Newspaper Coverage of Corruption in Nigeria: Analysis of Daily Trust and Oberiri & Bdonima

Newspaper Coverage of Corruption in Nigeria: Analysis of Daily Trust and The Sun

Oberiri Destiny Apuke 1 Department of Mass Communication, Taraba State University, Jalingo, Nigeria [email protected]

Ndonima Danjuma Uhwe 2 Department of Mass Communication, Nigerian Army Institute of Technology and Environmental Studies, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria [email protected]

Abstract This paper examined selected newspapers (The Daily Sun and Daily Trust) coverage of corruption in Nigeria from 1st August 2018 to 1st August 2019. The focus was on the frequency of corruption stories, the prominence given to corruption stories, the type of the reports (news, features and editorial) of corruption articles and the manner the selected newspapers treat corruption-related stories (Full page, half page and one- quarter page). The study was anchored on Social Responsibility and Agenda Setting theory. The universe of the study was all editions of the Daily Trust and The Sun newspapers published between 1st August 2018 to 1st August 2019, which is 728 editions. One Hundred and Four editions were randomly selected. Data was collected using a coding sheet and analysed descriptively with SPSS version 25. Results showed that the newspapers selected reported eighty-two (82) stories on corruption of which 56.1% appeared on the front pages. Nevertheless, Daily Trust had more stories on the front page and inside pages than the Daily Sun. Overall, the selected newspapers paid significant attention to corruption coverage in Nigeria. However, 67.1% of the stories are straight news, and 70.7% are on half-page, and only 25.6% took a full page. This shows that though the stories were given prominence by appearing on the front pages of the selected papers, yet, the stories lacked in-depth treatment. This study recommends that newspapers, especially Daily Trust and The Sun should strengthen their depth of coverage and create room for more editorials, features and opinions on the subject matter.

Keywords: corruption; Daily Trust and The Sun newspaper; newspaper coverage; Nigeria; social responsibility theory.

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Introduction is evidence to show that corruption is a worldwide phenomenon (Kediehor et al., 2020), but it is more evident in developing nations, and its effects are profoundly felt in developing countries because limited resources meant for development are diverted to the accounts of the few persons thereby worsening the existing poor social conditions of the citizens (Olusheye, 2013). Consequently, every enlightened person blames corruption for the economic woes facing the country and for the negative image Nigeria has abroad (Olusheye, 2013). World acclaimed corruption watchdog “Transparency International” has severally ranked Nigeria among the most corrupt nations in the world (Nogara, 2009). Corruption manifests in different institutions of the society such as religious bodies, educational institutions, and sports organisations, among others (Olusheye, 2013). However, in Nigeria today, corruption is more prominent or associated with governance or politics. Hardly can one see any public or political office holder that does not have a corruption case levelled against him or her (Kediehor et al., 2020). A retrospective look at Nigeria’s political history from 1966 to date, according to Dike (2005) points to corruption as a reason put forward by the military for dabbling in Nigerian politics. For instance, the Shehu Shagari’s administration was overthrown by the military in 1983, respectively, based on claims that the governments were corrupt. However, the emergence of the military in politics in Nigeria has accelerated corruption within the governance in Nigeria (Dike, 2005). It is based on this that Ribadu (2006) opines that, the history of corruption in Nigeria is strongly rooted in the over 29 years of military rule. According to him, the various military regimes subdued the rule of law, facilitated the looting of the public treasury, prohibited free speech, and instituted a secret culture in the running of government business. Thus, during the military regime, corruption became the dominant guiding principle for running the affairs of the country. As such, he concluded that military regimes were worse than the civilian regimes as far as corruption is concerned. Apart from the abuse of human rights and growing acceptance of democracy as a system of government, the issue of corruption is the primary reason there were agitations in Nigeria to end a military regime (Nogara, 2009). These agitations became fruitful in 1999 when an election was held and former Military Head of State of Nigeria, General Olusegun Obasanjo became civilian Head of State (Olusheye, 2013). Seeing the pervasiveness of corruption in the country, Olusegun Obasanjo established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) with the aim of checkmating corrupt persons in government and private institutions as well as bringing them to book (Kediehor et al., 2020). The extent to which the government or any anti-corruption agency can succeed depends on the corporation of the mass media (Sowunmi, 2010). Supporting this claim, Sowunmi et al. (2010, p. 7) note that “a critical element of a country's anti-corruption programme is an effective media. The media have a dual role to play: it not only raises public awareness about corruption, its causes, consequences, and possible remedies but

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Newspaper Coverage of Corruption in Nigeria: Analysis of Daily Trust and The Sun Oberiri & Bdonima also investigates and reports incidences of corruption aiding other oversight (and prosecutorial) bodies”. The media, according to Asemah (2011) are agents of social change that can bring about positive attitudinal change in the audience (readers); they set the agenda for the people to follow in any society. The mass media are crucial to opinion formulation and eventual outcomes of events. The media are champions in the crusade against corruption (Bello et al., 2014), they act as the eyes, ears, and voices of the public, drawing rights often at considerable personal risk. Through their work, they can encourage governments and civil society organisations to effect change that will improve the quality of people's lives (Bello et al., 2014). The mass media, apart from informing, entertaining and educating their audience they also serve as a watchdog of the society (Apuke & Tunca, 2019). It is important to note that in contemporary times, the attention to corruption has shifted from pulpits and philosophers’ arenas to that of the media (Umam et al., 2020). Kediehor et al. (2020) concur that media coverage of corruption can help to fight the menace of corruption. For example, the extensive media coverage of corruption scandals in Italy and Germany involving high-ranking politicians resulted in the very legitimacy of the political parties and the political system as a whole being shaken and the conviction of several high-level politicians on bribery charges respectively (Splendore & Curini, 2020). In the Nigerian context, the print media has been reported to make a considerable effort in the fight against corruption (Fadairo et al., 2014). The Nigerian newspapers were very active in the fight for independence during colonialism (Demarest & Langer, 2018). The newspapers took part in the fight to return Nigeria to democratic governance after about thirty years of military rule (Apuke & Tunca, 2020). In all these struggles, the newspapers carried stories, editorials, special columns and other media content which has significantly exposed the weaknesses of colonialists and military regimes as well as to aroused the consciousness of citizens to stand against these systems (Demarest & Langer, 2018; Dike, 2005). Several studies have examined newspapers coverage of corruption issues in Nigeria (Edmond & Wilson, 2018; Bello et al., 2014; Fadairo et al., 2014; Halilu et al., 2013). A recent study carried out on media coverage of corruption in Nigeria focused on the anti-corruption campaigns by the Buhari administration in 2016 by Daily Trust and newspapers. This current study fills a gap in knowledge in respect of scope (period of study: 1st August 2018 to 1st August 2019) for the selected papers, especially, for Daily Trust newspaper that was examined in the previous study and to examine The Sun newspaper which has not featured in recent studies. The aim of the study is to examines The Daily Sun and Daily Trust Newspapers coverage of corruption issues from 1st August 2018 to 1st August 2019.

Research Questions The study is guided by the following research questions:

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Newspaper Coverage of Corruption in Nigeria: Analysis of Daily Trust and The Sun Oberiri & Bdonima

RQ1: What is the frequency of corruption stories published in the selected Nigerian newspapers? RQ2: What is the prominence given to corruption stories in the selected Nigerian newspapers? RQ3: What are the types (genre) of the reports (news, features and editorial) on corruption across the newspapers? RQ4: How do the selected newspapers treat (depth) corruption-related stories (full page, half page and one-quarter page)?

Literature Review This section reviewed past studies on newspaper coverage of corruption in Nigeria. The focus was on the frequency of media coverage of corruption, the prominence given to corruption stories, type of the reports (news, features and editorial) of corruption articles, and treatment of corruption-related stories (full page, half page and one-quarter page).

Coverage of corruption issues: How frequent? Bello et al. (2014) studied coverage of corruption issues by Nigerian Newspapers. They sampled two Nigerian Dailies – Daily Sun and New Nigerian for the period of one year – June 2013 and May 2014. At the end of the study, it was discovered that the newspapers did not fulfil their statutory responsibility of watchdogging the society. Also, the newspapers failed to give significant coverage to corruption stories compared to other stories like politics and the economy. In contrast, Edmond and Wilson (2018) found that issue of corruption was reported frequently by The Nation and Daily Trust newspapers. Similarly, Fedora et al. (2014) research found that between 2006 -2010, Tribune, The Nation and had a high frequency of coverage of corruption articles in the year 2010. Comparatively, the ranked first on the coverage of corruption articles with a total number of 381 (41.7%) articles. The subsequent section examines the prominence given to corruption cases in the Nigerian newspapers.

The Prominence Given to Corruption Stories Fedora et al. (2014) analysed coverage of corruption news by major newspapers in Nigeria over a period of 5 years (2006 - 2010). Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select three newspapers, namely Tribune, The Nation and The Guardian. A total of nine hundred and thirteen (913) corruption articles generated from the 540 issues were analysed in the study. The study found that, overall, prominence was given to inside page articles (87.4%) in all the three newspapers, however, the Guardian newspaper, reported the highest in the front page having 41.7%. The same study also found that politics/governance sector ranked first with a total of 522 news items accounting for 57.2% of the whole corruption stories. In contrast, agriculture, transport, and energy sectors occupied the lowest rung of the ladder. In addition,

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Newspaper Coverage of Corruption in Nigeria: Analysis of Daily Trust and The Sun Oberiri & Bdonima politics/governance sector had the highest level of prominence with a score of 654. The study concluded that there is an increase in the coverage of corruption articles by the media, but the articles are concentrated more on the inside pages of newspapers. Likewise, Edmond and Wilson (2018) study on The Nation and Daily Trust newspaper coverage of President Mohammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption campaigns found that reports on corruption were mainly found in the inside pages; and issues of corruption reported by selected dailies were mostly positive. The mass media cover topics of corruption in Nigeria adequately but need to give prominence to them. The study recommends that the mass media should engage in in-depth coverage and investigative journalism to uncover and expose corruption and not just rely on reporting happenings only. In the same vein, Halilu et al. (2014) examined the coverage of corruption issues by Daily Sun and New Nigerian Newspaper for the period of one year – June 2013 and May 2014. It was discovered that the newspapers did not fulfil their statutory responsibility of watchdogging the society. The coverage was not significant compared to other stories like politics and economy; prominence was also not given to the stories. It was also deduced that the stories are not in-depth as there was little investigation and follow- up enough to set precedence for public discourse. The study, therefore, suggests that the media embarks on massive sensitisation campaigns as well as intensive investigative reporting in order not only to expose corruption but to follow up the case to its logical prosecution. The two sections examined the types of news report and the treatment of corruption stories in the newspapers.

Types or Genre of News on Corruption Research that analysed coverage of corruption in Tribune, The Nation and The Guardian news from (2006 – 2010) found that the majority (76.7%) of the corruption articles fell in the news category with the Nigerian Tribune having 42.4% (Fedora et al., 2014). Similarly, Ekanem and Sobowale (2017) study on the anti-corruption promises and print media in Nigeria found that the media performed their primary roles of informing, teaching/educating, watching out for the good of the people with 53.4%, news stories published. The citizens were also provided with a platform – comments/opinions. Treatment of Corruption-Related Stories Fedora et al. (2014) study of the coverage of corruption across three media outlets Tribune, The Nation and The Guardian found that more than half (56.8%) of space allotted to corruption articles is one-quarter page while the Nigerian Tribune recorded the highest (61.4%) space allotment of a full page. Overall, the space allotment to corruption articles is small as most of these articles occupied one-quarter page of the newspapers. The works reviewed in this study demonstrate inconsistent and mixed findings. Even the most recent study carried out on media coverage of corruption in Nigeria only focused on the anti-corruption campaigns by the Buhari administration in 2016 (Edmond & Wilson, 2018), without examining the coverage of corruption cases.

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Therefore, the weaknesses of prior studies except Fedora et al. (2014), are their failure to extensively investigate how the media treat corruption cases (full page, half page and one-quarter page) and the types of news report (news, feature and editorial) that covers corruption the more. Though efforts have been made, yet, more focus has been on media frequency and prominence with least attempt to understand the depth of coverage of corruption cases in the Nigerian media. The only study (Fedora et al., 2014) which attempted to realise how the media treat corruption cases and types of news report (news, feature and editorial) that covers corruption was conducted years back with a time frame of 2006-2010. Firstly, it is necessary to have an update on the extent to which media is covering corruption cases in Nigeria beyond analysing anti-corruption campaigns. Secondly, it is also essential to have an update on how the media treat corruption cases (full page, half page and one-quarter page) and types of news report (news, feature and editorial) that covers corruption. Thirdly, it is imperative to address the conflicting findings of past research regarding the role of media in Nigeria. Fourthly, studying if Nigerian media have the depth of coverage in corruption cases will contribute to the growing body of research that has mostly examined the frequency and prominence. Moreover, using a different newspaper from the ones predominantly used by previous studies will provide different versions of reality. In this view, this current study fills the gaps mentioned above by investigating media coverage of corruption in Nigeria from 1st August 2018 to 1st August 2019, with a focus on Daily Trust and the Daily Sun. Specifically, the study examined the frequency of corruption stories, the prominence given to corruption stories and extends to examine the type of the reports (news, features and editorial) of corruption articles and the manner the selected newspapers treat corruption-related stories (full page, half page and one-quarter page).

Theoretical Framework This study is anchored on two theories: Agenda Setting and Social Responsibility. The Agenda Setting theory was proposed by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1972. The theory postulates that the media determine what issues should be considered more important by society (Asemah, 2011: 176). Folarin (1998: 68) notes that the agenda-setting theory suggests that the media predetermine what issues to consider. The media accomplish this through the frequency of reporting, the prominence given to the reports through headline display, pictures, and layout in newspapers, magazines, films, graphics or timing on radio and television. This theory is appropriate for this research because the study sets to investigate the frequency, treatment and prominence Nigerian newspapers allocate to corruption cases. The media approach to setting Agenda is usually imbedded in the number of times, the depth and prominence given to a subject of interest. The more the issue appears in the media, the more it becomes an issue of interest to the society. The Social Responsibility theory was propounded in the year 1963 by F.S. Siebert, T.B. Peterson and W. Schramm and it owes its origin to the Hutchins

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Newspaper Coverage of Corruption in Nigeria: Analysis of Daily Trust and The Sun Oberiri & Bdonima commission on freedom of the press, set up in the United states of America in 1947 to re- examine the concept of press freedom as enunciated in the libertarian or free press theory. According to the theory, the mass media have the freedom to carry out their activities without interference, however; such freedom is attached to responsibility. The theory lies within authoritarian and libertarian press theory. McQuail and Deuze (2020) state that, the major premise of the social responsibility theory is that freedom carries concomitant obligations and the press, which enjoys a privileged position under the government, is obliged to be responsible to society for carrying out certain essential functions of mass communication. These obligations are mainly to be met by setting high standards of information, truth, accuracy, objectivity, and balance. In accepting and applying these obligations, the media should be self-regulating within the framework of law and established institution. Critics of the Social Responsibility theory among other criticisms argue that under Social Responsibility philosophy, mass media may work autonomously but the government and other public organisations control certain sensitive aspect or information for selfish interest (Berns et al., 2020). Despite these critiques, the theory remains relevant in a discourse of reporting of corruption by Nigerian press. This is because the theory calls for responsibility on the part of the journalists and the media. It reminds the journalists that it is their responsibility to fight corruption in Nigeria without being biased but truthful, accurate and in-depth.

Method Research Design This study adopts quantitative content analysis as a research design. The content analysis method, according to Riffe et al. (2019), is a prescribed system which is systematic, objective and usually quantitative in the extraction of data from any form of communication. Keyton (2001) cited in Ekeanyanwu and Olaniyan (2010) affirms that content analysis is the most basic method of analysing message content. Hence, the design is appropriate for this study, which focuses on the evaluation of newspaper coverage of corruption in Nigeria.

Profile of Daily Trust Newspaper Daily Trust is a privately held Nigerian newspaper owned by a company known as Publishing Company based in Abuja. Media Trust publishes the English- Language version of Daily Trust, Weekly Trust, Sunday Trust, and the Hausa-Language Aminiya newspapers, as well as a new pan-African magazine, Kilimanjaro (Wikipedia.org). Daily Trust was launched in January 2001 and is the largest circulating print newspaper in Northern Nigeria. It is rated among the top seven in Nigeria in advertising revenue (nigeriandailynewspaper.com as cited by Jibril, 2015). Though Daily Trust is a national newspaper, it has been described as a pro-north newspaper because of its interest in the coverage of issues that affect the northern part of Nigeria. Profile of The Daily Sun Newspaper

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The Sun newspaper also known as Daily Sun is a private newspaper organisation founded and incorporated in the year 2001 but started operation in 2003. The paper was founded by former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu. The headquarters of the paper is in Lagos. As of 2011, the paper had a daily print of 130,000 copies and average sales of 80% (www.sunnewsonline.com). The paper is published under the auspices of the Daily Sun publishing limited and is always associated with hard news and bold headline (streamers). The Daily Sun is one of the leading national dailies today always associated with the interest of the south.

Research Universe Population comprises all conceivable elements, issues or observations that pertain to a peculiar phenomenon of interest to a research (Asika, 2005). In this study, the population consists of the editions of the two Nigerian newspapers, namely: Daily Trust and the Daily Sun published within twelve months (1st August 2018 to 1st August 2019). This period was selected because evidence has shown that corruption cases in Nigeria intensified (Okafor, 2020). It is thus imperative to understand how the sampled newspapers championed the fight against corruption. The total population of this study is 728 editions based on the fact that the sampled newspapers published daily. These papers were chosen because of their national coverage, perceived popularity, and availability. The newspapers were also selected to reflect the north/south dichotomy in the country (Gever & Essien, 2019)

Sample Size and Sampling Technique The sample size for this study is 104 related articles randomly selected within the period (1st August 2018 to 1st August 2019). To select the articles from the sampled newspapers, a constructed week sampling was used, which is a type of Stratified Simple Random sampling techniques in media studies (Luke et al., 2011). One edition of Daily Trust and Daily Sun for each week were selected. To arrive at the editions, numbers were assigned for each day of the week as Sunday–1, Monday–2, Tuesday–3, Wednesday–4 Thursday–5, Friday–6 and Saturday–7 and the numbers were placed in a container labelled as the day container. The one-year timeframe (1st August 2018 to 1st August 2019) constitutes approximately 52 weeks. The 52 weeks were numbered 1–52 and placed in another container, labelled as the week container. Then, the researchers randomly picked a number from the week container and a number from the day container 52 times for each newspaper. As a result, a total of 104 editions was randomly selected. The final editions used for analysis are reported in the analysis section of this study

Unit of Analysis and Content Categories The unit of analysis were news stories, editorials, and feature articles. Content categories are: the divisions into which the units of analysis that was content analysed are grouped. Categories in any research must be relevant to the subject of the study and

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Newspaper Coverage of Corruption in Nigeria: Analysis of Daily Trust and The Sun Oberiri & Bdonima must be mutually exclusive and exhaustive (Apuke & Tunca, 2019). Content categories were analysed with regards to the frequency of coverage, prominence, type of the reports, treatment of corruption-related stories. Frequency refers to the number of corruption stories that appeared in the sampled newspapers. Prominence relates to the part of the newspaper in which corruption stories appear. The stories could appear on the front page, back page or inside page. Type of reports on corruption across the newspapers entails the category of reports. This was determined by checking if the corruption stories appear as news, editorial, or feature. The study used this as part of the criteria for checking the depth of media coverage (investigative power of a particular media) because it has been shown that editorial and feature stories provide a more in- depth explanation to a phenomenon than news stories (Fadairo et al., 2014). Treatment of corruption cases refers to the amount of space an issue is given in a publication. In other words, page dimension such as one-quarter page, half page and full page.

Method of Data Collection and Analysis Data was collected using the coding sheet. SPSS version 25, was used to analyse the data using descriptive statistics to include percentages, mean and standard deviation. While, the comparison between the media outlets were achieved via Chi-square, set at 0.05 statistical significance. Results are presented in the form of frequency tables.

Inter-Coder Reliability Inter-coder reliability refers to the levels of agreement among independent coders who code the same content using the same instrument (Wimmer & Dominick, 2011). A research assistant was selected to code the same content independently using the same instrument while conducting the study. The Holsti’s formula of calculating co-efficient of reliability, to measure percent agreement was used to establish inter- coder reliability; the scores were between 0.86 and 0.89. The scores are all above the threshold of +. 85 across all categories; suggesting reliable coder measurement for the present study. Hoslti’s formula is 2A / (Na+Nb), ‘2’ indicates the number of coders; ‘A’ represents the number of agreements or decisions made on each content category by coders while ‘Na’ and ‘Nb’ stand for the number of units (stories) analysed by each coder

Findings The study randomly selected 104 editions from a total of 728 editions. Daily Trust and Daily Sun had 52 editions each (See Table 1). Of the 104 editions randomly selected, 82 related articles from these editions were identified for analysis. Therefore, 22 editions were discarded because they did not contain corruption cases; thus, any edition without corruption cases was not used for the final analysis (See Table 2). The editions without corruption articles are indications that there are days that there are gaps.

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Newspaper Coverage of Corruption in Nigeria: Analysis of Daily Trust and The Sun Oberiri & Bdonima

Table 1: Summary of selected editions Newspaper Total number of editions Percentage (%) Daily Sun 52 50% Daily Trust 52 50% Total 104 100 Source: Content Analysis, 2019

Table 2: Summary of selected editions with and without stories on corruption Newspaper Stories with corruption Stories without corruption issues Daily Sun 39 13 Daily Trust 43 9 Total 104 100 Source: Content Analysis, 2019 Since this study focuses on coverage of corruption, subsequent tables would work with only stories that carry issues of corruption in Nigeria. The data presented below covers Daily Sun and Daily Trust frequency of coverage, the prominence given to stories and depth of stories related to corruption in Nigeria from 1st August 2018 to 1st August 2019. Table 3: Frequency of corruption articles in selected newspapers Newspaper Frequency Percentage (%) Daily Sun 39 48 Daily Trust 43 52 Total 82 100 Source: Content Analysis, 2019

Drawing from the data in Table 3, a Chi-square test showed no significant difference with regards to the frequency of coverage related to corruption articles in the two selected newspapers under study χ2 (1, N=82) = 72.000, p > 0.05. However, it was observed that Daily Trust slightly reported more stories (M = 1.53, SD = 0.50) than the Daily Sun newspaper (M = 1.47, SD = 0.50). Overall, the selected newspapers reported eighty-two (82) stories on corruption, in which The Daily Sun newspaper had 48% while Daily Trust had 52% corruption-related stories.

Table 4: Prominence of corruption-related stories in the selected newspapers Placement Daily Trust Daily Sun Frequency Percentage (%) Frontpage 25 (58.1%) 21 (53.8%) 46 56.1 Inside page 14 (32.6%) 12 (30.8%) 26 31.7 Back page 4 (9.3%) 6 (15.4%) 10 12.2 Total 43 39 82 100 Source: Content Analysis, 2019

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The data in Table 4 above shows the prominence given to the coverage of corruption in Nigeria by the selected newspapers. The results of the Chi-square test suggest no significant difference in the placement of stories across the newspapers χ2 (2, N=82) = 11.187, p > 0.05. Nevertheless, Daily Trust had more stories on the front pages and inside pages (M = 1.64, SD = 0.79) than the Daily Sun (M = 1.53, SD = 0.50). Precisely, 55.8% and 32.6% of the stories appeared on the front and inside page of the Daily Trust Newspaper respectively, contrasting the 53.8% and 30.8% stories on corruption that appeared on the front and inside pages of the Daily Sun newspaper. Furthermore, stories about corruption in Nigeria on the back pages of the two selected newspapers are 15.4% for Daily Sun and 9.3% for Daily Trust.

Table 5: Type of reports on corruption across the newspapers Category Daily Daily Sun Frequency Percentage Trust (%) News 29 26 (66.7%) 55 67.1 (67.4%) Feature 7 (16.3%) 8 (22.2%) 15 18.3 Editorial 7 (16.3%) 5 (12.8%) 12 14.6 Total 43 39 82 100 Source: Content Analysis, 2019

A Chi-square computation of the data in Table 5 above showed no significant difference with regards to the nature of the report (also regarded as the categories of corruption articles that were reported by the newspapers) across the newspapers within the study time frame χ2 (2, N=82) = 2.114, p > 0.05. However, it was observed that out of the 43 stories in the Daily Trust newspaper, 67.4% appeared as news, 16.3% feature and 16.3% editorial. While in the Daily Sun newspaper, 66.7% appeared as news, 22.2% as a feature and 16.3% as editorial. Table 6: Treatment of corruption-related stories in the selected newspapers Placement Daily Trust Daily Sun Frequency Percentage (%) One quarter-page 1 (2.3%) 2 (5.1%) 3 3.7 Half-page 33 (76.7%) 25 (64.1%) 58 70.7 Full page 9 (20.9%) 12 (30.8%) 21 25.6 Total 43 39 82 100 Source: Content Analysis, 2019

Results from the Chi-square demonstrate no significant difference in the treatment given to stories of corruption in Nigeria χ2 (2, N=82) = 1.674, p > 0.05. Yet, results showed a slight difference between the two selected newspapers. Daily Trust had 2.3%, 76.7% and 20.9% of its stories on the one-quarter page, half page and full page respectively.

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While the Daily Sun newspaper had 5.1%, 64.1% and 30.8% of its stories in one-quarter page, half page and full page respectively (See Table 6).

Discussion of Findings This paper intends to realise how Nigerian newspapers covered corruption cases. The study selected two national dailies; Daily Trust and Daily Sun newspaper. Results showed no difference across the two selected newspapers in terms of frequency of reports on corruption, the prominence given to the stories and treatment of the stories. Overall, the selected newspapers gave significant attention to the coverage of corruption; however, Daily Trust slightly reported more stories (M = 1.53, SD = 0.50) than the Daily Sun newspaper (M = 1.47, SD = 0.50). Daily Trust covered 52% of the corruption stories within the time frame of this study, while the Daily Sun newspaper had 48% of the stories. This slight difference could be because of their geographical readership. While the Daily Trust is largely read in the north, the Daily Sun is widely read in the south. Therefore, considering that President Buhari is from the north, the Daily Trust is championing his fight against corruption. From this result, it is argued that the selected newspapers are setting the agenda for the campaign against corruption in the country. This is a welcomed development considering the fact that, most newspapers are private organisations and likely to be driven by advertisement rather than stories that might not generate funds for them. With this development, it means the papers, to some extent, are serving as the watchdog of the society. Therefore, this outcome supports the agenda-setting theory. It also concurs with the assertion of McQuail (2010) who explained that the media’s consistent reporting of an issue set agenda for public discourses and stimulate policies and actions that might bring about change. This is in line with the statement made by Ayobami (2011), which specified that by reporting on corruption or shedding light on the wrongdoings of public office holders and corporate executives alike, the media in any society helps anti-corruption agencies and government to tackle or minimise abuse of office by government officials. On the prominence accorded to report about corruption, the study found that 56.1% of the reports of the two selected newspapers appeared on the front page of the newspapers. However, Daily Trust had more stories on the front page and inside pages (M = 1.64, SD = 0.79) than the Daily Sun (M = 1.53, SD = 0.50). Generally, the newspapers gave high prominence to issues of corruption. This finding disagrees with the findings of Fadairo et al. (2014) which suggested that most at times people read just the front and back pages and may not necessarily go through the inside pages where stories on important issues like corruption are concentrated. To them, corruption stories on Nigeria newspapers are buried in the inside pages of newspaper rather than the front page. This shows that there is significant growth in the level of importance newspapers give to corruption stories now than before. On the treatment given to corruption stories, this study found that 67.1% of the stories were straight news and 70.7% were on half-page. Only 25.6% took a full page.

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This implies that though the stories were given prominence by appearing on the front pages of the selected newspapers, the stories are not given in-depth treatment or details and analysis to enable readers to understand the event and issues. This supports the findings of Bello et al. (2014) who earlier found that corruption stories in Nigeria press are not in-depth and lack follow-up, hence audience do not know the conclusion of most corruption cases in the country. Similarly, Fadairo et al. (2014) found that the manner, newspapers report corruption in Nigeria does not provide the needed knowledge the public needs to understand the development clearly. According to them, corruption is often accompanied by catchy headline or screamers but lacking in facts and proper interpretation. According to the social responsibility theory, the media have the freedom to carry out their activities without interference, however; such freedom is attached to responsibility. Therefore, journalists and the media organisation should be socially responsible to fight corruption in Nigeria without being biased. They should be truthful, accurate and in-depth in their reportage to enable the masses get a full grasp of the situation surrounding corrupt practices. This is not the case in Nigeria, as seen in this current study, the selected newspapers are more into straight news than in-depth stories like editorial and features.

Conclusion This paper concludes that newspapers in Nigeria are still important tools in the war against corruption. They have continued to give some attention to issues of corruption, thus, in a way setting agenda for civil societies and anti-corruption agencies to act appropriately. However, they are yet to provide the audience with in-depth reportage of corruption issues as most of their stories are straight news and mostly on half-page.

Recommendations This paper recommends that the Nigerian newspapers especially the Daily Trust and The Sun should strengthen their depth of coverage and give more room for editorials, features and opinions to provide detailed analysis of corruption cases.

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Kediehor, C., Williams, A., Ohikhena, P., & Robert, E. (2020). The mass media, whistle blowing laws, and corruption in Nigeria. International Journal of Recent Innovations in Academic Research, 4(2), 1-13. Nogara, M. (2009). Role of media in curbing corruption: the case of Uganda under President Yoweri K. Museveni during the “no-party” system. DESA Working Paper No. 72 Norris, P. & Odugbemi, S. (2010). Assessing the Extent to Which the News Media Act as watchdogs, Agenda Setters and Gatekeepers. In Public Sentinel. News Media and Governance Reform, edited by Pippa Norris, 379-394. World Bank: Washington McQuail, D. (2010). McQuail's mass communication theory. SAGE publications. McQuail, D., & Deuze, M. (2020). McQuail’s Media and Mass Communication Theory. SAGE Publications Limited. Okafor, O. N., Opara, M., & Adebisi, F. (2020). Whistleblowing and the fight against corruption and fraud in Nigeria: perceptions of anti-corruption agents (ACAs). Crime, Law and Social Change, 73(2), 115-132. Olusheye E. H. (2013). Corruption in Nigerian society. http://www.cacworldwide.net Ribadu, N. (2006). Nigeria’s struggle with corruption. US congressional House Committee on International Development, Washington DC 15TH May. Riffe, D., Lacy, S., Fico, F., & Watson, B. (2019). Analysing media messages: Using quantitative content analysis in research. Routledge. Sowunmi, F. A., Raufu, A. A., Oketokun, F. O., Salako, M. A., & Usifoh, O. O. (2010). The role of media in curbing corruption in Nigeria. Research Journal of Information Technology, 2(1), 7-23. Splendore, S., & Curini, L. (2020). Proximity between citizens and journalists as a determinant of trust in the media. An Application to Italy. Journalism Studies, 1- 19. Umam, A. K., Whitehouse, G., Head, B., & Adil Khan, M. (2020). Addressing corruption in post-Suharto Indonesia: The Role of the Corruption Eradication Commission. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 50(1), 125-143. Wimmer, R.D., & Dominick, J.R. (2011). Mass media research: An introduction (9th ed.). Wadsworth.

Author(s) Oberiri Destiny Apuke is a lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, Taraba State University, Jalingo, Nigeria. His research interests include online journalism, social media, gender studies, conflict studies, and political communication.

Ndonima Danjuma Uhwe is a lecturer with the Department of Mass Communication, Nigerian Army Institute of Technology and Environmental Studies Makurdi. Her research interests include public relations and political communication

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