NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS – PARTICULARS, CHARACTERISTICS

NIGHTENGALE BEN-ONYEUKWU

NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS

– PARTICULARS, CHARACTERISTICS

INTRODUCTION / DEFINITION

        Alozie (2005:28) gave a detailed history of the development of newspapers in Nigeria in his book, “Nigeria Mass Media History, Issue and Personalities”.

        Today, there are over 400 daily, bi-weekly weekly and fortnightly newspapers in Nigeria. Among the surviving older newspapers in the country today are the Daily Times established in 1926, the Tribune (1949) and the New Nigeria (1966).

        By definition, Sandman, et al (1976:260)in Okunna (1999:43) stress that a newspaper is “an unbound, printed publication issued at regular intervals, which presents information in words, often supplemented with pictures”. In the words of Okunna (1999:43), the great importance of the newspaper as a mass medium derives from its role as a carrier of current information or news. This is a role which the newspaper has played from its very inception.

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS

        Nigerian Newspapers hardly vary their name plates. They remain at the same positions unlike in advanced countries where they can be changed or alternated from side to side.

The newspaper has undergone a lot of changes to appear if the form in which it does today. Modern scholars still agree that, to be a true newspaper, a publication should have a set of characteristics which the German scholar, Otto Groth put forward more than seventy years in 1928. These characteristics include the following:

·        A newspaper must be published periodically at regular intervals; these intervals should not be less than once a week.

·        It must be mechanically reproduce.

·        It must be timely.

·        It must offer freedom of access to all renders, that is, it must be available to everyone who can afford the cover price.

·        Its content must vary to include everything that could be of interest to every member of the society. That is, the content must not be aimed at any select group in the society.

1.     LARGE HEADLINES

        Most Nigerian Newspapers use large headlines of up to 72 points or more and at times give captions that can mislead the audience. Large headlines are cast purposely to index the news i.e. to tell readers the value of news. They are also expected to serve as a guide to readers about the seriousness and significance of the news. Apart from providing some display, headlines sell a newspaper and denote its character.

2.     BANNER HEADLINES

        A banner headline runs across the entire columns and is used to introduce very important news of national or international concern. At present, most of the Nigerian Newspapers resort to banner headlines for very import stories.

3.     ADVERTISEMENTS

        Nigerian Newspapers carry a lot of advertisements even on pages where they are not supposed to carry advertisements. In many cases, there are more advertisements especially congratulatory message to politicians and captains of industry on their birthdays, chieftaincy titles or honorary award ceremonies than other stories.

SIZE AND VOLUME

        There are two types of Newspapers tabloid and broadsheet. The broadsheet is also called standard Newspaper. Uyo (1987:9) explains that tabloids are those newspapers whose size is approximately 12 x 16 inches, with five or seven columns; broadsheet, on the other hand, are much larger, measuring approximately 14 x 22 inches, with six or seven columns. From this description, it can be dearly seen that most newspapers in Nigeria are tabloids.

        In terms of volume, most Nigerian newspapers have significantly increased their volumes as a result of additional materials available to them for publication. In the 1970s and 1980s, the most voluminous newspaper in Nigeria was the Daily Times, which used to have up to 48 pages as a result of its many advertisements especially obituaries. Others used to have a maximum of 16-32 pages. At present, their pages range from 48 to 80 pages depending on the materials they have for publication.

They also publish “bumper editions during special occasions.

FRONT PAGE EDITORIAL

        The front page commentaries are caption as “editorial” continued” from the front page” (OPED) columns, a double spread page where editorials, opinion articles, letters to the editor and editorial cartoons are usually placed on regular basis.

MEDIA THEORY

        Nigeria is a democratic nation and as such, her press adopts the social responsibility theory of the mass media which demands press freedom with accountability to the society. The Nigerian Press, despite all limitations and odds is so far the freest in Africa, the social responsibility theory originated in the United States in 1987 from the Hutchins Commission Report on a free and responsible press. The enquiry by this commission became necessary because the press was not behaving the way it was expected to behave.

        Historically, the press had abused the extreme freedom which it had been enjoying throughout the centuries when the libertarian theory held sway. By the twentieth century, the press had become irresponsible and the victim of a number of negative practices which culminated in yellow journalism, characterized by sensationalism, irresponsibility and character assassination. Consequently the time, was ripe for the birth of a theory of a free but responsible press, in place of the free press theory. This new theory was the social responsibility theory of the press. Okunna (1995:26) clearly explains, ethics generally is concerned with the standards of good and bad conduct in society. She emphasizes that “ethics is self-legislation as opposed to official or government legislation through outside compulsion, which is characteristic of law”.

        At the other extreme from self-regulation is government control. It has already been emphasized that the guiding principle of the social responsibility theory is that the press should be restrained, by either itself or by the government, to ensure responsibility by journalists. As a mechanism for restraining the press, government control is usually extended in a democratic society through a variety of laws. These include law of defamation (which incorporates sedition as part of libel? Privacy, copyright; official secrets etc because they can be enforced by government and its agencies which can convict and punish journalists, laws are highly restrictive for the press.

SUMMARY

        From the background history or the Nigerian press as presented by Alozie (2005) and other media scholars. It is certain that the Nigerian press especially the print media though comparably young in global terms, is by African standard and oldest and richest in tradition, pluralism and development.   From Iwe Irohin in (1859) and Anglo Africa in 1863 to African messenger (now Daily times) in 1922 and West African pilot over 400 newspapers on its stable and has continued to grow.

THE NIGERIAN PRESS AND THE INTERNET

        The internet project started in the United States of America by the department of Defence (DARPP) as ‘Resource sharing computer network” in 1969 to provide a system for exchanging military base. It started as a simple network of four computers connected and called ARPANET by 1984 up to one thousand 1000 computers were connected. In 1989, the worldwide web (w.w.w) was developed as a striking feature of the network by 1994 and was called the internet.

        According to Okoye (2000:192) by 1999, the “internet used by an estimated 50 million people worldwide. Since the internet is able to provide information on sound, video and text, it became possible to use it for newspapering – internet publishing.

        Today, many Nigeria papers (e.g The Guardian and The Punch) display their daily editions on the Internet. The Internet in particular has contributed immensely in improving the capacity of the Nigerian mass media to inform and educate their numerous audience. The internet technology, from all indications has placed the Nigerian press at the forefront of many of its counterparts in Africa and other developing nations which are not as viable as Nigeria due to socio-economic reasons.

REFERENCES

Onyeka, U. (2005), Media Writing and Reporting, Afrika link limited Owerri – Enugu, Abuja – Onitsha-Ibadan.

Alozie, V. O. (2005) The Print Media: Newspaper And Magazine Production, Editing, Graphics And Organization, Pilvic Communication, Owerri, Nigeria.

Okunna (1994) Introduction to Mass Communication, New Generation Ventures Limited, Enugu.