Language: English / Topic: Reporters and reporting - Topics

Description:: This paper questions the popular view that Western media negate the image of the Third World through unprofessionally acquired reports that concentrate on negative activities while ignoring the positive ones. The paper claims that there is no empirical validation of the view that there is an imbalance in news coverage between the West and the Third World. By content-analysing a sample of Nigerian papers, the author arrives at the conclusion that these papers not only do not have a better balance than the Western ones in reporting world news, but they do not even give more prominence to Third World news.
Date Issued:: 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:: Africa Media Review

Description:: The agenda-setting function of the media in an international context is investigated here by examining the relationship between exposure to Newsweek by educated urban Nigerians and the importance they place on various world problems (controlled by demographic factors, cosmopolitanism and national media use variables). A combination of two research methods was employed: a secondary analysis of a sample of 1,213 "better educated" adults in three urban areas of Nigeria in November, 1981 commissioned by the United States Information Agency (USIA), and a content analysis of the international edition of Newsweek for October and November, 1981, seven weeks before and during the survey. The investigation yielded inconclusive results in its comparison of the Newsweek agenda to the magnitude of the relationships between reading Newsweek and selecting each of the same problems as important. Specifically, when comparing the Newsweek's coverage of 12 international problems to Newsweek readers' agenda (as compared to non-readers, controlling for background factors), measured from the estimated effects of Newsweek readership and reliance on the selection of each of these problems, a modest positive but non significant rank-order correlation (r = 0.475) was found.
Date Issued:: 1994-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:: Africa Media Review

Description:: This study of the news content of the Zambia Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) proceeds from the assumption that 'a national broadcasting system reflects the milieu in which it operates, thus taking on the colour of the social, political, economic and cultural climate' of its locale. Thus, hypothesizing that in Zambia, the broadcasting system would fulfil the objectives set by the ruling party and the government, namely, building a humanist nation, liberation of Africa, promotion of world peace and justice, and adherence to the policy of non-alignment, the study confirms that, indeed, the ZBC fulfils these objectives in its world news coverage. However, it identifies such structural constraints as news sourcing, lack of funds and transport, and lack of professional skills among ZBC newsroom staff as the major factors inhibiting quality performance.
Date Issued:: 1989-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:: Africa Media Review

Description:: This baseline study of gatekeeping in the Nigerian press follows the tradition of White (1950) and Swider (1967) and reveals that as a concept, gatekeeping holds great promise in African mass communication research. It used a survey research method to collect data from 21 senior reporters and editors in four Nigerian newspapers and found that: (1) corporate philosophies and policies of newspaper organizations affect gatekeeping "operations without distinction as to whether the newspaper was privately or government owned; (2) journalists working in privately-owned newspapers reported giving less consideration to ownership factors in their selection of news; and (3) that prejudice and personal preferences are played down considerably by the journalists.
Date Issued:: 1990-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:: Africa Media Review

Description:: The contention of this paper is that it is possible, though demanding, to develop a new type of journalism which would lead to the democratization of public communication. Based on the normative framework of the ultimate dignity of the human being, the paper argues that the African mass media are an aberration from the African democratic tradition. It observes that the conventional rules applied in the selection and management of news are obstacles to democracy. It ends by suggesting some ways in which the situation may be changed to allow for the development of a more democratic form of journalism.
Date Issued:: 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Michigan State University. Libraries
Collection:: Africa Media Review

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