Journal of Media Studies, Vol 30, No 2 (2015)

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Is news all about politics?

Chisom Ezebuka, Chinwe Okpoko

Abstract


News covers information on all aspects of society that are worthy ofpublication, following a strict observance of the media's socialresponsibility. However, in recent times, these general-interestnewspapers have become narrow-spectrum in their interest. Thisstudy seeks to ascertain the level of coverage of different issues ingeneral-interest newspapers and compare it with political news; thereason for the possible slant and the impact on the audience andsociety in Nigeria. The research employs the explanatory mixedmethod, using content analysis of two newspapers- Guardian andDaily Sun, interviews of experts and surveys of readers. The findingsshow that out of 2862 news articles 644 were related to politics. Thesurvey methods affirmed the restive situation in the country as one ofthe major reasons for high coverage, adding that the increasingreports on politics have crippled the awareness to the needs of otheraspects of the society but has sensitized the Nigerian society to theoccurrences in leadership positions.

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