General Introduction
This report covers the monitoring of 12 national newspapers, 9 regional newspapers, 4 online media and 3 social media platforms. Accordingly, it is divided into four sections.
The twelve newspapers are Daily Sun, The Nation, National Mirror, Vanguard, The Punch, ThisDay, Daily Independent, The Guardian, Nigerian Tribune, Daily Champion, Leadership and Daily Trust.
The nine regional newspapers are Nigerian Chronicle, Daily Star, Nigerian Observer, Nigerian Pilot, Abuja Inquirer, Peoples’ Daily, Blueprint, Gleaner and Desert Herald. The four online media are Sahara Reporters, Premium Times, The Cable and The Tide.
The social media platforms are Enough-is-Enough Nigeria, Reclaim Niaija and INEC. (It should be noted that only the twitter accounts of the social media platforms were monitored).
Section A: The national newspapers
General summary of findings on reporting of issues
As shown in the table below, the 12 national newspapers published a total number of 6,047 relevant reports in the month of January, 2015.
Vanguard led the pack, having published the highest number of 891 relevant reports, representing 14.5% of the total published reports. The Nation came second, having published 844 reports, or 13.7%; Daily Trust came third, with 767 reports, or 12.4% of the total items; this was followed by Daily Sun, 660 reports (10.7%); The Guardian, 604 reports (10%); National Mirror, 432 reports (7%); Leadership, 419 reports, representing 7%; ThisDay, 398 reports, or 6.4%; Daily Independent, 389 reports, or 6.3%; The Punch, 318 reports, or 5%; Nigerian Tribune, 308 reports, representing 5%; and Daily Champion, 110 reports or 2%.
Summary of findings in terms of sources:
A total of 7,018 sources were explored by all the national dailies under review. Vanguard had the highest number of 952 sources, representing 13.5% of the total number of sources; The Nation used 823 sources, or 12%; followed by Daily Trust which had 772 sources, or 11%; Daily Sun also used 763, or approximately 11%; The Guardian had 717 sources representing 10.2%; Leadership, 580, representing 8.2% and ThisDay, 569, (8.1%). National Mirror had 7.1%, or 501sources; Daily Independent had 466 or 6.6%; The Punch had 385 sources representing 5.4%; Nigerian Tribune, 375 or 5.3%; and Daily Champion had 115 sources which represented 1.6% of the total sources.
Frequency of use of political parties as sources
Of the 28 registered political parties as published on the INEC website, 15 came up as sources in the national dailies under review in a frequency of 1,226 times. Leadership used political parties’ as sources 211 times representing 17.2%. This was followed by Daily Trust with 151 political party-sources, representing 12.3%; The Guardian used 150 political party-sources, or 12,2%; Daily Sun, 133, or 11%; ThisDay, 100, representing 8.1%; Daily Independent, 97 times, or 8%; The Vanguard, 95, or 8%; Nigerian Tribune, 84, or 6.8%; The Punch, 79, or 6.4%; The Nation, 62, 5%; National Mirror, 50, or 4% and Daily Champion, 14, or 1%.
Further analysis shows that, of the total number of 1,226 political parties sources mentioned in all the national dailies being reviewed, APC had the greatest slot, having been mentioned 580 times, representing 47.3%; PDP, was mentioned 464 times, or 37.8%; APGA came up 47 times, representing 4%; LP, 46 times, or 3.7%; UPN, 29 times, or 2.3%; AP and PPA were each mentioned 7 times, or 0.5%; ADC came up 4 times, representing 0.3%; AA, HDP and KOWA parties were each mentioned 2 times, representing 0.1%. PPN was mentioned once.
Frequency of gender as sources
Of the total 7,018 sources used by the national dailies under review, 95 or 1.3% of these constituted Female politicians’ voices, while Male politicians’ had 2,979 or 42.4% voices projected within the period. “Other” sources accounted for 56.3%.
Out of the 2,555 politician-sources used in the national dailies in January, survey reveals that Daily Sun and The Guardian projected female politicians the most, each having used them as sources 17 times, representing 0.6%; ThisDay projected them 10 times, representing 0.3%; The Nation, 9 times or 0.3%; Vanguard and Nigerian Tribune each with a frequency of 8 times, representing 0.3%; Leadership , 7, or 0.2%; Daily Trust, 6, or 0.2%; National Mirror, 5 or 0.1%; while Daily Independent and Daily Champion had 3 each or 0.1%.
Frequency of other sources
Apart from political party and politician, a total of 2,746 ‘Other’ sources were used by all the national dailies in January.
These are Civil Society (SOCS), Experts (SOEX), Media (SOME), Electoral Management Body (SOEM), Youths (SOYO) and People-Living-With-Disabilities (SOPL) and Ordinary Citizens (SOOC).
EMB: Electoral Management Body was projected 311 times. Daily Independent featured the EMB the most by using it as source 51 times; The Nation featured EMB 42 times while National Mirror and The Punch each projected the EMB 38 times. For Daily Trust, EMB came up 33 times; The Guardian, 32 times; each of Vanguard and ThisDay used it 23 times; Nigerian Tribune, 15 times; Daily Sun, 13, and Daily Champion, 3 times. Leadership did not use the EMB as sources at all.
ORDINARY CITIZENS: Ordinary Citizens’ voices were projected 516 times. Daily Trust projected Ordinary Citizens the most by doing so 84 times while The Nation followed, having used Ordinary Citizens 83 times. In Vanguard, Ordinary Citizens came up 72 times; in Daily Sun, it was 70 times; in The Guardian, 51 times; in ThisDay, 49 times; Nigerian Tribune, 28 times; The Punch, 27 times; Daily Independent and Leadership, 12 times each and Daily Champion, 11times.
MEDIA AS OWN SOURCE: Analysis showed that Media sources were used 948 times; Civil Society sources, 424 times; Experts sources, 460 times. YOUTH AND PWDs AS SOURCES: Youths were used 72 times, while People-Living-With Disabilities were used 15 times.
Conflict sensitivity
CSEW: Early warning 129 reports on Early Warning signal were published in January. Leadership published the highest number of 73 reports. The Nation came next with 17 reports; Vanguard had 15 reports; Daily Independent, 6 reports; Daily Sun and National Mirror, 4 reports each; ThisDay and Daily Trust 3, The Guardian, 2 reports; Nigerian Tribune and Daily Champion published 1 report each.
CSSH: Sensational Headline: Six sensational headlines were documented. ThisDay published three of them while Leadership, Daily Trust and The Nation published one each.
Observed sensational headlines in the national dailies
• APC Presidential Candidate is a Fundamentalist- Clark (Thisday, Jan. 17th, 2015)
• Jonathan Represents Light and Buhari Represents Darkness. (Thisday, Jan. 8th, 2015, front page)
• 2015 Presidential Elections. Ex-Militants Meet, threaten war (Daily Trust, January 25, 2015, front page)
• Dr. Doyin Okupe: ’Instead of Buhari to become President of Nigeria, Nigeria would rather break’, (Leadership, January 19, 2015, page19.)
• Niger Delta Militants Threaten War If Jonathan Loses-Boyloaf, Militant Leader (The Punch, Jan. 25, 2015, Page 5)
• Tompolo insists Nigerian will break if Jonathan loses. (The Nation, Jan. 30, 2015, front page
Language & Hate Speech LAHS:
No hate speech was used during the period.
LAIN: Incitement
Of the 11 items which constituted incitement, Vanguard published 3 reports while each of Daily Sun, The Nation and Daily Trust published 2. Leadership and Nigerian Tribune published 1 each.
Observed inciting reports
Buhari can never be president of Nigeria; instead of Buhari to become president, Nigeria will rather break-Doyin Okupe (The Nation, Jan. 18, 2015, Page 6)
…We are going to war. Everyone should go and fortify yourself -Asari Dokubo (The Nation, Jan. 29, 2015, Page 17)
…APC, Buhari behind attack on Jonathan in Katsina- (Vanguard, Jan. 22, 2015, Page 8)
…APC insisted it will form a parallel government if elections are rigged. (Vanguard, Jan. 5, 2015, Page 1)
…APC promised ‘civil disobedient’ and ‘parallel government’ if Jonathan emerged winner. (Vanguard, Jan. 6, 2015, Page 29)
-Dr.DoyinOkupe: ’Instead of Buhari to become President of Nigeria, Nigeria would rather break’. (Leadership, January 19, 2015.Page19)
…Buhari is senile; Nigeria can’t afford another Yar’Adua experience-Fayose (Nigerian Tribune, Jan. 18, 2015)
To be continued tomorrow