Anti-corruption Promises and Print Media: The Case of Nigeria

Assertions are held widely that the mass media play an important role in ensuring that an elected government fulfills its campaign promises. This paper examines the reaction of the Nigerian government headed by Goodluck Jonathan to corrupt practices and media’s response to that reaction. Newspaper reports of the alleged corrupt purchase of two bullet proof vehicles by a senior government official are used as a test case of the Jonathan’s promise to stamp out corruption. Content analysis was adopted to generate data for the study. Results show that government’s promise was not fulfilled, as public office holders emphasized the mundane aspect of corruption as a strategy to distract citizens’ attention from the real issue of corruption eradication. The citizens’ hope that the government would prosecute suspected corrupt officials, as reported by the media, was short-lived

Intervening Factors in Conflicts between Oil Companies and Host Communities in Nigeria's Niger Delta Region

The degree of violence in the Niger Delta has become endemic, characterized by 33 cases of kidnapping recorded between January 2006 and February 2007, with more than 200 victims, mostly expatriate oil workers. There were also about 12,770 cases of vandalism, particularly of pipelines and installations, recorded between 2000 and 2007, with most of them occurring in the Niger Delta. The implications of the Niger Delta crises are too far-reaching to be ignored. For the inhabitants of the area, there are constant environmental hazards and security threats, while for the Nigerian government, over Wl50.5bn in revenue was lost in eight years; there was also a drop of more than 20% in oil exports between April 2006 and October 2007. The concern of the study was to investigate the intervening factors in the conflicts between oil companies and host communities in the Niger Delta. The population for this study comprised indigenes of Omoku and Obrikom communities in Rivers State and Eruemukohwarien, Tisun and Kolokolo communities in Delta State. Both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (focus group discussion) methods of data collection were employed. The findings revealed that not all the communities studied were involved in company-community conflicts. The study also shows several factors that determined whether or not there were conflicts in the communities, such as the oil companies being perceived as representing the government, political undertone and the communities' bid to attract attention among others

Multinational oil companies' channels of communication and conflict resolution in the Niger Delta

This empirical study explores the communication channels adopted by Shell, Chevron and Agip for conflict resolution in five communities in the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta is one of the volatile areas in Nigeria due to conflicts between various oil companies and host communities, resulting in several cases of kidnapping, vandalism of pipel ines and install ations, and insecurity of I ives and propetties. The oi I companies' direct operations in the communities have directly exposed them to physical risks. Also, considering that host communities hold oil companies responsible for violating their natural environment and destroying their livelihood through the exploration process, oi l companies automatically become a major target. The concer~f the study, therefore, is to investigate the communication channels that the host communities identify as being used by the oil companies for conflict resolution in the Niger Delta. The populati on for this study comprises indigenes of Omoku and Obrikom in Rivers State and Eruemukohwarien, Tisun and Kolokolo communities in Delta State. A quantitative method of data collection (survey) was employed. The findings revealed that the respondents perceived Chevron as the oil company that was least involved in conflicts in their communities, and this was related to the balanced communication channels used by the compan

Patterns of Media Usage among Students in Privately-owned Universities in South-West, Nigeria

Communication sustains the modem society. Mass media are public carriers of messages to heterogeneous audiences, including university students and they allow students to express themselves as well as acquire knowledge. This paper examines the contemporary patterns of media use among students in five private universities in Nigeria. Media use indicates the various ways students employ the media to meet their different needs for information, entertainment and education. The survey research design was adopted with the questionnaire as the major instrument administered among respondents drawn from privately-owned universities in SouthWest Nigeria. It was found that students are media literate with the skills to navigate through different media platforms. However, most of the respondents preferred new media to the traditional media of newspapers, magazines, radio, television and films. Respondents access the Internet mostly through their mobile phones, and mainly for entertainment purpose. It is therefore suggested that more creators of media messages targeting this group should put them online, especially on the social media

THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR: MEASURING ADOLESCENTS MEDIA LITERACY AND ALCOHOL DRINKING EXPECTANCIES

Alcohol advertising appeals to young people through humor, animation, bright colors and music; it tends to reinforce the link between drinking and socialization and being accepted by peers, which are important concerns for adolescents. Nonetheless, studies suggest that even a single media literacy intervention can help children and adolescents understand the persuasive appeals of tobacco and alcohol advertising messages and make a difference in their intention to use tobacco and alcohol, at least in the short-term. However, despite the accumulating research on impacts of alcohol advertising content on youth and the several studies that have explored media literacy intervention indifferent context, with numerous findings focusing on the influence of media literacy on decision making towards extant behaviors among adolescents, there was a need to quantitatively model within a Nigerian context if media literacy significantly alters adolescents drinking expectancies and which component of media literacy significantly alters these drinking expectancies. Hence, this study employing a Solomon-four experimental research design within the context of the theory of planned behavior and the media literacy framework examined the alcohol expectancies of media literate and illiterate adolescents. Using a sample size of 860 adolescents in Lagos State, the researcher hypothesized that there is no significant difference between alcohol expectancies of media literate and illiterate adolescents towards alcohol and alcohol consumption. Secondly, that there is no significant difference in the level of alteration caused by the various components of media literacy among media literates of same and different ages. The findings of the study revealed the component of media literacy framework that significantly alters adolescents’ drinking expectancies as well as the strength and direction of each media literacy component as they relate with adolescents drinking expectancies. Implications of the findings are discusse

GIRLS AND ICTS ORIENTATION

Female illiteracy, especially in the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), has been identified by several scholars as a major social problem in developing countries such as Nigeria.This situation has caught the attention of various governmental and non-governmental organizations such as UNESCO, UNICEF and concerned parents and individuals. The interventions and support brought in by these organizations and individuals have been of immense help as parents now see the need to allow their girl-child exposure to education, especially in the rural areas. However, the access,acquisition and expertise of the girl-child in the area of ICT are still limited. This paper, therefore,intends to look at this problem from the perspective of the Nigerian parent, a representative of government, a representative of an NGO working in this area, teachers in all facets of education, a sociologist and a psychologist. The worry of parents not wanting to expose their children, particularly girl children, to TV (foreign media fare), and in particular the Internet (over which they have no control), because of their supposed corrupting influences will also be examined. Incidentally, ICT promises to increase the girl-child’s access to quality education and quality development in a world that is fast becoming digital. Lack of exposure to or inadequate knowledge of ICT would not stand the girl-child in a good stead to compete favorably with her boy-child counterpart in an economy that is dominated by science and technology. This paper would also look at the strategies that have been put in place to checkmate child-online abuse which has become a major concern for parents and regulatory frameworks, regarding girl-child’s use of the internet and the benefits of ICT on the girl-child development; it would also serve to enlighten parents on the opportunities their girls stand to get when they become ICT savvy. The challenges to curricular designers are to fashion a mechanism for counter-balancing the threat to cultural values with the overwhelming advantages of ICT; and to convince parents that the benefits of the ICT far outweigh the fears of cultural pollution. A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) involving parents, NGOs working in this area and teachers in post primary and tertiary institutions will be the pivot around which the study will revolve

The Influence of the Audience’s Disposition towards Web Adverts on Product Awareness and Patronage

This study investigates how the audience views online advertisements and the implication of this for the interest and patronage of the products advertised. The upsurge of the use of the Internet in Nigeria has inspired several online businesses. This is not surprising since businesses must move to where the customers are. The increased activities and time spent online by Internet users has also made the virtual space an appealing platform for advertisements. So alluring is the Internet that businesses that are not online also attempt to use web advertisements to pull customers to their physical shops. However, the audience may not be as receptive to these adverts as most businesses may expect. In fact, some Internet users tend to consider web advertisements as nuisances. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to find out the extent of audience’s exposure to web advertisements, audience’s disposition towards the advertisements, and how this disposition influences audience’s attitude towards the product being advertised. The survey design was adopted with a sample size of 279 respondents. Analysis of the data suggests that not only were the respondents exposed to online adverts, they had a positive disposition towards the adverts and that influenced their purchasing decisio

THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR: MEASURING ADOLESCENTS MEDIA LITERACY AND ALCOHOL DRINKING EXPECTANCIES

Despite the accumulating research on effects of alcohol advertising content on youths and the several studies that have explored media literacy intervention in different contexts, there is still a need to quantitatively model if media literacy significantly alters adolescents drinking expectancies and which component of media literacy significantly alters these drinking expectancies. To achieve this objective, the Solomon-four experimental research design was applied within the context of the theory of planned behaviour and the media literacy framework to examine the alcohol expectancies of media literate and illiterate adolescents. With a sample size of 860 adolescents in Lagos State, the paper hypothesized that there is no significant difference in the level of alteration caused by the various components of media literacy to the drinking expectancies of media literates and illiterates. The findings of the study revealed that there is a significant difference between media literacy treated and untreated adolescents; however, media literacy appears to exert a paradoxical effect on the drinking expectancies of adolescents. Based on this, the paper recommends that the operational media literacy framework as presented and used in Primark (2006) to be revisited and modified to avoid conflicting outcomes and that media literacy could be adopted as one of the ways to reduce alcohol drinking expectancy in youths.KEY WORDS: Drinking expectancies, Media literacy, Adolescents, Alcohol advertising, Planned behaviour