Newspapers’ compliance with the code of election coverage of the 2015 elections and citizens participation : implication for journalism education and professionalism
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Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd P. 0. Box43418 London, UK SE114XZ
Abstract
Description
The election period is a period where the newspaper is to show professionalism, social responsibility and
act ethically in the dissemination of news to its readers. To enforce this, the Nigerian media code of election
coverage was established. This study therefore was carried out to examine the newspaper coverage of the
2015 presidential election and its compliance with the section 2 of the Nigerian media code of election
coverage using the two major newspapers in Nigeria, The Punch and The Guardian. This study was
anchored on the Social responsibility theory, an ethical theory which stipulates that an
individual/Institution/organiz ation is accountable for fulfilling civic duty and that the actions of this
individual/institution/organization must benefit the whole society. This includes ensuring that news
published to the public during the election process is done with accuracy, balance and fairness. This study
adopted the quantitative content analysis as the research method and the instruments of data collection
was the coding sheet. The results gotten indicated that there was 80% level of compliance with the code of
election coverage in the area of accuracy and fairness, but work still need to be done in the area of balance
and citizen’s participation in the election using the newspaper as a medium. The study therefore
recommends among others that the newspaper should work on being balance when publishing news
stories concerning political parties/candidates and also ensure that the columns that feature the views of
the citizens are always available in every issue during the election period so as to increase the level of
citizen participation.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General)