Nigerian Press Coverage of the 2015 Elections: What has Ownership Got to Do with It?

Abstract

If ownership can make a critical difference in media coverage of issues, then the interesting spectacle in Nigeria where new wave of politicians now establish media houses should result in distinctive journalistic patterns in salient areas especially in the coverage of political events. This study was therefore aimed at examining how four Nigerian newspapers with two ownership structures covered the 2015 elections in Nigeria. The Vanguard and The Guardian newspapers (owned by businessmen) and The Sun and The Nation newspapers (owned by politicians) were analysed. The scope of the study was between December 2014 to April 2015, and 6398 stories were got from 92 copies of the four dailies. Findings indicated that newspapers owned by politicians were guided by the political interest of their financiers while newspapers owned by businessmen were neutral in the coverage of the 2015 elections. This study confirms Altschull’s (1984) theory of media ownership and therefore concludes that media products reflect the preferences of the dominant power structures.

Keywords: Nigerian press, Coverage, 2015 elections, Ownership structure, Media ownership.