EFFECT OF OWNERSHIP ON POLITICAL CAMPAIGN AND REPORTING IN NIGERIA
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EFFECT OF OWNERSHIP ON POLITICAL CAMPAIGN AND REPORTING IN NIGERIA
Chapter one
1.0 Introduction
This research examines Nigerian news coverage of political campaigns during the 2011 presidential election. The paper’s main focus is on evaluating the role of the Nigerian press in the struggle for political power.
Ownership has been argued to have a significant impact on the role of the Nigerian press in the struggle for political liberation. An owner is defined as the individual or group of people who bring together the financial and personnel resources required to run a business enterprise, such as a newspaper firm.
However, this impact is more obvious when the newspaper is controlled by the government, as the paper is required to represent the owner’s orientation and beliefs. If the publication is privately held, it will report independently.
In light of this, the purpose of this study is to investigate how ownership of various mediums influences their reporting on the political campaign for the 2011 presidential election.
1.1 Background of the Study
Media ownership, control, and influence are interwoven. The ownership interests influence what is and is not covered, as well as the method of coverage. Ownership has an impact on the substance of print publications and the information that readers receive. Ownership impact can explain for diverse renditions of the same events.
Mc Quail (2005, p.292), speaking on ownership and power in the media, advocates as follows:
There is an unavoidable propensity for news media owners to establish broad policy frameworks that are likely to be followed by the editorial team they employ. There may also be informal and indirect pressure on certain problems that are important to owners (such as their commercial interests).
Media outlets should be neutral and independent. However, as we all know, ownership has an impact on how the organisation functions. The media follows the owner’s lead.
Ownership is an important aspect in the regulation of the media. Media managers are frequently faced with the challenge of balancing the interests of the media owner and the public while not telling the ethnics of the profession about the laws of candour.
Whether the media is public or private, the owner’s interests have a significant impact on what media managers do or do not do. An owner is unlikely to tolerate a management that acts against his best interests.
Solomon, G.A., Margaret, S.A., and Joseph, A.T. (2009, p. 23). Identified the types of media ownership as follows:
Government Ownership
Private ownership.
Political Party and Religious Ownership
The political party owns and finances the media outlet. The media serves as the political party’s mouthpiece. The media’s role is primarily to distribute information about the party and rally support for it. The political party controls the financial affairs and editorial content of such publications.
It is widely assumed that a society’s progress will nearly always be slowed in the absence of a robust press. The rationale is simple: the press, as society’s watchdog, is tasked with ensuring that both the government and the governed do not at any time or in any way abdicate their responsibilities to one another.
It is also evident that the Nigerian press has proven to be one of the most vibrant in the world, playing an important part in the country’s social, political, and cultural affairs.
The press has reclaimed its due place as a determining factor in the nation’s historical and modern political history, as well as the difficult process of nation building.
Having said that, it is critical to remember that the strength of the press is heavily influenced by its freedom of expression and independence.
This underlying element could be attributed to the success of some media organisations, which continue to enjoy widespread support among citizens, particularly the masses, who comprise the vast majority of the population.
The capitalist press philosophy states that the press must be:
Free of interference from the state, corporations, and other factions.
Committed to the public’s right to know.
Committed to always learning and delivering the truth, as well as to reporting that is objective and factual (Aitschill, 1947, p.74).
According to the social responsibility thesis, the press serves the economic and political system by teaching the public, protecting the individual, and providing decent pleasure (Siebert et al, 1956, p.44).
As a result, the press has been exploited by three types of people, pushing it to lose control of its own influence. This is to be expected given that these elites have the ability to drown out the press at times, either because they are prospectors for such media outlets or because they have the authority of the state to affect what the media presents to the public.
This dominant political economy ideology, to which the press prefers to conform, has been its undoing, as it contradicts the core philosophy of the press available in a civilised democracy in which the media operates freely.
Instead of being an autonomous agent of change, the press has simply become a source of enjoyment for the ruling class. For political elites, it is simply a more powerful instrument for promoting political agendas through news management and propaganda in order to achieve both public and private goals.
As a result, the press takes on an establishment or opposition identity depending on the political status of these elites, who have everything it takes to influence them, particularly when ownership is at stake.
In this sense, the performance of media outlets might be mirrored in the canon dictum that “it is he who pays the piper that calls the tune”; hence, instead of a “watchdog,” the Nigerian press is essentially a dog fed and tamed by its master, and is supposed to watch and work for him.
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