Reportage of Global Economic-Meltdown Issues in Selected Nigerian Newspapers
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The media has been described by Marshall A1cLuhan as "extensions of man"
meaning that the media is capable of extending the ability of individuals to
communicate, to speak to distant relations, to hear messages. and to view images
made available on~v with the media. They also facilitate various effects- shortterm,
intermediate-term, and long-term effects- on audiences. The short-term
objectives include the exposure of audiences to global economic meltdown issues,
the creation of knowledge and awareness, etc. The aforementioned plus attitude
and behaviour changes as well as social norm perceptions fall under intermediateterm
objectives. All of the tasks above including the concentrated restructuring of
perceived social norms and maintenance of behaviour change are incorporated
into long-term objectives. Journalists can only report financial crisis issues ji-om
an informed perspective when there is a connection between them and financial
institutions/establishments. where complex meltdown issues are broken down.
Nigerians, in the absence of qccurate theoretical framings resulting from
insufficient economic research by the print media, may have their
understanding/knowledge of economic issues constrained (and thereby distorted).
It has become a necessity to study financial reports in the media critically because
of the double-edged Sl'vordform the media take, disseminating both harmless and
harmful messages. This paper highlights the reportage ofglobal economic meltdown
issues in selected Nigerian newspapers. Global economic meltdown issues
were 16.8% (i.e. 162) of the 967 news items analyzed in the Guardian while they
were 22.1% (i.e. 274) of the 1242 news items analyzed in the Punch. Global
economic meltdown issues were least reported as at May (9. 9%) and June (6. 9%)
in the Guardian and the Punch respectively whereas both newspapers had the
highest coverage of financial crisis issues in Janumy (22.2%) and March (24 .5%)
respectil ·e~v. i'vfost of the reports in the Guardian camefrom unidentified sources
Keywords
HE Transportation and Communications