THE INFLUENCE OF GEOPOLITICAL AFFILIATIONS ON NEWSPAPERS' COVERAGE OF NATIONAL ISSUES

ETIM ANIM

ABSTRACT Many scholars have asserted that societies greatly influence the operations and functions of the media that operate within those societies. On the basis of the postulations, critical theory of mass communication holds that such media operations and functions would indeed reflect the agenda of the power elite in any society. These postulations formed the basis of this study. Five Nigerian national newspapers (, , the Daily Trust, the and the Daily Champion) were content analysed tofind out if their coverage of the decision by Nigeria's President Obasanjo to contest the 2003 presidential election was influenced by their relationships with the six geopolitical zones of the country. The study showed that the coverage by these newspapers was significantly influenced by their geopolitical affiliations.

INTRODUCTION These scholars indeed point to the Critical theorists of mass agenda-setting function of the mass communication have asserted that a media as being consistent with this nation's mass media generally reflect viewpoint because "the so-called the views of those who hold economic agenda consist of the dominant and political power. Berkowitz (1997), perspectives, which, in practical terms, for instance, argues that when media translate to the agenda of the ruling communication is viewed as the elite" (Griffin, 2000, p. 377). product of unspoken cultural values Contemporary agenda-setting theorists and beliefs by which a people manage seem, in fact, to have come round to their lives, it is plausible to conclude this position. No longer do they posit that journalistic products such as that the press is only "stunningly news, features, opinions, and successful in telling its readers what to investigative reports tend to reflect the think about," now they agree that it has preferences of the dominant power become successful in telling people structures of the particular society. what to think. They assert that through According to Hall (cited by Griffin, the process offraming: 2000), The media not only set The mass media in their the agenda for what practices and functions impose this issues, events, or dominant ideology on the rest of candidates are most society. important, but they

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also transfer the effects are not total. The salience of specific broadcast and print media attributes belonging to present a variety of ideas, those potential objects but then they tend to prop of interest (Griffin, up the status quo by 2000: 366). privileging the already He defmes a media frame as "the accepted interpretation of central organising idea for news reality. The result is that content that supplies a context and the role of mass media suggests what the issue is through the turns out to be the use of selection, emphasis, exclusion, "production of consent" and elaboration" (p.366). rather than a "reflection of In other words, there is a clear consensus" that already interactive relationship between the exists (Griffin, 2000, p. mass media and their operational 340). environment. McQuail (2005) reviews a number of models that point to the This is to say that though there inter-twining relationship between might not always be a determined, mass communication and the total life policy-based decision to serve the of a national society. He places them agenda of the power elite, the modus under the rubric of the "dominant operandi and the ingredients of media media" model, which suggests that operations inexorably lead the media mass functions and output are strongly into functioning to promote these influenced by the immediate powerful segments of every national circumstances of political culture and community. The choice of content historical events. The dominant media analysis as the research method for model "rests very much on the idea that this study was partly informed by this the media offer a view of the world, a concept of hegemony, for, as Babbie substitute or pseudo-environment, (1992, p. 312) observes, it helps us "to which is a potent manipulation of learn about human behaviour by people, but also an aid to their psychic observing what people inadvertently survival under difficult conditions" leave behind" through writing and (McQuail,2005, p. 94). other documents. The Critical Theory, based on THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK the dominant media model, was, These assertions informed the therefore, chosen for this study theoretical framework for this study. because, as will be shown in the Hall (1973, 1977, 1989) characterises section, the views of the dominant media functions in these power structure (the elites) almost circumstances as hegemony. always passes for the views of the people, especially in the political Hegemony is not a domain. Though the theory goes back conscious plot, it is not to the Frankfurt School, spearheaded overtly coercive, and the by Theodor Ardono and Max

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Horkheimer, it has been most forcefully the press pre-dated British colonialism promoted by Stuart Hall, the and, therefore, -state itself. arrowhead of the Birmingham School. After all, Iwe lrohin, generally accepted The work of the Birmingham School as the first secular Nigerian has been "a major influence firstly in newspaper, began publication in 1859, the study of popular culture and about two years before the annexation secondly in the development of critical of by the British (Hachten, 1971; cultural studies" McQuail, 2005, p. Uya, 1991). Many newspapers were to 549). follow, founded on an agenda that established the reputation for BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY nationalistic and uncompromising The media in a multi-ethnic journalism. This nationalist press society like Nigeria would most likely agitated for the improvement of the lot reflect the views and ideologies of the of the Africans by publicising African dominant power elites in the various grievances and criticising the colonial ethnic formations. Nigeria's social, rulers. Then, it became embroiled in economic and political environments the struggle for independence are particularly intriguing for the (Coleman, 1958; Hachten, 1971; functions of the press. As any nation Ekwelie, 1985). plagued by nationality and language Press historians thus usually divisions will testify, the functions of attribute the strength of the pre- the mass media are constrained, independence press to the struggle inhibited or encouraged by the against British colonialism. As parameters of political and economic Ugboajah (1980, p. 16) notes, "Press decision-making. Opubor (1985, p. history in Nigeria also serves as a 192)has observed that: history of Nigerian nationalism. The editor and the nationalist were one and The fortunes of the mass the same." However, once media and the uses to which independence was assured, a subtle they are employed, their shift began from militant nationalism behaviour and achievement to internal political struggles among are intimately bound up with rival regional groups. This tendency to social issues, political and defend sectional interests has more or legislative considerations and less continued to be a feature of the factors of human psychology press community though in a different quite outside the confines of garb. To put it another way, the the normal conception of what national and cultural diversity of the the mass media are. country impinges greatly on the operations and performance of the It is historically accurate to state print media as on most areas of that generally, the Nigerian press has national life served the country well. In the colonial Like many a national press, the days, it championed the cause of Nigerian press has the desire to guide national self-determination. Indeed, people, consciously or unconsciously,

An interdisciplinary Journal of Communication Studies 4 ETIMANIM into seeing national issues from There were different views on the perspectives that are beneficial not President's performance in his first only to the nation but also to specific term (1999 2003). In the build-up to interests within the nation, among the 2003 presidential election, an them, the interests of the geopolitical increasingly loud collective voice had groups with which the newspapers are arisen, even within the People's associated. In other words, national Democratic Party, which said he had newspapers will most likely report and failed the country and should not seek present issues and arguments in a way another term. The threat by the that is favourable to the geopolitical National Assembly, in which the PDP region from which they derive their had a vast majority, to impeach the legitimacy. Ugboajah (1980) shows, for President in early 2003, came hard on example, how, in covering the the heels of his decision to run for a controversial 1973 national census, second term, and provided even more "the , representing the opportunities for opponents of his southern constituency whose second-term bid to voice their views population decreased, manifested anti- with impunity. government behaviour on the issue; whereas the New Nigerian, PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE representing the northern states whose STUDY population increased, was neutral, editorially speaking" (1980, p. 37). The purpose of the study was to This study examined five major find out to what extent geopolitical Nigerian newspapers, namely, The affiliations influenced the five national Guardian, the Daily Times, The Punch, newspapers in their coverage of that the Champion, and the Daily Trust, and decision by President Obasanjo to seek how they covered a major national re-election on the PDP ticket. The issue. The issue chosen for study was concept of geopolitical affiliation in the the decision of President Olusegun study was based on the grouping of the Obasanjo in 2002 to seek the ticket of country into six geopolitical zones: the People's Democratic Party (PDP)to South-East, South-South, South- contest the 2003 presidential election. West, North-East, North-West and The President's decision to contest the North-Central. election did not only involve the private Studies by Udoakah (1998) and troubles of an individual politician, but Anirn (2004) suggest that strong. it also had implications for the social, regional groupings have played more economic and political well being of decisive roles in recent nation-wide Nigerians. As Hale (1990, p. 5) notes, political affairs than ethnic affiliation "Troubles stem from private matters or individual state interests. This that lie within an individual's study, therefore, set out to establish character. Issues, on the contrary, go whether the newspapers' coverage of beyond the personal, local setting, to the President's decision reflected the broader social forces that affect the life currents of political information, experiences ofmany people." opinions and sentiments in the various

International Journal of Communication No. 6 May, 2007 5 ETIMANIM parts of the country with which the METHOD 0, STUDY newspapers were associated. The re~earcher used content In selecting the newspapers, then, analysis to examine the newspapers the followingassumptions were made: coverage. The universe of the study was * The Times represented both the made up of all newspapers published In interests of the federal the country from February 1 to June government and, to some extent, 30,2002. Of course, to study all issues a South-West perspective of Nigerian newspapers publisl1~d * The PUNCH represented the during that period was impracticable. interests ofthe South West The practical route was to select a * Trust represented the interests representative sample of the of the three northern population. This was done by stratified geopolitical zones sampling, which was based on well- * The Guardian represented the defined criteria: The newspapers interests ofthe South-South selected were daily, circulated 15, 000 * The Champion represented the to 100,000 copies and over, and were interests ofthe South East. registered with the Ne~spape~s Proprietors Association of Nigena The study covered a period of (NPAN). fivemonths, from February 1 June 30, Also, as noted earlier, the 2002. This period covered the weeks geopolitical zones of origin of the major before the President announced his shareholders or proprietors of the decision, which constituted the period newspapers were taken into of greatest apprehension for the public. consideration. For the purpose of the It was during this period that 19 state study, the weekend papers were governors, some ministers and political treated as editions of the daily press. party officials went to the President's Though they are usually scanty in news country home to "plead" with him to and editorial comments, the weekend seek re-election in 2003, an event papers are heavy in features, signed which ignited nationwide controversy. opinions, and interviews, which allow Also, the President finally made the views and facts to be more fully declaration of his intention to seek re- explored. election on April 24, 2002. The weeks At this point, it is important to following that decision led up to May draw attention to the selection of the 29, the third anniversary of the Daily Trust, because a legitimate issue Obasanjo administration and of the may be raised about the selection of coun try's return to democratic only one newspaper to represent the government. It was to be expected that three Northern geopolitical zones. First the weeks after the anniversary of all, two of the zones (North-East and celebration would also generate news, North-West) had no daily newspaper at views and comments on the President's the time which met the researcher's performance and his decision. selection criteria. Besides, political leaders in the Northern states still tend

An interdisciplinary Journal of'Communication Studies 6 ETlMANIM to speak with one voice on major political issues, either under the METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION auspices of Arewa Consultative Forum The following content areas of or the Northern Elders· Forum. the five newspapers were analysed: Newspapers operating out of the North news, editorial comments, signed have tended to follow this cue. Since opinions (included opinion articles, the study was on an overtly political columns and interviews), letters to the issue, the fact that there was no editor, editorial cartoons, and features. newspaper representing each of the The collection and analysis of data three northern geopolitical zones was, required the construction of a category therefore, not considered a significant system and establishing a unit of factor. Aboveall, the Trust newspapers analysis. (daily and week-end) were nationally circulated. CONSTRUCTION OF CATEGORIES Subsequently, the researcher The researcher constructed a adopted systematic sampling to select category system to meet the specific the specific issues that were eventually needs of the study. Because the issue analysed. A sample of 750 emerged, under study was the influence of which produced a sample size of 150 geopolitical affiliation on newspaper per newspaper. Thirty issues were then coverage .•.. the category was selected to represent the population for considerably elaborate in order to each newspaper. present various options, which would enable a clear, unambiguous picture to RESEARCH HYPOTHESES emerge. One of the crucial criteria for The study was guided by two category construction is that it must be research hypotheses. These were exhaustive. This means, as Wimmer tested, using the chi-square test of and Dominick (2000: 145) assert, significance. "There must be an existing slot into 1. In their coverage of which every unit of analysis can be political and controversial national placed." The following categories were issues, Nigerian newspapers are likely designed to measure the coverage to be influenced by the dominant views inclination of the newspapers in terms of the geopolitical groups to which they of their geopolitical affiliations: oweallegiance. national interest, regional interest, ethnic prejudice, and state interest. 2. A national issue These were used perceived by a newspaper to be detrimental to the interests of the UNITS OF ANALYSIS geopolitical grouping to which it owes In addition, units of analysis are allegiance will receive more crucial to successful content analysis. unfavourable than favourable coverage So in the study, every news story, in that newspaper. editorial comment, opinion article, cartoon, letter and feature article, and

International Journal of Communication No. 6 May, 2007 7 ETIMANIM interview was considered a unit of faults, it was regarded as neutral. analysis. 'these are universally accepted media content areas, which CODING OF CONTENT provided the researcher with clear-cut The selected issues of the parameters for coding and left little newspapers were examined page by room for confusion. page to identify all news stories, feature articles, editorial comments, letters to DIRECTION OF COVERAGE the editor, opinion articles, signed The direction of coverage was columns, interviews and cartoons that also measured. There are three made reference to President Obasanjo's perspectives of direction: favourable, decision to contest the 2003 unfavourable and neutral. (Some presidential election. researchers prefer positive, negative At the end, 135 news stories, 40 and neutral). feature articles, one editorial comment, 100 opinions and seven cartoons were FAVOURABLE identified. That is, the papers This denoted any of the selected published 283 editorial items between items that suggested, advocated, gave February 1 and June 30, ·2002 on the impression or stated explicitly that President Obasanjo's decision to President Obasanjo should be re- contest the 2003 presidential election elected, that he had been a good (SeeTable I). president or had performed well. To ensure that the agreement between the coders did not occur by UNFAVOURABlE chance, the entries coded were This described any suggestion, subjected to an intercoder reliability statement or advocacy that the test, using Scott's pi index. The President had failed the nation, that he intercoder reliability coefficients had not performed well, that he should ranged from .75 to .89. not be re-elected, or that he was insensitive to the people's suffering. Table 1: Distribution of all editorial items published by the selected NEUTRAL newspapers Items regarded as neutral were Content Areas Newspapers Total equivocal with regard to President The Times Trust Guardian Punch Champion Obasanjo's decision to contest the News 20 12 22 39 32 135 election. For example, if an item gave Features 1 1 20 6 12 40 the bverall impression implied that he Editorial 1 0 0 0 0 1 had performed badly but that was Opinions 9 38 20 11 22 100 Cartoons because he inherited a bad situation, or 0 3 0 1 3 7 TOTAL 31 64 62 57 69 283 had the same right as other Nigerians to contest any election despite his many

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Table 2: Coverage Inclination of the of-the-road. However, when these data Selected Newspapers (Figures in were juxtaposed on the data from the bracket indicate percentages) regional interest category, a more definitive picture emerged. The ClItegoriff Times Trust Guardian Punch Champion The regional interest data Satioullatertst 23(19) 17(14) 25(21) 32(27) 21(18) 118 showed the following trend: the lI.egionallaterelt 9(6) 44(29) 35(23) 35(23) 46(30) 153 Champion: 46 (30%); the Trust: 44 State.IDlellst 0(0) 1(16.7) 0(0) 0(0) 1(16.7) 6 (29%); The Guardian: 35 (23%); The Etbaic Prejudice 9(0) 2(33.3) 2(33.3) 2(33.3) 0(0) 6 PUNCH 19 (12%), and the Times: 9 TOTAL 32 64 62 57 68 283 (6%). The Champion and the Trust, which recorded the lowest percentages Table 3: Direction of Coverage be under national interest, recorded the selected Newspapers (Figures in highest, 30% and 29% respectively, on bracket indicate percentages) the regional interest index; The

Newspaper Favourite Unfavourable Neutral Total Guardian's 23% was also higher than Times 21(20.8) 8(5) 3(5.1) 32 the 21% it recorded under the national Trust \2(11.8) 45(28.6) 7(12) 64 interest category. The 12% recorded by The PUNCH Tbe Guudiaa 16(15.8) 33(21) 9(36) 58 and the 6% recorded by the Times were the lowest scores in the PU:-lCH 31(30.6) 22(14) 4(16) 57 regional interest category, reflecting Champion 2(20.8) 49(31.2) 2(8) 72 their pro-Obasanjo tendency. TOTAL \01 157 25 283

ANALYSIS OF DATA DIRECTION OF COVERAGE Direction of coverage shows the COVERAGE INCLINATION nature of the items published with Table 2 shows the Coverage Inclination regard to their favourability or of the newspapers for all editorial otherwise. From Table 3, it can be seen that all the items published by the five items. The data show that 118 items newspapers recorded a total of 101 were classified under national interest. (36%) favourable ratings, 157 (55%) Out of this, The PUNCH recorded 32 unfavourable, and 25 (9%) neutral. A (2.1%), The Guardian: 25 (21%); the look at the individual newspapers, Times: 23 (19%); Champion: 21 (18%); presented an even clearer picture. and the Trust: 17 (14%). The PUNCH Based on the total of 101 favourable thus led the pack with a score of 27% responses, The PUNCH recorded 31 followedby The Guardian: 21%; Times; items (30. 6%); the Times: 21 (20.8%); 19%; the Champion: 18%, and the the Champion: 21 (20.8%); The Trust: 14%. On the basis of the Guardian: 16 (15.8%);and the Trust: 12 operational definition of national (1l.8%). interest, this meant that The PUNCH and the Times were strongly supportive The unfavourable scores ofthe President's decision, whereas the showed the following trend. The Trust and the Champion were not, while Champion recorded the highest score The Guardian appeared to be middle- of 49 items (31.2%); the Trust: 45

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(28.6%); The Guardian: 33 (21%); The TESTING OF HYPOTHESES PUNCH: 22 (14%), and the Times: 8 Based on the data presented, there was (5%). On the neutral scale, the no doubt that the newspapers were following trend emerged: The overwhelmingly inclined towards the Guardian: 9 (36%); the Trust: 7 (28%); dominant points of view in the The PUNCH: 4 (16%); the Times: 3 geopolitical blocs to which they owed (12%); Champion: 2 (8%). Since the allegiance. These dominant viewpoints newspapers scored very high in either were assumed from the public the favourable or the unfavourable indices, it was no surprise that they statements made and positions taken recorded correspondingly low scores by political leaders and umbrella on the neutral scale. organisations representing these With regard to the Direction of individual zones, which the researcher Coverage, the Times and The PUNCH meticulously documented as a guide for were very close to each other. The the study as well as for the coders. Times scored higher (20.8%) on the With regard to Coverage favourable than on the unfavourable Inclination, the entries in the regional scale (5%). The PUNCH scored 30.6% interest category far outweighed favourable and 14% unfavourable national interest in Trust and respectively. The same trend was Champion, and marginally so in The evident under Coverage Inclination. Guardian. The national interest In sum, the Champion category worked in reverse published the highest number of interpretation to support the case for editorial items that reflected an regional interest in respect of The unfavourable disposition towards the PUNCH and the Times. In other words, President's decision to contest the The PUNCH and the Times were election. The Trust came next; The positively inclined towards the South- Guardian followed, and then came The West geopolitical region in supporting PUNCH and the Times. The the President's decision to contest the percentages on the neutral scale were election. as low as the favourable and In Direction of Coverage, the unfavourable were high, which can be Trust, The Guardian and the Champion interpreted as the unequivocal disposition of the newspapers clearly published more unfavourable towards President Obasanjo's than favourable items on their pages. decision to contest the 2003 election. Taken together, the five newspapers In other words, depending on where recorded 101 favourable entries. Out of the newspapers identify with in terms this, The PUNCH and the Times alone of geopolitical affiliation, they felt recorded 52, compared with 49 for the strongly for or against the President's other three newspapers put together. decision to contest that election. The five recorded 157 unfavourable, out of which the Trust, the Champion, and The Guardian recorded 127.

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On the basis oflogic, as Stempel chi-square value from the data on (1989) observes, the researcher must Coverage Inclination was 32.01. conclude that the coverage was greatly This value was compared with the influenced by regional interest rather chi-square value in the Chi-square than national interest, and that it was Table at a probability level of p ~ o. 05 more unfavourable than favourable. and 4 degrees of freedom (dj). This However,because the study was based showed a value of 9. 48. Since the on sampling, it was necessary to computed chi square value of 32.01 subject the data to a statistical test of was larger than this value, it had to be significance, using the chi-square test. concluded that the difference was real, The issue was to find out not by chance. Therefore, the null whether the results (greater influence hypothesis was rejected and the of regional interest than national research hypothesis maintained. interest and more unfavourable than The same procedure was used to favourable coverage) were real or compute the chi-square value for data possibly due to sampling error. The on the Direction of Coverage. The question to answer then was: Did the obtained chi-square total value was 42. researcher observe a real difference or a 89. The Chi-square Table showed that chance difference? at 4 df and p ~ 0.05 probability level, For the statistical test of the chi-square value is 9.48. Since the significance, the hypotheses were obtained value was larger, this showed presented in the null form. It was that the difference between necessary, first, to find the chi-square unfavourable and favourable was real for the data on Coverage Inclination and not a chance difference. The null regarding the weights of national hypothesis was, therefore, rejected and interest and regional interest. For the the research hypothesis retained. computation of chi-square value based on the results yielded by the data from CONCLUSION the fivenewspapers, a 5-by-2 table was The data from the study showed constructed. The formula used fJr the conclusively that in their coverage, the computation is as follows: newspapers reflected the dominant 2 X = ~ (fafe)2 views of the geopolitical zones with Fe which they were associated. Both by Where X2is the chi square, fa is the the evidence from the data and the observed (or actual) frequency in each statistical test of significance, the cell of the table, f, is the expected value Trust, The Guardian, and the Champion reflected the views prevalent for each cell and ~ indicates that the in the Northern, South-South and values for all cells are summed to equal South-East geopolitical zones at the the overall value of chi square. Total time. That is, that each of the zones

International Journal of Communication No. 6 May, 2007 11 ETIMANIM would have preferred a presidential Unpublished PhD Dissertation of candidate other than President the University ofUyo. Obasanjo in the 2003 presidential election. Berkowitz, Dan (1990). "Refining the By the same logic, though entered Gatekeeping Metaphor for Local under the national interest category Television News." In Berkowitz, (based on the operational definitions of Dan. Social Meanings of News: A the categories), The PUNCH and the Text Reader. Thousand Oaks, Cal: SAGEPublications, 1997. Times showed that they preferred the incumbent President, from the South- DeFleur, M. L. and S. Ball-Rockeach West geopolitical zone, to contest (1975).Theories of Mass again. The data thus supported the Communication, Third Edition. hypothesis, which posited that, in their NewYork: Longman. coverage of political and controversial national issues, Nigerian newspapers Griffin, Em. (2000). A First Look at are likely to be influenced by the Communication Theory, Fourth dominant views of the geopolitical Edition. NewYork: McGraw-Hill. groups to which they owe allegiance. There also was more unfavourable Hale, Sylvia M. (1990). Controversies in than favourable coverage. The line was Sociology. Toronto: Copp Clark so clearly drawn that the neutral PitmanLtd. classification in the Direction of Coverage was only 9% of the entire Hall, Stuart (1977). "Culture, the Media coverage. There is usually little room and the 'Ideological Effect'." In for sitting on the fence among partisan James Curran, Michael Gurevitch supporters. This study showed that the and Janet Woollacott. Mass sides were taken very unequivocally. Communication and Society. This clear-cut Direction of Coverage London: Edward Arnold. supported the second hypothesis that a national issue perceived by a McQuail, Denis (1990). Mass newspaper to be detrimental to the Communication Theory: An dominant interests of the geopolitical Introduction, Second Edition. group to which it owes allegiance will Beverly Hills, CA: Sage receive more unfavourable than Publications. favourable coverage in that newspaper. McQuail, Denis (2005). McQuail's Mass REFERENCES Communication Theory, Fifth Edition. London: Sage Publications. Anim, Etim James K. (2004). Newspapers Coverage of President Opubor, Alfred (1985). "Public Obasanjo's Decision to Contest the Communication Policies and the 2003 Presidential Election. Mass Media in the New Nigeria." In

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International Journal of' Communication No. 6 May, 2007