Media In Development A Study Of The Guardian And Vanguard Newspapers Coverage Of The Power Sector Reform In Nigeria (from 1st October 2013 - 31st April 2014)

This study explores and analyze the various roles the Nigerian newspapers, with specificreferenceto the Guardian and the Vanguard newspapers played in the process of governmentderegulating the power sector by emphasizing the nature of coverage the newspapers gave to thereform. Areas covered in this work include background to the study, review of related literatures.However, the Development Media theory and the Agenda setting theory underpinned this studycreating further explanation with regards to prominence the newspapers gave to the deregulationreform in the power. The systemic sampled days technique was used to select Fifty Four editionswhich formed the sampled size for both newspapers (that is, Twenty Seven selected editions foreach newspaper) were content analyzed. Interviews were conducted with ten respondents whoare audience to the sampled newspapers. Findings of the research revealed that the deregulationof the power sector reform is the most emphasized deregulation subject matter in the samplednewspapers. The sources of information which the sampled newspapers used in acquiringinformation on stories they publish on deregulation of the power sector reform were mostlyacquired from events and happening with regards to the deregulation reform in the power sector.It was also discovered that the degree of prominence the newspapers accorded to deregulation ofthe power sector news is relatively low as stories they published on the power sector reformhardly feature on very important pages of the newspapers such as the editorial, front, back orbusiness pages of the sampled newspapers. The study also revealed that the newspapers observedthe investigative journalism role but in a minimal standard as a result of which factorsprohibiting the deregulation reform in the power sector to succeed were not intricately identified.Finally, the research advocates that Nigerian newspapers should pay more attention todevelopment issues by setting more agendas on developmental issues and also, they shoulddiversify their information sources by adopting multi-faced sources rather than over dependingon one information source. The study also suggest that the Nigerian newspapers should developa serious attitude toward the watchdog role by monitoring progress of developmental projectsand report to the public when those in charge are not living up to their responsibilities in order toexhibit their investigative journalism duty.

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism