THE PRESS AND REPORTAGE OF SELECTED NATIONAL ISSUES IN NIGERIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LEADERSHIP AND THE SUN NEWSPAPERS 2013-2015

ABSTRACT

 

Even though the press occupies a central place both in the restoration and deepening of democratic government in Nigeria, the precise nature of its impact is a subject of scholarly disputation. The tenor of this disputation is characterized by this ambivalence whereby, on the one hand both practitioners and scholars of the press in Nigeria often praise the Nigerian press for being the most virile in Africa, while on the other hand in analyzing its role in politics the press is accused by the same individuals of not only mirroring but also intensifying the manifold contradictions of the country and the conflicts stemming there from. Based on the entrenched notion that the press, the so-called fourth estate of the realm, is indispensable to democratic government which Nigeria practices, and because the actual impact of the press coverage of issues depends on the nature of the coverage, that is how the press frames the agenda of national discourse, the study considers how the press framed the coverage of Boko Haram, corruption and the 2015 presidential elections in the period 2013-2015 using the The Sun and Leadership newspaper. In addition to the normal research procedure of content analysis employed in mass media research, the study employed in-depth interview for better explanation of how The Sun and Leadership newspaper framed the themes of the study. Amongst others, the study found out that of the three (3) themes of the study, Boko Haram received the highest prominence followed by the 2015 presidential elections and then corruption; while on the whole there was no clear cut bias along geopolitical lines, the 2015 presidential elections evinced a greater likelihood of bias; that the pressures of the market and the national character of the staff of the newspapers reduced the likelihood of bias. On the basis of these findings, the study recommends increased professionalism for the press in Nigeria, that attempt be made by publishers of newspapers to employ staff that reflect the diversity of the country and the pursuit of innovative research problematiques for the Nigerian universities and checks and balances over the press by bodies like the Nigerian guild of editors to ensure that the power of the press is exercised responsibly.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1        Background to the Study

One of the significant developments in the 21^st century is the pervasive influence of the media in all spheres of society. The ascendancy of the media in the political realm is loudly attested to by the invention of catch phrases to denote similar or different conceptions of the relationship between the media and politics. Zaller (1999:1) uses the concept of media politics, which he likens to party politics, judicial politics, legislative politics and bureaucratic politics, to denote “a system of politics in which individual politicians seek to gain office, and to conduct politics while in office, through communication that reaches citizens through the mass media.” The phrase mediatization of politics was used by Mazzoleni and Schulz (1999) to describe the growing significance of the media. According to them, Mediatization entails that instead of serving as mediators between political institutions and citizens, the media are increasingly becoming a key player in the political arena; indeed, it is impossible to imagine modern politics without the existence and influence of the media. Together with other terms like videocracy, electronic democracy and media democracy, these terms reflect the increasing dependency of political action on the media (Mazzoleni and Schulz 1999). If political action is increasingly dependent on the media, then the character of the media, in so far as it conditions and determines the content of political action, whether functional or dysfunctional, deserves close scrutiny. It is for this reason that the idea of the freedom of expression, defined as the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas without interference, has-deriving from this centrality-not only become a pivot of democratic rule, but political communication has emerged and acquired a prominent place in the social sciences. In the charter of the United Nations this freedom is reputed as the “touchstone of all the freedoms consecrated in the Charter of the United Nations.” Almond perceptively captured this rising significance thus:

The formation of an informed public opinion is a prerequisite to obtaining the consent of the governed on a continuing basis. Autonomous communication media tend to reflect and to sustain homogenous political cultures like the United States and Great Britain by maintaining the boundaries between the other political structures and functions, and between society and polity…..the availability of neutral information about the functioning of the political system makes it possible for the electorate to perform its recruitment function intelligently and effectively, and at the same time tends to create an informed stratum of citizens who are public policy oriented rather than interest oriented in the narrow sense (emphasis mine) Almond cited in Hydle (1972:8). If “…the availability of neutral information about the functioning of the political system makes it possible for the electorate to perform its recruitment function intelligently and effectively…” then it is a matter deserving of close academic scrutiny, not as a mere intellectual exercise, but because of the implications for practical politics of a non-neutral press in a heterogenous society like Nigeria. Put simply, the character of the structure of the media generally and the press specifically, in terms of ownership pattern, as well as the implication of that ownership pattern, for the availability of neutral or biased information, deserves intent consideration. In his doctoral thesis titled The Press and Politics in Nigeria, Hydle (1976) further amplifies Almond‟s thesis of the significance of political communication. He concludes with respect to Nigeria that dire implications for democracy, nation-building, peace and progress flow from the character of the structures of political communication. He showed how the sectional contradictions of Nigerian politics have percolated into the structures of political communication in  the  country with  newspapers  evidently serving  as  mouth  pieces  of  political  parties  and politicians with the militating factor being only economic imperatives. While most studies (Jibo and Okoosi-Simbine 2003, Tsebee 2010, Omenugha and Oji, 2008, Ojebuyi and Ekennia 2013, Okoro 2013, Olayiwola 2013, Uduodo and Osak 2008, Ofuafor 2008) on the relationship between the mass media and politics in Nigeria argue that the mass media is biased, even when started operations independent of any political party, what is less than clear is the exact role of economic imperatives on the subsequent character of political communication. For instance Oso (1991: 47) cites Golding and Elliot who have this to say on how economic imperatives affect the character of the structures of political communication: “The search for new and larger readerships draws the press away from a strident factionalism and toward a more central band of opinion, in which a mix of apparent neutrality and entertainment makes a paper attractive as much as influential.” But Ojebuyi and Ekennia (2013:113) contend that “….the profit-driven terrain where the media corporations operate tends to compel

journalists to aid their financial supporters, thereby making reports to be driven progressively by free market rather than the truth.” So, even when Oso (1991) reduces being political for the media to opposition to the colonial government in the turbulent context of colonial Nigeria, and proceeds on that basis to define as apolitical the Daily Times established in 1926 for the simple reason that it assumes a non-adversarial posture to the colonial government, it can be contended, in line with Marxist political economy, that the owners of capital are not without a political interest or affiliation. Simply put, in refusing to publish anything critical of the colonial government, the owners of capital in the Daily Times (Oso 1991 uses the word capitalization to label the infusion of business capital in the media industry) have shown where their allegiance lies. In his seminal work on the press and politics in Nigeria, Omu (1978:29) captures this delicate intertwining of political and economic considerations in newspaper publishing in these words: “Emphasis on the paramountcy of economic motive, however, could distort what was and has always being a complex situation. A few newspapers were established in the early 1920s largely for reasons of elective propaganda and political rivalry and even those inspired by considerations of profit did not necessarily exclude the demands of political ambition and patriotic inclination.”

However, the media in Nigeria has carved for itself a niche that cannot be tampered with without doing harm to Nigeria‟s democratization project as studies, both theoretical (eg McNair 1995) and empirical (for instance Egbon 2002, Oso 2013) have shown that the media occupies an important place in a democracy. It is in recognition of this that successive Nigerian constitutions have stipulated mandates for the media and provided constitutional guarantees of its activities (Sections 22 and 39 of the 1999 Constitution as amended).

The vicissitudes of the Nigerian state from post colonial times to date has further taken its toll on the thin veneer of professionalism overlying the essentially partisan kernel of the media. As Olayiwola (1991) avers: “From colonial era to independence period, to military interregnum, the Nigerian press has been overtly partisan. Nearly all papers in Nigeria started in association with political parties.” But this view may be due for a retest since ownership and control of the press in Nigeria have undergone significant changes in the forth republic. Moreover, the two newspapers selected for this study, Leadership and The Sun, all started independent of any political parties. Whether this means the possibility of non-partisanship irrespective of the political affiliations of the publishers, or bias is still evidenced despite the theoretical independence of the newspapers, is an issue the study hopes to illuminate. Arguing along the same line as Olayiwola, Oso (n.d.) explains that political partisanship of the press emerged with the onset of electoral politics in Nigeria following the constitutional amendments of the 1920s. He used the phrase instrumentalization of the press to refer to this development whereby the press was used to pursue the dual goals of political party interests and the political ambition of the proprietors. In line with Olayiwola (1991), Oso further explains that the Second Republic (1978-1983) saw the re-emergence of party-affiliated newspapers in the country. Probably, the most prominent of these papers were the Concord and Sunday Concord owned by the business mogul, the late M.K.O. Abiola, who was then a prominent member of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN); and The Guardian owned by another business mogul, Alex Ibru. Other papers of the era included The Democrat owned by a group of Northern politicians and businessmen, the Advocate owned by Chief Adisa Akinloye, the National Chairman of the NPN, the Weekly Eagle owned by the flamboyant politician, K.O. Mbadiwe, Vice-President Alex Ekwueme‟s Trumpet, Nigerian Call owned by Victor Akan, The Sun owned by Anthony Enahoro, The Nation owned by Dr. Nwakemma Okoro; The Nigerian Tribune resumed its function as Chief Awolowo and his party, Unity Party of Nigeria (U.P.N.)‟s propaganda organ.

Furthermore, Okidu (2011) opines that although the Nigerian media can deploy its powers to address a common enemy, it is “…ethnically and to a lesser extent religiously oriented.” He showed how in colonial times newspapers like The West African Pilot, The Ijebu Weekly and The Star of Oduduwa were used to pursue the political ambitions of Nnamdi Azikwe and Obafemi Awolowo in the 1940s. In this battle which raged fiercely and bitterly, even the ethnic groups from which these political figures came from were denigrated. When the then Northern region appeared on the press scene, via the publication of Gaskiya TaFi kwabo in 1939 and, subsequently, The Nigerian Citizen in 1949 (later succeeded by New Nigerian), it was in order to have a voice to represent the region‟s interests (Okidu 2011).

1.2 Leadership Newspaper

A national newspaper symbolically situated in the nation‟s capital, Leadership started in a five bedroom apartment in Garki II Area of Abuja with 12 staff members. Leadership was established on 1^st October 2004 as a weekly newspaper. The newspaper was easily accepted by the reading public because its founder Sam Nda Isaiah was a bestselling author having published a book Last Word, a compilation of some of his articles from his days as a columnist with The Daily Trust. By the end of 2006 the newspaper had become popular as a barometer for gauging public policy issues with a strong readership in Abuja, the country‟s Federal Capital Territory.

In keeping with the trend of digitalization, Leadership set up its site (www.Leadership.ng) which attracts some ten million visitors per month and no fewer than 285,550 likes. The newspaper‟s site is the third busiest among Nigeria‟s news twiterratti. According to the September 30^th Leadership Special Edition 2014, the paper has a Staff strength of 460, and Leadership can be found in all the 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT Abuja

The newspaper became a daily on February 1 2006. The varied forms in which it appears in Nigeria newspapers space include Leadership Daily (Monday-Thursday), Leadership Friday, Leadership Weekend, Leadership Sunday, Government, Le Vogue, Leadership Hausa and www.Leadership.ng. For its excellence the newspaper has been awarded newspaper of the year twice in the last five years by the Abuja Newspaper Vendors Association and as the most improved newspaper. According to its website (www.Leadership.ng) the secret for its excellence is embodied its mission statement: Leadership is not a regional or sectional newspaper. It is a national newspaper symbolically embedded in the nation‟s capital. We shall stand up for good governance. The paper shall defend the interest of the Nigerian state even against its leaders and we shall raise our pen at all times in defense of what is right. These are the values by which we intend to be assessed. We shall never, ever, for any reason forget the noble reason of our coming into being: For God and Country! (emphasis in original)

1.3 The Sun Newspaper

On the other hand, The Sun newspaper is published by The Sun publishing limited, which is a registered limited liability company registered in Nigeria. Headquartered in Lagos but with regional  offices  in  Enugu,  Kaduna,  Jos,  Ibadan,  Port  Harcourt,  Abuja  as  well  as  42  other branches nationwide, it is a media and entertainment company which commenced operation on January 18^th 2003 first as a weekly, before going daily under the title The Sun  on June 16^th 2003. The all-soccer sports daily, Soccerstar was added to the stable on 20^th February, 2005.

According to its website(www.sunnewsonline.com) the newspaper envisions itself “to be a dominant media content provider and entertainment company in Nigeria and Africa through the pursuit of excellence in delivering innovative and quality media and entertainment product.” The mission the newspaper has defined for itself is: “To practice journalism in the classical tradition of presenting the news and features in an exciting style, with impact, objectivity and appeal that generate returns to all stakeholders: the society, the investors and the practitioners.”

1.4         Statement of the Research Problem

From the preceding discussion, it is clear that there is a controversy over the factors which determine how the press frames issues in Nigeria. Political party affiliation, regime proximity, geopolitical loyalties, ethnicity, religion and economic imperatives are some of the competing variables being speculated to account for how the press frames issues in Nigeria. While Ezegwu (2012), Enwefah (2010), Agaje 1993 cited in Oso 2013, among others insist that ethno-regional loyalties is key to understanding political partisanship, Oso (1991) and Omenugha and Majority (2008) believe economic consideration has reduced the likelihood of press bias in Nigeria. Omu (1978), Hydle (1972), Onoja (2005) and Olayiwola (1991), however, hold political party affiliation to be the determining factor for how the press frames national issues. Rather less prominently, Okidu (2011) and Kukah (1991) impute religious undertones to the framing of national issues in Nigeria. It is on the basis of this allegations of partisanship by journalists and academics as well as the contention over the factors that determine how newspaper frame issues that this work, bearing in mind the avowed commitment of Leadership and The Sun to objectivity in their editorial policies, addresses how Leadership and The Sun newspapers framed the coverage of Boko Haram, corruption and the presidential election in Nigeria during 2013-2015 periods.

1.5 Research Questions

1. What is the volume of coverage given to Boko Haram, Corruption and the 2015 presidential election by the The Sun and the Leadership Newspapers in the period 2013-2015?
2. What is the level of prominence given to Boko Haram, Corruption and the 2015 presidential election by the The Sun and the Leadership Newspapers in the period 2013-2015?
3. What is the tone of the coverage of Boko Haram, Corruption and the 2015 presidential election by the The Sun and Leadership newspapers?
4. What are the factors that account for the tone of news coverage in the specific cases of Leadership and The Sun?

1.6         Research Objectives

1. To establish the volume of coverage given to Boko Haram, corruption and the 2015 presidential election by Leadership and The Sun
2. To establish the level of prominence given to Boko Haram, corruption and the 2015 presidential election Leadership and The Sun
3. To establish the tone of news  reports and  editorials of  Leadership  and The  Sun newspapers.

4. To identify the factors that account for the tone of the news reports and editorials in Leadership and The Sun newspapers.

1.7         Research Assumptions

The work seeks to test the following 3 propositions derived from a synthesis of theoretical and empirical knowledge in the field. In discussing the framing theory, Scheufele (1999) suggested that the following hypothetical questions need to be raised if we wish to understand the media frame as a dependent variable:

1. What factors influence the way journalists or other societal groups frame certain issues?
2. How do these processes work, and as a result, what are the frames that journalist use? However in the empirical literature reviewed the factors identified as the sources of framing in the media in Nigeria are religious affiliation (Okidu 2011, Kukah 1991), ethno-regional origin (Tobechukwu 2007, Ezegwu 2012, Enwefah 2010), regime affiliation (Galadima and Enighe 2001, Okpoko 2014) and political party affiliation (Omu 1978, Hydle 1972, Onoja 2005, Olayiwola 1991). The factor of economic imperatives is presented in the body of the literature as a neutralizer. In the context of the foregoing background, the study proposes the following assumptions:

1. The Sun and Leadership newspapers increased volume of coverage of Boko Haram, corruption and the presidential election over the course of the campaign period.
2. The Sun and Leadership Newspapers gave higher prominence to Boko Haram and the 2015 presidential election than corruption.
3. The tone of news coverage and editorials by Leadership would be favorable to the North and those of The Sun newspaper would be favorable to the South.
4. The tone of the news reports in The Sun and Leadership newspaper is determined by the regional origin of the proprietors of The Sun and Leadership

1.8         Justification

While the ability of the media to set agenda in Nigeria has been amply demonstrated in the body of the existing literature (eg Tsegyu and Ogoshi 2016, Okwuchukwu 2014, Ekhareafo and Ngonso 2013), what has only received partial treatment, is the direction or tone in which agenda is set by the press. Where press coverage has been addressed it has mostly been on the basis of space allotment and prominence as measured through placement of stories in the front, middle or back page as well as the sensational captioning of stories (Ojebuyi and Ekennia 2013, Tobechukwu 2007). In this case the study is an attempt complement what has been discussed in the literature on how the press, specifically Leadership and The Sun cover Boko Haram, corruption and the 2015 presidential election. Moreover none of the studies consulted has dealt with the issue of how the two newspapers selected covered the sub themes of the study in the period of 2013-2015. The research restricts itself to news stories and editorials on Boko Haram, corruption and the 2015 presidential elections as content categories. The news stories are categorized according to whether they are placed in the front, inside and back pages. The significance of the page prominence of a story is that the placement does have an important influence on whether or not the public is exposed to the framing of the story. Freyenberger (2013) opines that the news story must be read in order for one to be influenced by the frame of the story and page placement plays a major role in how prominent a story is to the newspaper. Also, the news stories are categorized as favorable, neutral or unfavorable to bring out any biases. The editorials, which are also categorized as favorable, neutral or unfavorable, have been added because they represent the official position of the newspaper. Furthermore, the editorial has been taken as an additional unit of analysis because the work intends to go beyond the mere agenda setting role of the media. While news reports, by their  placement  and  captioning may determine  for  their  audience  what  to  think  about,  theeditorial has the capacity to actually influence what the audience thinks. This is because the editorial is the subjective opinion of the newspaper, and, correspondingly, goes beyond the mere  reporting  of  news  and  the  sensational  framing  and  captioning  of  same,  to  criticism  and persuasion which have the ability to reinforce or even create bias.  The significance of the editorial, especially in respect of how it informs and forms audience views, was explained in these words by Tomasky (2003:4):

On its front page, a newspaper shows the world its smiling-or perhaps scowling-face. But it is on its editorial page that a newspaper bares its soul. In its news, sports, and culture pages, a newspaper makes an effort to reflect the world; merely to describe it, hopefully in a fair and accurate and considered fashion. But on its editorial page, and only on its editorial page, a newspaper attempts to do something more than describe: It seeksto advise, argue, commend, rebuke; to imagine the world as it wishes it to be, not simply to describe it as it is.

More over Tobechukwu and Olaitan (2009) have rightly remarked that many a reader are too busy to make sense of the bewildering swelter of news hence the recourse to the editorial as ready interpreter of events. This is what gives the editorial significance as a possible molder of public opinion. The two newspapers in this study were chosen because of their ownership. While Leadership is owned by Sam Nda-Isaiah of northern extraction, The Sun is owned by the former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu. The choice, however, is not informed by any preconceived notion of their geopolitical allegiance, i.e. that they represent „the North or the South.‟ In fact the study seeks to bring under close scrutiny the geopolitics of information thesis of political partisanship using newspapers that are located in the Southern parts of Nigeria (The Sun Headquartered in Lagos) and in the Northern ((Leadership Headquartered in Abuja)) parts of Nigeria.

Also the two newspapers are privately owned, and were established during the fourth republic within one year of each other (The Sun was established on 18 January 2003 while Leadership was established on 1 October 2004). It is hoped that these two facts would permit the researcher to assess the geopolitics of information or regional parallelism thesis which posits a contingency of interest between the geopolitical origin of the proprietor of a news paper and the pattern of bias it displays. Secondly the influence of commercial imperatives could be gauged since both are privately owned. This however is not to undermine the role that readership and spread has on the choice of the two newspapers.

The analysis is structured along these sub-themes:

1. Boko Haram
2. Corruption
3. The 2015 Presidential Election

Boko Haram has been chosen as sub-theme because of how much of a threat it constitutes to the Nigerian state. Also, if a newspaper is not just a private venture, but a public trust as mass media scholars (Coleman, Anthony and Morrison 2009) uphold, then in Boko Haram the The Sun has an opportunity to live up to its emblem of being the “Voice of the Nation.” Equally, editorializing on Boko Haram provides for Leadership an opportunity to prove its logo: “for God and Country.”

The inclusion of corruption as a sub-theme in this work has been informed by the fact that, if not in fact, in the perception of Nigerians at least, corruption is the bane of all round development. Thirdly, the 2015 presidential election has been added because of the central place election occupies in a democratic government (Egbon 2002). The mass media is so significant to democratic government that it is called the fourth estate of the realm, and the development of the democratic government linked to development of the system of mass communication (Oso 2013). Living up to this reputation should doubtless involve covering elections with due diligence especially in the intensely political charged atmosphere preceding the 2015 general elections.

1.9         Scope and Limitation of the Research

The study is limited to the daily English version/ edition of The Sun and Leadership newspapers in the period 2013 to 2015. The study also used the whole 7 days of the week as opposed to just the five (5) working days to fore stall against the possibility that some editions of the newspaper might not be available. March 2015 marks the terminal point of the study because the presidential elections held on 28^th March effectively ending reference to the 2015 presidential election, as well any politicization, if any, that the campaign might have imbued the coverage of the other two sub-themes of the study. It is hoped that new findings as regards press bias in the Fourth Republic may emerge, since studies in respect of the first, second and third republics often claim unabashed partisanship informed either by the political affiliations and or geopolitical origin of proprietors.

The period 2013-2015 was selected because the Boko Haram insurgency, which is one of the themes along which the study is structured, emerged and achieved national prominence during the period. The 2015 terminal point has been chosen because it puts under the purview of the study the electioneering period of the 2015 general elections and the press is a useful measure of the changing political temperature especially in moments of tension, which, invariably, are what election seasons have become in Nigeria. Moreover, other works (e.g Daramola, 2013) have asserted that election periods come with heightened polarization along partisan lines.

The study was constrained by the availability of newspapers for sampling. Where the libraries do not have all the 30 or 31 daily editions for a month, the range of samples are affected with the effect that some samples end up being too close to each other. Another constraint was access to some of the interviewees. While the study intended to interview the Proprietors, Managing Directors as well as the editors of the two newspapers, making it six (6) interviewees, in the end only 3 interviewees cooperated. These are the Group Managing director and weekend editor of Leadership and the daily editor of The Sun newspapers. Efforts, running into months, to get the proprietors, that is Sam Nda Isaiah for Leadership and Orji Uzor Kalu for The Sun proved abortive. Even the recourse to email the interview questions as a questionnaire to these individuals, as well as the erstwhile Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Femi Adesina did not yield any results. Summarily in the survey component of the research design, three (3) individuals comprising two (2) (Group Managing Director and Editor Leadership Weekend) from Leadership and one (1) from (Editor The Sun) The Sun were interviewed.

1.10      Methodology

The research employed content analysis (quantitative and qualitative) and survey method of study. Whereas structural content analysis Izah (n.d.) relates to space allotment and positioning of stories, the qualitative content analysis relates to the interpretation of the text in terms of its tone, which is usually explained in terms of whether it is positive/favorable, neutral or negative/unfavorable. Again as Izah (n.d.) further explicates, the type of content analysis adopted by the researcher is dictated by the research question. The choice of both quantitative and qualitative content analysis has therefore been informed by the research problem which seeks to address how the press represented by Leadership and The Sun newspaper framed the identified national issues. While the placement of news story and frequency or volume of reportage is usually used in mass media research, this study stresses the importance of the editorial to the framing of news hence the emphasis placed on it. While the use of words and phrases like the North, South, Muslim north, Christian south, among others, can be convenient pointers to the stand of newspaper on any issue, the choice of the editorial as an additional unit of analysis permits the context of the occurrence of such words and phrases to be roped in, and correspondingly for the considered editorial to be appropriately grouped as either favorable, neutral or unfavorable. Thus, Izah‟s (n.d.) caution that “…in content analysis we risk losing sight of the forest for the trees” has been heeded.

1.10.1 Data Collection and Sample Size

The content universe of the work is constituted by the published daily edition of the newspapers in the period (2013-2015) under study. This amounts to 817 for each newspaper. The work used probability sampling and employed multi stage sampling which combines simple random sampling and stratified random sampling. The strata used are months and weeks. The use of the week as a stratum is to enhance the representativeness of the sample.

The sample was derived using the Taro Yamane formula (1967) as shown below.

Formula: n=N/1+N(e)2, where n means sample size, N means population size and e is level of precision which is constant at 0.05.

Therefore n=817/1+817(0.05)2

817/1+817(0.0025)

817/1+2.0425

817/3.0425=268.52917 for the 27 month period of 2013-2015.

To get the monthly  Therefore 9 approximated to the nearest whole number is the monthly sample for each of the newspaper.

A coding sheet designed by the researcher was used for data collection using basically editorials and news articles as the content categories. For the survey component of the methodology, interviews and open-ended questionnaires for the editors and managing directors of Leadership and The Sun newspaper are used to supplement the data generated from the newspapers.

1.10.2 Data Analysis

The data generated were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitatively, tabulation and percentages have been employed. For the qualitative dimension the content analytical technique of Key Word in Context (KWIC), where specific words like the North, South, Arewa, Muslim North, Christian South, etc are used as pointers to the presence or absence of bias along geopolitical lines, was used to supplement the quantitative analysis. The discussion of data generated was guided by the three (3) sub-themes namely corruption, Boko-Haram and the 2015 presidential election. Beneath each sub-theme are presented a table which has columns for favorable, neutral and unfavorable editorials. Accordingly the significant categorizations are favorable and unfavorable which shall serve as pointers to the presence or absence of bias. Because the work, amongst other research objectives, seeks to test the geopolitical of information thesis in the highly combustible atmosphere that preceded the 2015 general elections, the categories, favorable neutral and unfavorable are given this qualified operational definitions. favorable: for the Leadership newspaper, a favorable entry would be an entry (a news story or editorial) in the newspaper concerned with corruption, Boko Haram and The 2015 Presidential Election, which unduly supports the Northern parts of Nigeria, conceived here not just to embed the North central, North East, and North West geopolitical zones as entities with objective existence, but as a self-conscious subjective entity. By the same token, a favorable item for The Sun would be an item on corruption, Boko Haram or the 2015 presidential election which unduly supports the southern parts of Nigeria, conceived here not just to cover the south East, South west and the South South as entities with objective existence but as a self-conscious subjective entity. Unfavorable: This refers to an item concerned with Boko Haram, corruption and The 2015 Presidential Election, which by its tone is against the northern parts of Nigeria as defined above for Leadership newspaper, or against the southern parts of Nigeria as defined above for The Sun newspaper.

Neutral: these are items that though relevant for being concerned with Boko Haram, corruption or the 2015 presidential Election are not biased either for or against the North or South. This means, for instance, that an article that is unfavorable to the regime or PDP in the case of Leadership, would be categorized as neutral in so far as they are not biased for or against the northern parts of Nigeria.

1.10.3 Operationalization

The variable operationalized was the tone of the reportage of the selected national issues by Leadership and The Sun newspaper. In mass media research the tone that any unit of analysis may take is categorized as either favorable, unfavorable or neutral with respect to an identified entity, which can be an individual, a political party, a union, etc; From the literature reviewed, among the lines along which the press in Nigeria could be biased include regime i.e. that the press could be biased in favor of or against a regime (Bisi Aborisade and Omar Ibrahim cited in Ya‟u Haruna 1985, Nosiri cited in Enwefah 2010), political party (Daramola, 2013, Oso n.d., Omu, 1978) ethno-regional entity and religious group (Kukah, 1993, Okidu 2011).

In this work however the tone of the content categories are classified as favorable, neutral and unfavorable in relation to the North and the South as supposedly monolithic entities. The caveat must be entered however that this study uses these broad categories North and South not so much because the study shares in the assumption of the existence of the these blocs as monolithic entities but because the study inquires whether geographical parallelism obtains always in the case of every other newspaper and at every time.

When over an issue an entry in the newspaper, whether concerned with Boko Haram, corruption or the 2015 presidential elections, overtly supports or criticizes a particular region (region used not just to refer to the geopolitical zones introduced during the regime of Sani Abacha but widely used phrases like North, South, Muslim North, Christian South,) it is to be grouped as favorable. In line with the key word in context (KWIC) analytical technique, other key phrases to guide the coding are the socio-cultural and political organizations that are supposedly at the forefront of advancing the interest of the regions. They include Afenifere, Ohanaeze Indigbo, Arewa Consultative Forum, Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra MASSOB, Odua Peoples‟ Congress (OPC), etc. When an entry overtly criticizes, or is biased against a region, it is to be grouped as unfavorable.

A neutral entry would be one that, even when it mentions a region, does not either excessively criticize or support any region conceived in terms like the North, the south Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria, etc.

1.11 Break Down of Chapters

The study is made up of five (5) chapters. Chapter one (1) introduced the research in terms of the research problem, research questions, objectives, assumptions, justification, scope and limitation of the research, methodology, data collection and sample size, data analysis, operationalization, and break down of chapters. Review of relevant and related literature as well as the theoretical framework guiding the study was presented in chapter two (2). The origin, evolution, and structure of the press in Nigeria was presented in chapter three (3). In chapter four

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