Specialized Reporting In Nigeria: Strengths, Weaknesses and a Problematic Understanding

Abstract

Beat reporting in Nigeria grew from the early 1980’s, onto the 90’s and onwards. It was out of an attempt to perfect news reporting, by encouraging specialization amongst reporters. This paper analyses the expansion of the trend, from when, particularly, private newspapers were established, up until the coming of online journalism, reasoning that while the private media organisations gave further meaning to the practice, the public media had earlier engaged in it through only a concentration on government departments. It noted the evolution of sundry beats in the county’s journalism space as including Ports, Judiciary, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Information Technology, Crime, Science, Health, Technology, Travel and Tourism, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Business, Police Affairs, Energy, Politics, Transport, Sports, City, Education, Culture, Religion, Aviation, Oil and Gas, amongst others, arguing that while the outlining of these beats were concerted attempts at improving the quality of news reports, and the coverage of different sectors of society, there are still more definition of beats to be done. And beyond that is the need for the beats to be understood as news sources rather than income sources, as the profession grapples with differentiated levels of perversions, mediocrity, and corruption.