge to
read newspapers after listening to news reviews, but they hardly develop the urge to 
buy newspapers.
161
CHAPTER SEVEN 
THE GNA-BOND MODEL 
7.1 Introduction 
This chapter discusses the relationship that exists among the three theories adopted for
this study. In order to clearly establish this relationship, the researcher developed a 
model called GNA-Bond Model. 
7.2: THE GNA-BOND MODEL: THREE THEORIES, ONE DOMAIN 
The three theories (Gatekeeping, Newsworthiness, and Agenda-Setting) adopted for
this study are interwoven. They operate in the same domain of news media business. 
The gatekeeping theory explains how and why mass media actors select and report 
some news items out of innumerable events of the day, while others are discarded. The 
gatekeeping process shapes the structure of the overall news contents of the news
journalists in their gatekeeping decisions, while the agenda-setting theory explains 
how the mass media shape public opinions through the news contents. Ultimately, the
structure of these news contents is the product (outcome) of the interaction among the
diverse criteria (forces) that operate at the media gate regions (Gatekeeping Theory); it 
is the product of the news values that editors always use as parameters for gauging 
newsworthiness of competing events (Newsworthiness Theory), and the degree of
attention the news items get from the editorial team (Agenda-setting Theory).
The interrelatedness of the three theories as applied in this study is what the 
researcher coined as the GNA-Bond Model. The model, as presented below, shows that 
the three theories overlap; as one is applied the others are implied. G stands for
Gatekeeping theory; N for Newsworthiness theory; and A for Agenda-setting theory.
The F to the left side in the circle represents the forces that influence th
decisions, while the F to the right position stands for news values that journalists
always consider to select news items from the competing events. MA is the degree of
media attention the editors ascribe to the news stories; S is the structure of the media
162
contents, while O is the overall outcome or impact of the media contents on the
audience. The circular, double-edged, broken arrows that connect the three theories 
show that they are operating together as a unit in the same domain. Some forms of
forces are present in the regions of gatekeeping theory and newsworthiness theory. 
Also, the nature of media attention given to certain events by the editors as they set 
public agenda is a function of the interacting forces. The interaction of these forces and 
how the media actors frame and interpret the social reality shape the structure of the
media contents. The nature of this media content has some outcome which explains the
actual impact of the media message on the audience.
The model explains how the three theories are always applied in an eclectic 
manner in the overall news selection exercise. In this study, the editorial teams
responsible for selecting items for the news reviews are always guided by some news 
values and are influenced by some forces. The product of these forces is the structure 
163
of the news stories in the reviews, while this structure influences how the listeners 
react to the message and their aggregate interpretation of the messages contained in 
news reviews. These are already established in the discussion of findings.
As the editorial personnel select news items from the various primary sources,
they do not give the same degree of attention to all items selected. Some are given
more prominence than the others. This explains why some issues such as politics,
sports, crimes and crises are reported more prominently and frequently in the news 
reviews than other issues such as news about religion and society. This media attention
is obviously influenced by a number of forces. The outcome (impact) of the messages
from the news reviews manifests in the consequent perception, interpretation and 
discussion of public issues by the audience.
The implication of the model for journalists, especially, is that news selection 
and reporting is a complex, eclectic exercise that is controlled by diverse forces. The 
knowledge and applicability of these inter-related theories in the domain of editorial
mechanism would assist editors to deal with some ethical issues in news reporting. For 
instance, as journalists consider some forces that may influence their news selection
decisions (Gatekeeping and Newsworthiness Theories), they would not forget that they 
are equally setting some public agenda (Agenda-Setting Theory). Journalists are
socially responsible because what they report would definitely have some impact on 
the audience. Also, the model would further serve as a guide for communication
scholars to always see beyond the confines of one-theory approach whenever they are
faced with the task of constructing theoretical framework for discussing or explaining
the concepts of forces, structure and outcome (effect) in news reporting.
164
CHAPTER EIGHT
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
8.1: Summary
News review programme by radio stations in Oyo State, Nigeria, formed the central
focus of this study.  The programme is a secondary gatekeeping process where radio 
stations monitor other news media, screen, select, repackage and report news items
from the contents of these news media. It was believed that the editorial teams of the
news reviews would always apply a number of criteria, and be influenced by a lot of
forces in their news selection decisions. Again, the aggregate effect of these forces and 
values would determine what the radio stations eventually select and report from other
news media. It was also believed that what the radio stations reported and how they 
presented the review were likely to have some impact on the audience. The programme 
was also believed to have some implications for other media types especially the
newspapers. But it was observed that the complexities of this secondary gatekeeping
practice had not received attention of communication scholars, especially in the 
Nigerian media context. Therefore, the study examined the forces that controlled the 
editorial decisions of news review editors, the structure, and outcome of the 
programme in terms of the consequent public perception of the issues reported by the 
radio stations in their news reviews. Specifically, the study examined secondary media
gatekeeping in radio stations in Oyo state in terms of the procedure followed, 
newsworthiness criteria, the devices employed in delivering the secondary content 
matters, and the impact of the practice on the audience. 
 The researcher adopted the gatekeeping theory, the theory of newsworthiness,
and the agenda-setting theory to construct the theoretical framework for the study. The
study employed a combination of content analysis, in-depth interviews, Focus Group
Discussions (FGD), and survey as the research methods. This eclectic approach is 
described as triangulation (Berg, 2001). The study had both human and non-human
population. The human population comprised news-decision makers (the news editors
and producers/presenters), newspaper practitioners, and the audience of radio stations 
165
in Oyo State, Nigeria. The non-human population comprised the radio stations in the
state and the contents of their news review programmes. Through the combination of 
Purposive, Simple Random balloting, Stratification, and Convenience Sampling
Techniques, as applied appropriately for the different sub-categories of the study
population, six editorial personnel from the three radio stations; 43 news review
listeners; 12 newspaper practitioners; 198 news review broadcasts for the English 
version and 40 news review broadcasts for the Yoruba version; and 520 radio audience 
respondents were selected for the study. Premier FM, Ibadan; Splash FM, Ibadan; and
Radio O-Y-O, Ibadan, were the radio stations selected. The descriptive statistics 
(simple percentages) were used to present the responses from the survey in terms of 
frequencies, percentages and tables. Also, appropriate inferential statistics (chi-square
method, and the technique of Analysis of Variance [ANOVA]) were employed to test
each of the hypotheses at 5% level of significance (p<0.05). The researcher employed
the emerging themes technique to analyse the qualitative data by using some generated 
themes to guide the sorting and interpretation of the interview and FGD responses as
they answered the appropriate research questions.
After a thorough analysis of the data collected for the study, the researcher
critically discussed the findings to answer the research questions. The findings are 
summarised as follows:
A number of forces influence news selection decisions of the respective 
editorial teams of the selected radio stations. One of these forces, however, stands out 
as all the editorial personnel interviewed claim that the most significant factor they 
consider while selecting items for the news reviews is human interest angle of the 
story. Therefore, it is evident that editorial teams of the radio stations have a strong 
bias for human interest stories. They believe that this category of news is likely to win 
more audience in the market place. Apart from human interest stories, other criteria 
that are applied in the editorial decisions are pr
interest. The news review programme is really a secondary gatekeeping; radio stations 
monitor and get most of their news items for the reviews from various other categories
of news media including the international news agencies. Obviously, out of all these 
news media, newspaper stands out as the most available, most reliable, and most
consulted source. 
The radio stations show bias for some public issues than the others. Politics, for 
instance, get most attention from all the radio stations in their news reviews. Sports 
166
news is the second most reported issues, followed by crimes, crises and disaster. News 
stories about society and religion are the least reported issues. Ownership factors also 
play significant influence in shaping the structure of the content of the news reviews. 
Government-owned stations reported more political news about the ruling political
parties and less about the opposition parties. On the other hand, Splash FM, a private
radio station, reports more news about the opposition parties, and neutral political 
issues than the other two radio stations Premier FM and Radio O-Y-O. Apart from 
partisan bias, there is also structural bias in the patterns of reporting public issues. 
Radio O-Y-O reports more of national issues than all other stations, but least of local 
issues. On the other hand, Premier FM reports local issues, while Splash FM reports
foreign issue more than any other stations.
Language format also plays a significant role in shaping the structure of the 
news reviews. News reviews presented in the English language have lesser frequency
of extraneous comments, and take shorter duration, while the Yoruba version of the
news reviews contains significantly higher occurrences of banters, and lasts longer in 
terms of minutes per daily broadcasts of the reviews. The justification for these 
variations was that the on-air personnel (presenters) of the Yoruba version of news 
review employed more frequently than the presenters of the English version, delivery
devices such as humour, proverbial translation, suspense, voice modulation and 
mimicking, to sustain interest of the listeners.
To a very great extent, the news reviews by the radio stations satisfy the 
audience urge to be informed of current events. The programme also stimulates and
sustains listeners, interest. This perhaps is as a result of the delivery devices that the
on-air personnel of the radio stations employed to present the news review. These 
delivery devices are proverbial translations, dramatisation, paraphrasing, voice
modulation and mimicking, analogies, humour and suspense.  Significant percentage
of the audience respondents and the Focus Group Discussion participants confess that 
the news reviews provide great satisfaction. Furthermore, the issues that the audience 
prefer most (political and sports news) are the most reported issues in the news review,
whereas news stories about religion and society that the audience rank lowest in their 
scale of preference equally receive the least attention in the news reviews. 
The radio stations selected for this study really set public agenda through their
news review programmes. Issues that the radio stations report most frequently in their 
news reviews are the issues that the audience always remember and discuss most after
167
listening to the programme. In other words, issues that receive more media emphasis
get the audience attention as being more important than those issues with less media
attention.
However, the fact that  the issues that audience really want to listen to are the
issues that the radio stations report most in their news reviews suggests that audience
too are setting agenda for the mass media. The study has established it that one of the
most significant forces that shape the structure of the news review contents is
consideration for audience interest stories that would have good outcome by winning
of the media market place. Therefore, agenda-setting is a double-edged sword: the 
need to satisfy the audience usually compels the editors to select and report what the 
audience want while the degree of emphasis the media gives to certain public issues 
influences how the audience interpret such public issues. 
Radio is the most preferred medium of news as majority of the audience
respondents choose radio ahead of other mass communication media. To get news 
about daily events, audience prefer listening to news reviews on radio to reading
newspapers. However, after listening to news reviews, some audience usually develop
the urge to read the newspapers for more details. Some of the questionnaire
respondents and even majority of the Focus Group Discussion participants claim that 
they often go as far as reading newspapers after listening to the programme, though
there are no evidences that they actually read the newspapers. Conversely, listening to 
news reviews does not drive the audience to buy newspapers. Majority of the 
respondents and FGD participants, who claim that they read newspapers equally reveal
that they do not actually buy newspapers. This suggests that majority of people who 
read newspapers do not buy newspapers; they read through other means.  This finding
shows that secondary gatekeeping through newspaper reviews by radio stations 
portends a great danger for the future of conventional newspapers particularly in Oyo 
State and generally in Nigeria. 
8.2: CONCLUSION
This study has proved that news review is certainly a secondary gatekeeping. The
editorial teams responsible for production of the programme monitor other categories 
of news media, most especially the newspapers. In doing this, they perform another 
round of gatekeeping by selecting some news items from the contents of these news
168
media and discarding the others they consider less newsworthy. A number of forces 
and news values influence the news selection decision of the editorial personnel. The 
staff respondent claimed that consideration for human angle stories is the most
significant force that influences their decisions. The reason they give for this is to
make the programme more acceptable to the listeners. However, from their responses,
it was proved that other forces also play significant roles. One of these forces is the 
desire of the radio stations to expand their share of the media market place and 
consequently increase their net profits basically to compete favourably in the profit-
driven, neoliberal economy. Other forces, as identified in this study, are influence of 
the proprietors or owners, and interest of the advertisers (commercial interest).
The study has further confirmed radio as a potent tool for public agenda 
setting. According to the study, the issues that are reported most frequently by the 
radio stations in the contents of their news reviews are the same issues that the 
listeners discuss most frequently after listening to news reviews. The implication of 
this is that radio is capable of raising and bringing important public issues, and causing 
the mass audience to discuss and remember such issues. This is cheering news for 
development agents, and government institutions that development-related issues and
other topics that are capable of empowering the public can be transmitted to the target 
audience by sponsoring such information on news review programme by radio 
stations. Findings show that radio is the most preferred medium (66.5%) among other 
mass media especially newspapers (17.5%) and Television (16.0%).
One interesting thing with this secondary gatekeeping is that the concerned 
radio stations, as at the time this study was conducted, refused to mention or 
acknowledge the sources of their news stories for the reviews. One would be forced to 
ask if this does not constitute an act of plagiarism as espoused in the code of ethics for
Nigerian journalists. Amazingly, however, producers and editors of the programme do
not see it as an ethical aberration. Instead, they believe that by not mentioning the 
names of these news media (newspapers to be specific), the radio stations are doing the
newspaper proprietors more good than harm. According to them, this act of anonymity
is likely to increase suspense and compel the listeners to patronise newspapers. They 
also claim that they are trying to respect the court injunctions that had prohibited 
broadcast stations from mentioning names of newspapers in the news review
programme. 
169
However, contrary to the projections of the radio stations that by not 
mentioning names of the news media that served as primary sources for the contents of
the news review programme, listeners are likely to patronise these media, findings of
this study have proved that news reviews may be doing more harm than good for the
newspapers especially. For example, the study shows that though a few (n=121; 
34.9%) of the audience that listen to news reviews every day always have the urge to 
read newspapers after listening to the programme, out of these few that express
willingness to read newspapers, just an insignificant percentage (n=41; 11.5%) is
willing to buy newspapers.  Others do neither read to nor buy newspapers after
listening to the news review programme.
The study further shows that secondary gatekeeping as being practised by radio 
stations has strong implications for the future of newspapers in Nigeria. The market
shares of the newspaper as a news medium is fast dwindling. Culture of reading
newspapers, as established by this study, is waning, and the few people that claim to
read are not ready to buy newspapers. They probably read through other means such as 
borrowing from colleagues, reading free at the newspaper stands or paying a token of 
twenty naira (#20.00) to the vendors to read and return the copy, reading the office
copies or rather occasionally going to the websites of the newspapers. More so, the
study has shown that most people (n=346; 66.5%) prefer radio to any other news 
media. If this trend continues, then the study projects that the end of the conventional
newspaper as a popular mass communication medium is rapidly approaching,
especially in Nigeria!!!
8.3: RECOMMENDATIONS
It is recommended that further studies are carried out to provide more empirical proofs
that the sales of newspapers are really dwindling as a result of news reviews by radio
stations. This study has provided the empirical reference to show that the rate of 
reading newspapers is dropping as the audience respondents show great preference for 
radio but very weak willingness to read or buy newspapers. This study, however, does
not provide statistical figure to show the volume of newspapers being sold daily 
especially in the region where news review programme is being run. Therefore, further
studies especially experimental studies in this direction are strongly recommended.
Similarly, it is recommended that, if fund is available, this study is replicated 
and its scope is expanded possibly across the nation, especially in those areas where
170
news review programme is run by radio stations. This would make the findings of this 
study to be capable of being comfortably contextualised in the entire Nigerian media
milieu. The scope of this study is limited to three radio stations in Oyo State, Nigeria.
As a matter of fact, Governments at all levels and other stakeholders should 
aggressively address the ugly trend that portrays a progressive drop in the rate of
reading among Nigerians. Findings of this study have probably reflected the situation 
as regards the reading culture among Nigerians. Unless urgent measures are taken to 
nip the trend, reading as a significant communication skill for learning would be 
system.
Secondary gatekeeping, as being practised in most of the Nigerian broadcast 
stations, has raised some questions of ethics especially in most cases when the
broadcast stations fail to acknowledge the names of newspapers that provide contents
for the news reviews. This practice may be seen as an act of copyright violation. It is, 
therefore, recommended that both the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON)
and the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) meet again and revisit
of newspapers by radio and television stations in Nigeria. Perhaps, if the broadcast 
stations are legally permitted to review contents of newspapers without concealing the
identities of the newspapers whose contents they use, as they used to do before the 
ban, and are advised to reduce the volume or depth of the stories they read from the 
newspapers, the programme would have more credibility and create a better
professional cordiality between the newspapers proprietors and the broadcast stations.
Some audience admitted that anytime they listened to the news reviews, they
were stimulated to read the reviewed newspapers because the reviews raised some 
suspense. This is a proof that, to some extent, there is a positive relationship between
secondary gatekeeping (news reviews) and culture of reading, and if radio is
effectively used, it can encourage listeners to become avid readers. It is, therefore,
recommended that government should invest more on radio since it can be used as a
social mobilisation tool to stimulate the culture of reading among the citizens.
Communication experts should also exploit this great potential of radio by running
some programmes that can further stimulate radio listeners to read.
171
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Whitaker, B. K. and Dyer, J. E. 2000. Identifying sources of bias in agricultural news
reporting. Journal of Agricultural Education 41.4:125-133 
Whitney, D.C., Sumpter, R.S. and McQuail, D. 2004. News media production: 
Individuals, organizations, and institutions. The SAGE Handbook of Media 
Studies. Retrieved Sept. 4, 2009, from  http://sage-
ereference.com/hdbk_mediastudy/Article_n20.html.
Wimmer, R.D. and Dominick, J.R. 2000. Mass media research: An introduction. 6th 
ed. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company
Wright, D.K. 2005. An analysis of the increasing importance of the role of the receiver
in the communication process. Paper Presented at the Eight International
Public Relations Research Conference, Miami, FL. 1-11 Retrieved Aug. 12, 
2010, from http://www.instituteforpr.org/files/uploads/Wright_051PRRC.pdf
Zeh, R. 2008. News selection process. Encyclopedia of Political Communication. 
Retrieved Sept. 4, 2009,
              from http://sage-ereference.com/politicalcommunication/Article.
180
APPENDIX I 
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, NIGERIA
QUESTIONNAIRE
Dear Respondents,
This questionnaire is intended to gather information on the impact that the news
review programmes by radio stations in Oyo State have on audience. News Review in
this context refers to the broadcast programme whereby radio stations report some
contents of Nigerian newspapers, however, without any clear reference to the names of 
- -
by Splash FM, Ibadan, and Daybreak-Gist/ by Premier FM, 
Ibadan.
 This exercise is purely academic, and you are assured that your responses will 
be kept strictly confidential. Please respond honestly. Thank you.
SECTION A 
General Knowledge 
Tick boxes as relevant where applicable.
(1) How would you feel if you wake up in the morning and there is no news from
the news 
Media (i.e.radio, television and newspapers)?
___________________________________________________________
(2) Do you listen to radio stations? Yes (  )  No (  ) 
(3) Do you have a personal radio set?
 Yes (  ) 
 No (  )        (Skip item 4 if your response in item 3 is YES).
(4)
[a] We have one radio set that every member of the family listens to (  ) 
[b] I share with my roommate who has one (  )
[c] I go out to the neighbourhood where I can listen to radio programmes (  )
[d] I listen from room anytime my close neighbours turn on their radio sets (  ) 
181
[e] I listen to radio on my mobile phone (  )
(5) Which of the following radio stations in Oyo State do you always listen to?. ?
Premier FM, Ibadan    ( )
Radio O-Y-O, Ibadan (  ) 
Splash FM, Ibadan       (  ) 
Oluyole FM, Ibadan     (  ) 
Ajilete FM, Ibadan       (  ) 
Oke-Ogun FM, Alaga  ( )
Amuludun FM, Ibadan (  )
(6) Among radio, newspaper, and television, which do you mostly rely on to get 
news about daily events around you? Please, tick only one.
 [a] Radio (  )
 [b] Newspaper (  ) 
 [c] Television (  ) 
(7) Why?
_______________________________________________________________
(8) Which programme(s) usually motivate(s) you to listen to radio?  
 [a] Sports (  ) 
 [b] News about crises (  ) 
 [c] Political News ( )
 [d] News about education, health and other development issues (  ).
[e] News about crimes
 Others (specify)
__________________________________________________
(9) Do you usually listen to news reviews on radio stations?
Yes (  ) 
 No (  ) 
(10)     What is the reason(s) for your response in item nine (9) above?
______________________________________
182
(11) How often do you listen to news reviews on radio stations?  
 [a] Everyday (  ) 
 [b] Twice a week (  )
 [c] Three times a week (   ) 
 [d] Four times a week (  ) 
 [e] Once a week (  )
             [f] Never (  ) 
(12) Which of the news review programmes do you listen to most frequently?
 [a] Day-Break Gist (Premier FM) (  )
 [b] Top-Stories (Splash FM) (  ) 
[c] News-Updates (Radio O-Y-O) (  ) 
 [d]  (Premier FM) (  )
 [e] -  (Splash FM) (  ) 
(13) Which of the two versions Yoruba and English do you like to listen to?
 [a] Yoruba (  )
 [b] English (  ) 
 [c] Both (  ) 
(14) Which topic areas of the news review programmes by the radio stations do you
always listen to? 
 [a] News about Politics and governance  (  )
 [b] Sports news (  ) 
 [c] News about your locality (   ) 
 [d] News about crimes (  ) [e] News about your state (  )
 [f] News about entertainments, fashion and social events (  )
 [g] News about development issues such as health, agriculture, education (  )
All of the above ( )
Others, (specify)
_____________________________________________________
 (15) How often do you read newspapers to get informed of the daily occurrences?
 [a] Everyday (  ) 
 [b] Twice a week (  )
 [c] Three times a week (   ) 
183
 [d] Four times a week (  ) 
 [e] Once a week (  )
             [f] Never (  ) 
(16) If you read newspapers at all, how do you normally get your copies?
[a] I always buy (  ) 
 [b] I usually borrow from friends (  )
 [c] I read the office copies (  )
 [d] I go to the library to read (  )
(17) How many times do you buy newspapers?
 [a] Everyday (  ) 
 [b] Twice a week (  )
 [c] Three times a week (   ) 
 [d] Four times a week (  )         [e] Once a week (  )       [c] Never (  )
184
SECTION B 
Listening Habit, Urge for Information and Eagerness to Buy/Read Newspapers
Instruction: Please read the following sentences carefully and state your
degree of agreement with them/indicate the degree to which you think they 
are true 
Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly
Agree Disagree
18 Contents of news review programmes on radio are
very rich and interesting.
19 I always get from the news reviews all information
that I need concerning current events in my
environment.
20 After listening to the news reviews, I always feel 
satisfied.
21 I have formed a habit for listening to the news review
programmes.
22 Listening to the news reviews is already part of my
programme. 
23
secured a portable radio transistor. 
24 Radio stations do not give details of news they
review as reported by newspapers.
25 After listening to the news reviews on radio, I still 
have the urge to read the newspapers
26 Actually, when I listen to the news review, I
recognise the sources of the information in news 
review.
27 I go as far as buying newspapers to read the details of 
news already reviewed by radio stations.
28 As long as radio stations continue to review contents
newspapers.
29 Even without any direct reference to the newspapers,
it is clear that radio station review contents of
newspapers.
185
SECTION C 
 Agenda Setting; Perception of, and Decision about Social Reality
(30) Do you always believe the information you get through the news reviews by
radio? Yes (  ) 
             No (  ) 
(31) Between the news you get through direct reading of newspapers and those you
get through news reviews, which do you consider as being more reliable? 
             [a] News from newspapers (  )
             [b] News from radio (  )
             [c] Both are equally reliable (  )
(32) Would you say the information from the news review keeps you abreast of 
current national issues?
           Yes (  ) 
            No (  ) 
(33) If YES, please try to remember and list at least three (3) of such national issue 
in the last six (6) months
(i)________________(ii)_____________________(iii)_________________________
(iv)__________________________(v)_____________________________
(34) In a day, which public issues would you consider to be most significant?
 [a] Issues that most news media do not report well (  )
 [b] Issues that local people talk about (  )
[c] Issues that are reported by newspapers, but not given emphasis by radio
stations in        their news reviews? (  )
         [d] Issues that are reported and given much emphasis by almost all news media (  ) 
186
(35) Which of the following factors or circumstances would make you believe that 
an issue is significant?.
[a] When majority of radio stations report it in their news reviews (  )
[b] When most radio stations mention it as part of the main gist of the review ()
[c] When radio stations give it wider coverage (  )
[d] When the issue comes briefly in the review (  )
[e] When the issue comes first in the main review (  )
(36) When an issue is reviewed most prominently by radio station, what is your
opinion about such issue?
[a] I believe that other media must have reported the issue (  ). 
[b] I consider the issue to be significant (  ). 
[c] I believe that the editor or the presenter has a strong bias (interest). for the 
issue   (  ). 
[d] I feel I should take the issue more serious than others that are not so 
prominently   reviewed (  ).
[e] I feel the issue is less significant, so I should pay little attention to it (  ). 
(37) When an issue receives no emphasis in the new reviews, how do you perceive
such issue? 
[a] I believe that other media must have reported the issue (  ). 
[b] I consider the issue to be significant (  ).
[c] I believe that the editor or the presenter has a strong bias for the issue (  ).
[d] I feel I should take the more serious than others that are not so prominently
reviewed (  ).
[e] I feel the issue is less significant, so I should pay little attention to it (  ).
(38) After listening to the news reviews on radio, which issues do you always 
remember and discuss with your friends? [a] Issues about climate (  )
[b] Issues about diplomatic matters (  )
[c] Issues that the news media, especially radio, discuss most prominently (  )
[d] Issues about transportation (  ) 
187
SECTION D 
Demographic Information
(39). Gender Male (  ) Female (  )
(40). Age (please state)..................................
(41). Occupation............................................. 
(42). Level of Education
 (a) No Formal Education
 (b) Primary School
 (c) Secondary School
(d) Post Secondary School (Please specify).......................................
(43). Marital Status:
(a) Single Never Married (  ) (b) Married (  ) 
(c) Separated ( ) (d) Divorced ( )
(e) Widowed (  ) (f) Cohabiting (  ) 
(44). Religion: 
(a) Islam (  ) (b) Christianity (  ) (c) Traditional Religion (  ) 
 Others (specify)_______________________________________
188
APPENDIX II 
INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR EDITORS/PRODUCERS OF NEWS REVIEW
PROGRAMME
1. Please educate us more about this programme (News Review):
-When did you start the programme?
-What is the programme all about?
-What are core goals of the programme?
2. How do you get the content (news) that you broadcast on this programme?
      -What/who are your primary sources?
                 -What/who are your secondary sources?
3. How do you select and prepare the news to be included in the daily reviews?
4. How many people are usually involved in the selection and preparation of news 
items for review?
5. Before now, you used to mention names of newspapers that published most of 
the news you reviewed, but the trend has changed. Why?
6. of the information you broadcast, would this 
not be seen as plagiarism? . 
7. You have your regular news bulletin, why do you still review contents of other
media, especially newspapers?
8. What issues do you report most frequently?
9. When news review come
items or materials that already featured in the news review also reflect in the
regular news bulletins? 
10. What are the news factors that you always consider while selecting news items
to be included in the review?
11.   How does the degree of emphasis placed on different news items by other news 
media, especially newspapers, affect your own judgement and selection of the 
news items?
12. How do the interest of the audience and the societal values influence your news
selection decisions?
13.
news selection decision?
14. How does your professional experience influence news selection?
189
15. How do you ensure that personal interest and organisational policy do not 
development-centred information that would benefit the audience?
16. Is it possible to run this programme without being sponsored i.e. can you run
the programme without commercials?
17. Is there anything you would like to add?
190
APPENDIX III 
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, NIGERIA
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE ARTS
FGD Guide for News Review Listeners
1. How would you rate the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria at
dealing with the current security challenges in the country?
2. Newspaper review is a programme that seems to be popular among radio 
stations especially in the South Western Part of Nigeria. What do you like 
about the programme?
3. What topic areas do you like to listen to on the programme?
4. What topic areas do you always discuss most frequently after listening to the 
programme?
5. After listening to the programme, how would you describe your urge to read
newspapers? I mean, how much do you desire to read newspapers after
listening to newspaper reviews on radio?
6. What is your frequency of buying newspapers to read after listening to 
newspaper reviews?
7. If you read newspapers, is it because you listen to newspaper reviews? And if 
8. If you buy newspapers, is it because you listen to newspaper reviews? And if 
9. If there is no programme like newspaper review, what do you think would 
have been your attitude towards reading and buying of newspapers?
10. If the broadcast stations (radio and television) stop to review the newspapers, 
will this change your current attitude towards reading and buying of
newspapers? How? Please, explain. 
11. How would you describe the economic effect/impact of newspaper reviews on 
newspapers?
12. Would you suggest that the broadcast stations should continue with the
programme, or they should be banned from reviewing contents of
newspapers? Give your reasons.
13. Any other thing to add?
Thank you.
191
APPENDIX IV 
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, NIGERIA
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE ARTS
Interview Guide for Newspaper Practitioners
1. Sir, what specific impact does news review by radio stations have on 
newspapers in terms of sales and readership?
2. It is assumed that newspapers may not be making more sales especially in the 
face of stiff competition with other media types. How do newspapers cope to
survive economically if they are not making more sales?
3. If advertisements are the major source of income for newspapers, what 
implications do you think this phenomenon has for responsible journalism?
4. This practice of newspaper review by radio stations started long ago, and the 
programme has generated a lot of controversy between the Broadcasting
Organisation of Nigeria (BON) and the Newspapers Proprietors Association of
Nigeria (NPAN). Sometime in 2008, there was a court case between the two 
bodies. The crisis forced broadcast stations to stop the programme, but later, 
the review started again. What is your view on this?
5. How true is the allegation that there was some sort of disagreement among the 
newspaper proprietors because it was reported that some newspaper publishers 
did not want their newspapers to be reviewed by broadcast media while some
proprietors really wanted their newspapers to be reviewed?
Thank you.
192
APPENDIX V 
CONTENT ANALYSIS CODING SHEET
Date: Radio Station: Total No. of Duration(Per Analyst:
Stories: min):
Language Format:
S       PROXIMITY THEMES
/
Local Nation Foreign Politics Religion Crime Development- Disaster Crisis Spor SocieN
News -al News centred News ts ty
News
Ruling Opposi Neutral
Party tion (Others)
Party
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
T
O
T
A
L
Total Number of  Commercials in the News Review Broadcast:
Frequency of Extraneous Comments (Banters):
193
APPENDIX VI 
               Randomly Selected Days for the English Version of the News Reviews
                                                (Premier FM, Ibadan)
Month Fe Mar Apr Ma Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
b ch il y e
2/2 4/31 12/4 3/5/ 1/6/ 2/7/ 4/8/ 3/9/ 1/10/ 3/11/ 2/1
/10 0 /10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 2/1
0
5/2 8/3/1 16/4 6/5/ 9/6/ 7/7/ 9/8/ 7/9/ 5/10 10/1 7/1
/10 0 /10 10 10 10 10 10 1/10 1/10 2/1
0
10/ 13/3/ 23/4 12/ 15/ 15/7 11/8 15/9 13/1 16/1 13/
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 12/
0 0 0 10
17/ 19/3/ 26/4 20/ 18/ 21/7 17/8 17/9 19/1 19/1 17/
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 12/
0 0 0 10
23/ 27/3/ 27/4 25/ 22/ 23/7 20/8 21/9 26/1 24/1 21/
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 12/
0 0 0 10
26/ 31/3/ 30/4 28/ 30/ 27/7 25/8 24/9 28/1 30/1 28/
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 12/
0 0 0 10
194
RANDOMLY SELECTED DAYS
APPENDIX VII 
Randomly Selected Days for the English Version of the News   Reviews
(Splash FM, Ibadan)
Month Fe Mar Apr Ma Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
b ch il y e
4/2 2/3/1 1/4/ 4/5/ 3/6/ 1/7/ 4/8/ 2/9/ 1/10 3/11/ 1/12/
/10 0 10 10 10 10 10 10 /10 10 10
8/2 10/3/ 8/4/ 14/ 10/ 9/7/ 10/8 7/9/ 7/10 8/11/ 7/12/
/10 10 10 5/1 6/1 10 /10 10 /10 10 10
0 0
15/ 16/3/ 14/4 18/ 16/ 12/7 17/8 17/9 11/1 17/1 15/1
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 2/10
0 0 0
19/ 19/3/ 19/4 21/ 22/ 19/7 25/8 20/9 20/1 22/1 20/1
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 2/10
0 0 0
23/ 23/3/ 22/4 25/ 25/ 23/7 27/8 24/9 22/1 26/1 24/1
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 2/10
0 0 0
25/ 29/3/ 28/4 31/ 29/ 26/7 30/8 29/9 25/1 30/1 31/1
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 2/10
0 0 0
195
RANDOMLY SELECTED DAYS
APPENDIX VIII 
Randomly Selected Days for the English Version of the News   Reviews
(Radio O-Y-O, Ibadan) 
Month Fe Mar Apr Ma Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
b ch il y e
4/2 3/3/1 5/4/ 3/5/ 1/6/ 2/7/ 4/8/ 2/9/ 1/10 3/11/ 1/12/
/10 0 10 10 10 10 10 10 /10 10 10
9/2 8/3/1 9/4/ 7/5/ 8/6/ 8/7/ 10/8 8/9/ 5/10 8/11/ 7/12/
/10 0 10 10 10 10 /10 10 /10 10 10
16/ 11/3/ 14/4 10/ 14/ 13/7 17/8 14/9 11/1 17/1 16/1
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 2/10
0 0 0
19/ 17/3/ 16/4 12/ 21/ 20/7 23/8 17/9 19/1 19/1 20/1
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 2/10
0 0 0
23/ 23/3/ 20/4 24/ 28/ 23/7 27/8 21/9 25/1 23/1 24/1
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 2/10
0 0 0
31/ 31/3/ 27/4 28/ 30/ 28/7 31/8 29/9 28/1 29/1 30/1
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 2/10
0 0 0
196
RANDOMLY SELECTED DAYS
APPENDIX IX
Randomly Selected Days for the Yoruba Version of the News Reviews
(Premier FM and Splash FM, Ibadan)
PREMIER FM, IBADAN
Month Fe Mar Apr Ma Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
b ch il y e
5/2 8/3/1 16/4 6/5/ 1/6/ 15/7 11/8 3/9/ 5/10 3/1 13/1
/10 0 /10 10 10 /10 /10 10 1/10 1/1 2/10
0
23/ 27/3/ 30/4 25/ 18/ 27/7 20/8 21/3 26/1 19/ 28/1
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 11/ 2/10
0 0 0 10
                SPLASH FM, IBADAN
Month Fe Mar Apr Ma Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
b ch il y e
8/2 2/3/1 1/4/ 11/ 10/ 9/7/ 10/8 2/9/ 7/10 3/11/ 7/12/
/10 0 10 5/1 6/1 10 /10 10 /10 10 10
0 0
23/ 19/3/ 22/4 31/ 29/ 19/7 27/8 24/9 25/1 17/1 24/1
2/1 10 /10 5/1 6/1 /10 /10 /10 0/10 1/10 2/10
0 0 0
197
RANDOMLY RANDOMLY SELECTED DAYS
SELECTED DAYS
APPENDIX X 
FEDERAL RADIO CORPORATION OF NIGERIA (FRCN) NATIONAL
STATIONS
S/N RADIO STATION LOCATION FREQUENCY SLOGAN
1 FRCN Network Radio House, 92.9MHZFMStereo; The Network of 
(Headquarters)  Area 8, Garki, 7.275MHZ SW;  the Millennium
Abuja 909KHZ MW
2 FRCN Abuja National Broadcasting 909KHz on 303MW The voice of 
Station House, Band unity
Gwagwalada
3 FRCN Enugu National Broadcasting 6.025MHz SW; The station for 
Station House, 826KHz MW; the matured
No 7 Onitsha 92.85MHz FM. mind
Road
PMB 1051 
Enugu
4 FRCN Ibadan National Broadcasting 6.050 kHz RN1-The
Station House, No, 1 49meters, 6.57 kHz station with a 
Oba Adebimpe 522meters vision
Road RN2-The
PMB 5003, Friend of the 
Ibadan People
5 FRCN Lagos Operations Broadcasting 4990MHz, RN1-1st before 
House. 33326MHz, the rest.
PMB 12504 1089KHz (MW), RN2-
Ikoyi. 97.65MHz. Continuing the 
tradition
RN3-The
6 FRCN Kaduna National N0.7 Yakubu 1107 KHz, Uplift the 
Station Gowon Way 594KHz, 96.1MHz people and 
P.O. Box 250, unite the Nation
Kaduna
7 FRCN TRAINING Adekunle Fajuyi __ __
INSTITUTION Road
GRA, Ikeja
Source: National Broadcasting Commission (2011)
198
APPENDIX XI 
FRCN FM STATIONS
S/N RADIO BLOCATION FREQUE SLOGAN
STATION NCY
1 Pacesetter Broadcasting House, 103.5MHz The Station of the 
FM Amakama, PMB 7101, Moment
Umuahia, Abia State.
2 Lighthouse Broadcasting House 101.5 Radio Nigeria, 
FM Bajabure, Yola MHz Lighthouse Fombina
Adamawa state FM
3 Atlantic Nsukara Offot, Uyo LGA 104.5 __
FM Uyo, Akwa Ibom State MHz
4 Purity FM Enugu Onitsha Express Road 102.5MHz __
Awka LGA, Anambra State
5 Creek FM 101.5 __
Housing Estate MHz
Yenagoa, Bayelsa State
6 Globe FM Yelwa Area, Off Das Road 98.5 MHz
Bauchi, Bauchi State Pearl of Tourism
7 Harvest Km16, Makurdi Oturkpo Road 103.5 __
FM Adjacent Abiam LGA MHz
Benue State
8 Peace FM Damboa Road, Maiduguri 102.5 __
Borno State MHz
9 Paradise Ikot Effanga Mkpa, Calabar 99.5 MHz __
FM Municipality
Cross River State
10 Charity FM Asaba, Delta State 104.4MHz __
11 Unity FM Broadcasting House 101.5MHz The Dream Shared by
PMB 0137 all
Abakaliki, Ebonyi State
12 Bronze FM Aduwawa Ikpoba Hill 101.5MHz __
Along Auchi Road.
Edo State
13 Progress Iworoko Village, Along Iworoko 100.5 Your Partner in
FM Road MHz Progress
Ado-Ekiti,
Ekiti State
199
14 Coal City Enugu, 92.85
FM Enugu State MHz The Sparkling Voice of 
the East.
15 Kapital FM Radio House, Garki Abuja 92.9MHz Station that rocks the 
Nation
16 Jewel FM Gombe by-pass, Off Dukku Road 103.5MHz __
Gombe
17 Heartland Broadcasting House, 100.5 Voice of the Eastern
FM Azaraegbelu, Owerri North LGA MHz Heartland
. Imo State
18 Horizon Along Kujawa  Dutse Road, 100.5 __
FM Dutse MHz
Jigawa State
19 Supreme No 7 Yakubu GowonWay 96.1 MHz __
FM Kaduna
20 Pyramid Kano Madobi Road, Madobi 104.5 __
FM LGA MHz
Kano State 
21 Companion Along Katsina-Batsari Road, 104.5 __
FM Katsina State MHz
22 Equity FM Along Birnin Kebbi/Kalgo LGA, 103.5 __
Birnin Kebbi MHz
23 Prime FM Along Lokoja Ganaja Road 101.5 __
Lokoja, MHz
Kogi State
24 Harmony Along Ilorin Lokoja Highway 103.5 __
FM Idofian, MHz
Kwara State
25 Power FM Along Bida  Badegi Road, 100.5 __
Niger State MHz)
26 Metro FM Broadcasting house, 97.6MHz continuing the tradition 
Ikoyi, Lagos
27 Solid FM Along Akurba Shendan Road 102.5 MHz __
Lafia LGA,
Nasarawa State
28 Paramount Oke Mosan along Kobape Road 94.5 MHz Our Integrity is 
FM PMB 2160, Abeokuta, Paramount
Ogun State
200
29 Positive FM Along Ondo-Akure Road, Oke 102.5 MHz Station poised for a 
Isikan Information Village Positive Change.
Akure, Ondo State
30 Gold FM Off Iloko Road, By New Ilesha- 95.5 MHz __
Akure Expressway
Ilesha, Osun State
31 **Premier Oba Adebimpe Road, Dugbe, 93.5 MHz, Your Dependable 
FM Ibadan. 99.1 MHz Companion
32 Highland NTA TV College 101.5 MHz __
FM Ray Field, Jos,
Plateau State
33 Treasure NTA Compound, Choba Road 98.5 MHz The Station Strictly for 
FM Port Harcourt, River State You.
34 Royal FM Off Sokoto - Gusau Road 101.5 MHz __
Premises of Sokoto River Basin
Authority, Sokoto
35 Gift FM Jalingo GRA Bypass, Jalingo, 104.5 MHz __
Taraba State
36 Sunshine 104.5 MHz __
FM Within NTA Grounds, Along
Potiskum Road
Damaturu, Yobe State
37 __
Pride FM Within Federal College of 102.5 MHz
Education
Gusau, Zamfara State
**One of the Radio Stations Selected for this Study
Source: National Broadcasting Commission (2011)
201
APPENDIX XII
STATE GOVERNMENT-OWNED RADIO STATIONS
S/N RADIO LOCATION FREQUEN SLOGAN
STATION CY
1 Aso FM Katampe Hill 93.5 MHz  The Station on the
P.O. Box 4941 Rock
Garki, Abuja
2 Broadcasting Broadcasting House, 88.1 MHz Station Born to 
Corporation of New Station Layout Lead
Abia State P.M.B. 7276, Umuahia
Abia State
3 Adamawa Broadcasting House Complex 1440KHz- ABCYola Always
Broadcasting Hore Ladde Layout AM, in tune with
Corporation Mbamba 95.77MHz- changing times
FM
4 Akwa Ibom No. 3, Udo Udoma Avenue 90.5 MHz Voice of promise
Broadcasting Road
Corporation Off Aka Junction
P.M.B. 1122, Uyo
5 Anambra Enugu/Onitsha Express Road 88.5MHz We Set the Pace.
Broadcasting P.M.B. 5070, Awka FM, 10.60 
Service (Radio) Ugwuawovu Enugu-Ukwu KHz AM
Njikoko LGA, Anambra State
6 Bauchi Radio Broadcasting House, 990 KHz, Uplift and Unite the 
Corporation Ahmadu Bello Way, Bauchi. 846 KHz, People
94.47 MHz
7 Bayelsa State Radio Bayelsa 97.1 MHz __
Broadcasting P.M.B. 56, Ekeki, Yenagoa
Corporation
8 Benue Radio P.M.B. 102202, Makurdi 918 KHz- Educate and Unite 
AM, The People
95.0MHz-
FM
9 Borno State Broadcasting House __ The Peoples Radio
Radio Shehu Laminu Way
P.M.B. 1020, Maiduguri
10 Cross River Broadcasting House, IBB 92.678 The House on the 
State Way, MHz, 1134 Hill.
202
Broadcasting P.M.B 1035, Calabar KHz (AM)
Corporation
11 Cross River Broadcasting House 89.926 Station of 
State Old Government Field, MHz possibility in the 
Broadcasting Opposite Metropolitan Hotel, land of Opportunity.
Corporation Ikom
12 Delta State Broadcasting House 97.92MHz V O D, Voice of 
Broadcasting Off Okpanam Road Delta
Service (Asaba) Asaba, Delta State
Voice of Delta
13 Delta State P .M.B. 1026 88.6MHz Melody FM
Broadcasting Warri, Delta State. FM
Service (Warri)
Melody FM
14 Edo State Benin Auchi Road 95.75 MHz 95.75 MHz
Broadcasting Aduwawa, P.M.B
Service
15 Broadcasting Okeyinmi Street 91.5MHz- Voice of Ekiti
Service of Ekiti Ilokun road FM
State Old Ado L G Secretariat
P.M.B. 5342, Ado-Ekiti
16 Enugu State Broadcasting House. P.M.B. 96.1 MHz Sunrise 96.1
Broadcasting 01600, Enugu
Service (ESBS)
17 Ebonyi Nkaliki Road, Abakaliki 98.10 MHz The Station with a 
Broadcasting C/o Ministry of Information Mission
Service (EBBS) and Culture
Government House Annex
18 Gombe Media Broadcasting House 1404KHz- Enlightenment in 
Corporation Buhari Estate Road, GRA, AM, the Savannah
P.M.B. 074, Gombe 91.9MHz
19 Jigawa State Broadcasting House 1026KHZ People Radio
Radio Sani Abacha Way, Dutse MW
20 Imo Egbu Road : AM- The Clearest Voice 
Broadcasting P.M.B. 1129, Owerri, Imo 721kHz East of the Niger
Corporation State 416 metres; 
(IBC) FM-
94.4MHz
21 Kaduna State Broadcasting House 639 KHZ, Grassroot Station-
Media Services No 1.Wurno, Off Rabah 90.8 MHz. AM, Capital Sound-
Road, FM
203
P.M.B. 2013,
Kaduna
22 Kano State No 3 Ibrahim Taiwo Rd, 549KHz, Serve the people-
Radio Kano. 729 KHz- AM; Radio Kano2 
Corporation AM; FM Stereo.
89.3MHz,
88.9MHz,
96.8MHz-
FM
23 Katsina State Radio House, Ibadan Street, 9772KHZ Station of 
Radio Service. Sabon Layi, Katsina Hospitality
24 Kebbi KM 8, Kalgo Road 945.801 The Rising Star.
Broadcasting P.M.B. 1059, Birnin Kebbi MHz
Corporation
(Radio)
25 Kogi 1, Danladi Zakari Road 94MHz Confluence Radio
Broadcasting P.M.B. 1095 - GRA Lokoja
Corporation
26 Radio Kwara Broadcasting House, 612Khz Heart Beat of the 
Police Road, 490Metre Midland.
PMB1345, Ilorin. Band,
99.00MHz
27 Lagos State 1 SDPC House Eko Eko FM: First on 
Broadcasting Lateef Jakande Road FM: 89.75 the Dial,
Corporation Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos MHz;Radi
o Lagos: Radio
107.5MHz Lagos:
Tiwa
28 Nasarawa Tudun Kauri, Makurdi Road,  97.1MHz __
Broadcasting P.M.B. 97, Lafia, Nasarawa 
Service State
29 Niger Media Radio House 75.6KHz The Station You
Broadcasting Ibrahim Babangida Street can Depend on
Corporation P.M.B. 88, Minna
30 Crystal FM Broadcasting House 91.2MHz __
Minna Maitumbi, PMB 88, FM
Minna.Niger State
31 Ondo State Broadcasting House. Oba Ile __ __
Radiovision P.M.B. 739, Akure
Corporation
32 Osun State Ile Awiye. Oke Baale 104.5 MHz, Radio I: Station of 
204
Broadcasting P.M.B. 4425, Osogbo. Osun 89.5 MHz our Time
Corporation State Radio II: Voice of
the South west
FM: Living Spring 
FM
33 Ogun State Gateway Broadcasting House, :OGBCI : OGBCI: The
Broadcasting KM 9, Olabisi Onabanjo Way, 603MHz Nations Model
Corporation Ajebo Road, MW, Station
Idi-Araba OGBCII90. OGBCII: The 
5MHz FM Station of the
Moment in touch 
with the future
34 **Broadcasting Ile Akede Orita Bashorun, 795MHz- Radio O Y O
Corporation of Ibadan AM,
Oyo State 98.5MHz-
(BCOS) FM
35 Plateau Radio No. 5, Joseph Gomwalk Road 313MHz in Committed To You.
Corporation P.M.B. 2042, Jos 228metre
Band,
88.636-FM, 
36 Taraba State Broadcasting House 1260 KHz The Choice Leader
Broadcasting 39, Barde Way in
Service (TSBS) P.M.B. 1078, Jalingo MWBand,
AM & FM) 90.65MHz
FM
37 Rivers State Degema Street __ Radio Rivers 2 FM 
Broadcasting P.M.B. 5170, Port Harcourt Stereo
Corporation
38 Solid FM Solid FM 102.5MHz __
Along Akoba Along Akoba Shendam Rd
Shendam Rd Lafia, Nasarawa State.
Lafia, Nasarawa 
State.
39 Sokoto State P.M.B. 2156, Sokoto 540 KHz A Station with 
Media Dedication
Corporation
Rima Radio
40 Yobe Km 6 Gujba Road 801 KHz The best others 
Broadcasting P.M.B. 1044, Damaturu want to be
Corporation Yobe State
41 Zamfara State Mal. Yahaya Secretariat __ __
Radio Service Off Zaria Road - Gusau
205
**One of the Radio Stations Selected for this Study
Source: National Broadcasting Commission (2011)
APPENDIX XIII
PRIVATE RADIO STATIONS 
S/ RADIO LOCATION FREQUE SLOGAN
N STATION NCY
1 Brilla FM Eleganza 634 Adeyemo Alakija 88.9 MHz The First 
(Sports) House, FM Sports Station
Victoria Island, Lagos
2 Steam 267A, Etim Inyang Crescent 96.9 MHz 
Broadcasting Victoria Island. Lagos FM Touch the Dial
(Cool FM) Slogan:
3 STEAM 1421, Independence Avenue, 96.9 MHz 
Broadcasting South City Centre, FederalCapital FM Touch the Dial
(Cool FM) Territory, Abuja
4 Ceuna Plot 18, Pocket Estate 105.5 __
Communicati Independence Layout, Enugu MHz
ons. (Cosmo
FM)
5 Independent Glass House. Airport Road, Benin 92.3 MHz The Heart Beat 
Radio City. Station
6 Jeremi Radio No. 60, Effurun/Sapele Road 95.1 MHz The Classic 
Eco Bank Building (5th Floor) Station, The 
Effurun-Uvwie LGA Best There is
Warri, Delta State
7 Minaj Radio vision Plaza, 89.4 MHz Simply the Best
Systems Minaj Drive. Mike Ajegbo Road Systems Radio
Radio Obosi, Anambra State
8 Raypower I Daar Communications Ltd 100.5MH RayPower I:
and II FM AIT Road, Ilapo Village z FM First
Alagbado, Lagos Independent
Radio
RayPower II:
Number One
Independence
Talk Station
206
9 RayPower Plot 99, Festival Road, Area 2, 100.5MH RayPower I:
Garki Abuja z First
Independent
Radio
RayPower II:
Number One 
Independence
Talk Station
10 Rhythm 93.7 Silverbird Communications Ltd, 93.7MHz More Music 
FM 10 Force Avenue, By Govt. FM Less Talk
House Drive, Old GRA, Port
Harcourt
11 Rhythm 93.7 Silverbird Communications Ltd 93.7MHz More Music 
FM 17A, Commercial Avenue  FM Less Talk 
Yaba. Lagos
12 Rhythm 94.7 Rhythm Hall, G Series Karu New 94.7HMz Sea Side
FM Extension Layout FM Station
. Plot 96, Flat 5
Uyo Street, Area 2, Garki, Abuja.
13 Star FM MITV Plaza, 101.5 This is the star 
101.5 (Murhi Obafemi Awolowo Way, MHz FM
International Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja, 
) Lagos
14 Nagarta Kaduna-Zaria Express way 747KHZ Muryar
Radio Katabu-Mararaban Jos, Kaduna.
.
15 Love No. 26, Tamale Street, 104.5 The Station on 
(Former By Mathematical Centre, MHz Solid Ground 
Crowther) Wuse Zone 3, Abuja
FM
16 Freedom Freedom House, 99.5MHz
Radio Sharada Industrial Layout, (Voice of the 
Phase 11, Kano People)
17 Hot FM TSM House, Apo Hill, 98.3MHz
Gudu District, Abuja. Music, Non-
stop News plus 
Sports
18 **Splash FM Midlands Communication 105.5 The Integrity
Limited, MHz FM Station
White House, Splash FM 
Building, Oba Abimbola Oluwo 
Road, Felele, Ibadan, Oyo State
207
19 Vision FM Hafsat Plaza, Central Business 92.1MHz Your
Area, Community
Abuja. Friendly Radio
20 Zuma FM KM 2, Minna Road, Maje High 88.5MHz
Point, P.M.B. 608, Abuja News & 
Entertainment
Station
21 Kiss FM 147, Adetokunbo Ademola  99.9 __
Crescent, MHz
Wuse 11, Abuja.
23 Grace FM Rakiya Ogbeha Place, 95.5MHz __
35, Mount Patti Road, P.O.Box 
92, Lokoja
24 Okin FM 2, Bayo Oyelola Street, Offa, 105.7MH __
Kwara State z
25 Globe Broad 267A, Etim Inyang Crescent, 96.9 MHz Cool FM: 
casting Victoria Island Annex, Lagos FM
(WazobiaFM the Dial
)
26 Steam Km. 16, East-West Highway, 95.9 MHz  Cool FM 
Broadcasting Near Syringe Factory, Rumosi, FM
(Cool FM) Port Harcourt, Rivers State the Dial
**One of the Radio Stations Selected for this Study
Source: National Broadcasting Commission (2011)
208

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