SOCIETAL IMPACT OF CORRUPTION IN THE JOURNALISM PRACTICES
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SOCIETAL IMPACT OF CORRUPTION IN THE JOURNALISM PRACTICES
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background of the Study
As a profession that serves the public interest, journalists face numerous obstacles on a daily basis that put their ethical beliefs and commitment to convey the truth to the test.
Despite the professional code of ethics, most journalists break it by accepting bribes (brown envelopes) when covering news or features. This, in some situations, lowers the credibility of journalists and media outlets, undermining their professional careers.
Corruption is harmful to society and may be tremendously damaging to the media. While acknowledging the federal government’s efforts to combat corruption and economic crimes, a conference call should be held to encourage all media practitioners and stakeholders to adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards bribery (brown envelope) in the media and society as a whole.
According to Sanni (2007, p. 39), corruption is the most serious threat to good administration and national development in Nigeria. Journalists may use the media for personal gain or to benefit the public.
Because human desires are insatiable, some journalists may sacrifice the public interest for selfish reasons and disregard social duty. Such behaviour undermines the profession’s credibility and repute.
Thus, journalistic methods include the gathering, packaging, and dissemination of news for the broader public. In today’s culture, mass media are viewed as legitimate instruments of information distribution, social mobilisation, and control.
They are one of the mechanisms by which the public is educated and sensitised on significant problems affecting their lives. As a result, journalism ethical norms must be maintained in order to avoid ethical hazards such as (brown envelopes) and favours, which journalists obtain from their news sources in the form of bribes.
Bribes can occur in two ways: journalists receiving them from news sources or journalists issuing them in order to obtain the necessary information. Such reporting may impact news content or dilute tales with a hidden agenda.
Journalism is a noble profession that requires discipline and ethical behaviour from journalists in order to keep the concepts of social responsibility, as society relies on mass media for survival. Mac Bride (1981) argues that the public requires information.
This is required in order to respond appropriately to personal circumstances and make sound decisions. Numerous educational programs, such as quizzes, debates, and documentaries, can help the public understand the need of giving people their due.
Unfortunately, due to political pressure on journalism, poverty, and a lack of training, many journalists participate in unethical behaviours such as sensationalism, yellow journalism, chequebook journalism, and invasion of privacy, particularly the Brown envelope.
This study characterised the current Nigerian mass media scene. The development has an impact on the credibility of mass media, as well as its audience, which includes listeners, readers, and viewers, who have all lost faith in mass media material as a result of the influence of bribes on journalists’ news judgement and neutrality.
According to Ukozor (2002), ethics should provide journalists with a criterion by which to determine whether an activity is right or wrong, good or terrible, responsible or irresponsible.
Journalists nowadays must understand their limitations in order to avoid abusing the power of the media. Okunna reinforces this viewpoint by describing ethical journalism as a democratic attitude.
The significance of this highlights the importance of media practitioners’ ethical responsibilities for balanced, objective, and truthful news coverage. In an article titled “Settlement Culture and the Nigerian Media,”
Waziri Adio, a former managing director of the New Nigerian Newspapers, writes that on April 15, 2002, Time magazine published a story about Nigeria titled “The Whole Truth,” which raised fundamental issues about journalism ethics in the country.
The story, written by Stephen Faris, claimed that the office of the Minister of Information and Orientation, Professor Jerry Gana, provided international journalists with reference materials on Nigeria as well as some brown envelopes containing $400 apiece following a press conference.
The story further claimed that the minister’s gesture was intended to bribe and appease some international journalists who were known for reporting misinformed and sensationalised stories about Nigeria.
Adio notes that, while the federal government, led by Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, formed a panel to investigate the allegation, the panel did not indict the official involved, prompting the then-Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Kanu Agabi, to say that the story should have been more appropriately titled “The Whole Lie”.
Agabi stated that giving foreign journalists N50,000 was common practice, even among international media firms. Adio, on the other hand, has a different perspective on the incident than Agabi.
As if this wasn’t terrible enough, Nigerian newspaper editorials, cartoons, and columns have been making the fallacious claim that this is another example of Western media bias and preoccupation on negative news from Africa.
Nigerian journalists, possibly driven by patriotism or humiliation, have abandoned their critical faculties on this matter. The press has chorused: this is not bribery; such tactics are common even in the Western world; everyone does it, etc.
In this case, I was hoping for someone to think outside the box and be ahead of the pack. I longed for the opposing viewpoint that should be the hallmark of a diverse press. I have yet to come across one.
And this is where the real danger lies: we have arrived at a point where almost everyone sees nothing wrong with the actions of the administration and the journalists who received the alleged honoraria.
Everyone believes that this is conventional procedure in journalism. This episode, and others like it, call for a critical evaluation of the brown envelope syndrome to determine whether it has a valid place in the practice of journalism in Nigeria, or anyplace in the world. What follows is a thesis on the brown envelope syndrome and its crippling effect on the country’s journalism future.
Unfortunately, economic extremism and government pressure both have a significant impact on communication in Nigeria. Poverty degrades human dignity in poor countries such as Nigeria, causing the degree of honour and trust to be influenced by money rather than the editors’ sense of value.
Also, given the massive task that an average journalist performs in society, his or her salaries are low. This could be interpreted as a contributing element in his or her decision to compromise the profession.
Recognising this, the researcher decides to investigate the effects of bribery on journalism practices.
1.1 Statement of the Problem
In today’s world, information has emerged as the most important means of accomplishing development. Nigeria is currently suffering from a lack of quality and usable information from the media; media practices have lost objectivity as a result of the level of bribery found in the media industry; and the situation is deteriorating to the point where journalism as a profession will succumb to the brown envelope. Against this backdrop, this paper will attempt to investigate the problem of bribery and propose an acceptable remedy.
1.2 Objectives of the Study
To effectively conduct the inquiry, the researcher anticipated that the study would have the following aims.
1. Determine whether accepting a bribe changes the journalist’s sense of news judgement.
2. Determine whether bribes influence journalism practice in favour of the giver.
3. Finally, identify the causes responsible for receiving bribes and address them.
4. To reveal whether journalists want bribes to execute their duties.
1.3 Significance of the Study
The study will have the following implications.
1. To help motivate journalists in carrying out their duties.
2. It will assist media organisations in redirecting and reorienting their workforce on the impact of bribes on media credibility.
3. It will also be a useful resource for future researchers interested in this field of study, as well as communication policymakers.
4. It will aid in revealing some of the elements that impede journalistic practices, such as news, commercialisation, ownership influence, and low pay, on media performance.
5. Finally, this study will help to emphasise the importance of process freedom and people’s right to know for sound media practice in Nigeria.
1.4 Scope of the study:
The project topic examines the impact of bribery on journalism practices in the Kaduna city, with a focus on FRCN Kaduna.
1.5 Limitations of the study
This study of modern journalism and the impacts of bribery should have included all of Nigeria’s media, but due to financial constraints and logistics, it was limited to the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria Kaduna Branch (FRCN Kaduna), a government-owned media organisation. Furthermore, time constraints prevented additional research beyond the one case study employed (FRCN Kaduna).
1.6 Research Question for the Study
1. How do bribes alter journalists’ perception of news judgement?
2. How can bribery affect the quality of a journalist’s report?
What variables lead to journalists getting bribes?
3. Could a journalist’s financial background influence their stance towards bribery?
4. Do journalists seek bribes to perform their duties?
1.7 Definition of Terms
1. A bribe conceptually refers to a monetary present or other incentive delivered to someone at a specific moment.
Operationally, a bribe is money or other incentive offered to journalists at media houses, newspapers, magazines, radio, and television by newsmakers in order to influence their news coverage, which is contrary to the ethics of the journalism profession.
2. Effects: theoretically implies impact on something.
Effects: operationally refers to the bad or positive impact of a bribe on a journalist’s sense of news judgement.
3. Journalism is defined conceptually as the act of writing and printing information or news stories for the media.
Operational journalism refers to the process of obtaining, processing, and disseminating information to a diverse, faceless audience through the media.
4. Objective refers to the production of genuine, fair, accurate, and unbiased reports by journalists as part of their information distribution tasks in society, in accordance with the profession’s ethical rules.
5. Brown envelope; this is a paper cover with a gummed or tuck-in flap that holds a letter.
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