Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T09:24:02.891Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reporting on electoral violence in Nigerian news media: “Saying it as it is”?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2019

Leila Demarest Open the ORCID record for Leila Demarest [Opens in a new window]  and
Arnim Langer
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

While Nigeria has a vibrant press media landscape, freedom of the press is only rated as “partly free” by Freedom House, mostly due to political influences on reporting. Yet the extent to which these influences affect the quality of reporting remains insufficiently investigated. We address this gap by analyzing how three newspapers with different political affiliations report on conflict in the run-up to the 2015 elections. Our analyses indicate that biases in reporting are generally limited, and that while political pressures are real, they are most evident in editorial choices.

Résumé:

Alors que le paysage médiatique au Nigéria est dynamique, la liberté de la presse n’est qualifiée que de « partiellement libre » par Freedom House, principalement en raison d’influences politiques sur les reportages. Cependant, l’impact de ces influences sur la qualité des reportages reste insuffisamment étudié. Nous comblons cette lacune en analysant la manière dont trois journaux de différentes affiliations politiques font état des conflits en préparation des élections de 2015. Nos analyses indiquent que les préjugés dans les reportages sont généralement limités et que, si les pressions politiques sont réelles, elles sont plus évidentes dans les choix éditoriaux.

Resumo:

Embora a imprensa nigeriana apresente uma atividade intensa, a Freedom House apenas atribuiu a classificação de “parcialmente livre” à liberdade de imprensa no país, sobretudo devido às influências políticas na atividade jornalística. Porém, continua a não existir uma investigação suficientemente profunda sobre o grau em que estas influências condicionam a qualidade jornalística. Procurando colmatar esta lacuna, debruçamo-nos aqui sobre o modo como três jornais de diferentes afiliações políticas abordaram o conflito na corrida às eleições de 2015. A nossa análise sugere que, de um modo geral, há pouco enviesamento político nas peças jornalísticas e que, apesar de serem reais, as pressões políticas se fazem sentir sobretudo nas escolhas editoriais.

Keywords

electoral violenceNigeriafreedom of the pressnews reportingpolitical bias
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 83 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adebanwi, Wale. 2016. Nation as Grand Narrative: The Nigerian Press and the Politics of Meaning. Rochester: University of Rochester Press.Google Scholar
Ademilokun, Mohammed, and Taiwo, Rotimi. 2013. “Discursive Strategies in Newspaper Campaign Advertisements for Nigeria’s 2011 Elections.” Discourse & Communication 7 (4): 435–55.10.1177/1750481313494501CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akhaine, Sylvester O. 2011. “Nigeria’s 2011 Elections: The ‘Crippled Giant’ Learns To Walk?” African Affairs 110 (441): 649–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alawode, Sunday O., and Olufunke, O. Adesanya. 2016. “Content Analysis of 2015 Election Political Advertisements in Selected National Dailies of Nigeria.” European Scientific Journal 12 (5): 234–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angerbrandt, Henrik. 2018. “Deadly elections: post-election violence in Nigeria.” The Journal of Modern African Studies 56 (1): 143–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birch, Sara and Muchlinski, David. 2017. “The Dataset of Countries at Risk of Electoral Violence.” Terrorism and Political Violence, published online, DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2017.1364636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cederman, Lars-Erik, Kristian, S. Gleditsch, and Simon Hug. 2012. “Elections and Ethnic Civil War.” Comparative Political Studies 46 (3): 387–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ciboh, Rodney. 2017. “Journalists and Political Sources in Nigeria: Between Information Subsidies and Political Pressures.” The International Journal of Press/Politics 22 (2): 185–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, James S. 1963. Nigeria: Background to Nationalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul, and Vicente, Pedro C.. 2014. “Votes and Violence: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Nigeria.” The Economic Journal 124 (574): F327–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, Christian. 2010. Media Bias, Perspective, and State Repression: The Black Panther Party. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Demarest, Leila, and Langer, Arnim. 2018. “The study of violence and social unrest in Africa: a comparative analysis of three conflict event datasets.” African Affairs 117 (467): 310–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earl, Jennifer, Martin, Andrew, McCarthy, John D., and Soule, Sarah A.. 2004. “The use of newspaper data in the study of collective action.” Annual Review of Sociology 30: 65– 80.10.1146/annurev.soc.30.012703.110603CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egwu, Sam, Leonard, David, and Matlosa, Khabele. 2009. “Nigerian Elections Since 1999: What does Democracy Mean?” Journal of African Elections 8 (1): 108–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EU Election Observer Mission. 2015. Final Report Federal Republic of Nigeria 2015. Accessed February 14, 2018 via http://eeas.europa.eu/archives/docs/nigeria/docs/eu- eom-nigeria-2015-final-report_en.pdf.Google Scholar
Ette, Mercy. 2018. “‘Us’ versus ‘Them’: Exploring ethno-regional contestations in Nigerian Political Communication.” In Perspectives on Political Communication in Africa, edited by Mutsvairo, Bruce and Karam, Beschara, 173–87. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1007/978-3-319-62057-2_11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
House, Freedom. 2016: Freedom of the Press, Nigeria: Country Report.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, Arthur A. 2015. “Electoral Violence in Africa Revisited.” Terrorism and Political Violence 27 (5): 818–37.10.1080/09546553.2013.863184CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Höglund, Kristin. 2009. “Electoral Violence in Conflict-Ridden Societies: Concepts, Causes, and Consequences.” Terrorism and Political Violence 21 (3): 412–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2007. “Case Study C: Rivers State.” Accessed 26 May 2018 via https://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/nigeria1007/9.htm.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2011. “Nigeria: Post-Election Violence Killed 800. Promptly Prosecute Offenders, Address Underlying Causes.” Accessed 26 May 2018 via https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/05/16/nigeria-post-election-violence-killed-800.Google Scholar
Hyde, Susan, and Marinov, Nikolav. 2015. NELDA 4.0: National Elections Across Democracy and Autocracy Dataset Codebook for Version 4. https://nelda.co/#.Google Scholar
INEC. 2015. Summary of results: 2015 presidential elections by state. Accessed 20 May 2018 via http://www.inecnigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/summary-of-results.pdf.Google Scholar
Jibo, Mvendaga, and Okoosi-Simbine, Antonia T.. 2003. “The Nigerian Media: An Assessment of its role in achieving Transparent and Accountable Government in the Fourth Republic.” Nordic Journal of African Studies 12 (2): 180–95.Google Scholar
Kew, Darren. 1999. “Democracy: ‘Dem Go Craze, O’: Monitoring the 1999 Nigerian Elections.” Issue: A Journal of Opinion 27 (1): 29–33.Google Scholar
Krippendorff, Klaus. 2013. Content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.Google Scholar
Laakso, Lisa. 2007. “Insights into Electoral Violence in Africa.” In Votes, money and violence: Political parties and elections in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Basedau, Matthias, Erdmann, Gero and Mehler, Andreas. 224–52. Uppsala: Nordiska afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Lewis, Peter. 2003. “Nigeria: Elections in a fragile regime.” Journal of Democracy 14 (3): 131–44.10.1353/jod.2003.0054CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Peter and Kew, Darren. 2015. “Nigeria’s Hopeful Election.” Journal of Democracy 26 (3): 94–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindberg, Staffan I. 2006. Democracy and Elections in Africa. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
NDI. 2011. 2011 Nigerian Elections: Final Report. National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. Accessed February 14 via https://www.ndi.org/sites/default/files/NDI%20Final%20Report%20on%20the%20Nigeria%202011%20Electionsnew_Part1.pdf.Google Scholar
Obi, Cyril I. 2008. “International Election Observer Missions and the Promotion of Democracy: Some Lessons from Nigeria’s 2007 Elections.” Politikon 35 (1): 69–86.10.1080/02589340802113089CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ojo, Emmanuel O. 2003. “The mass media and the challenges of sustainable democratic values in Nigeria: possibilities and limitations.” Media, Culture & Society 25: 821–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olukoyun, Ayo. 2004. “Media Accountability and Democracy in Nigeria, 1999–2003.” African Studies Review 47 (3): 69–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oluokun, Ayorinde. 2015, 12 December. “Rivers State: Just one PDP Reps member survives court’s tsunami.” The News. Accessed May 26, 2018 via http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/ 2015/12/rivers-state-just-one-pdp-reps-member-survives-courts-tsunami/.Google Scholar
Omotola, Shola. 2010. “Explaining electoral violence in Africa’s ‘new’ democracies.” African Journal of Conflict Resolution 10 (3): 51–73.Google Scholar
Orji, Nkwachukwu. 2017. “Preventive action and conflict mitigation in Nigeria’s 2015 elections.” Democratization 24 (4), 707–23.10.1080/13510347.2016.1191067CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Premium Times. 2017, 20 June. “EFCC Tackles Nigerian Newspaper Owners, Attacks This Day’s Obaigbena.” Accessed 26 May 2018 via http://saharareporters.com/2017/06/20/efcc-tackles-nigerian-newspaper-owners-attacks-thisdays-obaigbena.Google Scholar
Raleigh, Clionadh, Linke, Andrew, Hegre, Havard, and Karlsen, Joakim. 2010. “Introducing ACLED-Armed Conflict Location and Event Data.” Journal of Peace Research 47 (5): 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawlence, Ben, and Albin-Lackey, Chris. 2007. “Briefing: Nigeria’s 2007 General Elections: Democracy in Retreat.” African Affairs 106 (424): 497–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salehyan, Idean, Hendrix, Cullen S., Hamner, Jesse, Case, Christina, Linebarger, Christopher, Stull, Emily, and Williams, Jennifer. 2012. “Social conflict in Africa: A new database.” International Interactions 38 (4): 503–11.10.1080/03050629.2012.697426CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sklar, Richard. 2004. Nigerian political parties: power in an emergent African nation. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Straus, Scott, and Taylor, Charlie. 2012. “Democratization and Electoral Violence in Sub- Saharan Africa, 1990–2008.” In Voting in fear: electoral violence in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Bekoe, Dorina A., 15–38. U.S. Institute of Peace Press.Google Scholar
Suberu, Rotimi. 2007. “Nigeria’s muddled elections.” Journal of Democracy 18 (4): 95–110.Google Scholar
Theisen, Ole M. 2012. “Climate clashes? Weather variability, land pressure, and organized violence in Kenya, 1989–2004.” Journal of Peace Research 49 (1): 81–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Udo, Bassey. 2015, 7 July. “Journalists protest against This Day over non-payment of salaries.” Premium Times. Accessed 26 May 2018 via https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/186261-journalists-protest-against-thisday-over-non-payment-of-salaries.html.Google Scholar
Weidmann, Nils B., and Espen, G. Rød. 2015. “Making uncertainty explicit: Separating reports and events in the coding of violence and contention.” Journal of Peace Research 52 (1): 125–28.10.1177/0022343314523807CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yusha'u, Muhammad J. 2015. “Regionalism and Ethnicity in the Nigerian Press: An analysis of the coverage of Boko Haram and the Niger Delta conflicts in The Guardian and Daily Trust.” In Racism, Ethnicity and the Media in Africa: Mediating Conflict in the Twenty-First Century , edited by Mano, Winston, 137–56. London: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Demarest and Langer supplementary material

Demarest and Langer supplementary material 1
Download Demarest and Langer supplementary material(File)
File 142.8 KB
Supplementary material: File

Demarest and Langer supplementary material

Demarest and Langer supplementary material 2
Download Demarest and Langer supplementary material(File)
File 3.4 KB
Supplementary material: File

Demarest and Langer supplementary material

Demarest and Langer supplementary material 3
Download Demarest and Langer supplementary material(File)
File 2.5 MB
Supplementary material: File

Demarest and Langer supplementary material

Demarest and Langer supplementary material 4
Download Demarest and Langer supplementary material(File)
File 16.4 KB