The Role of Media Ethics on News Reporting
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of The Study
- To examine the various media ethics that apply to news reporting.
- To determine the role media ethics plays on news reporting.
- To determine if these ethics are being followed by contemporary journalists.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Nigerian Media Landscape
In Nigeria there are public (Government owned) and private media houses. Totally, there are 233 government-owned radio and TV stations in Nigeria. Government stations are either owned by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) or by the 36 state governments. NTA belongs to the Federal Government and was established in April 1, 1976 through the retroactive Decree. No. 24 of 1977 to provide public service television services throughout Nigeria while state stations are established by State laws (Maku, 2012). FRCN was established April 1, 1978 though Decree No. 8 of 1979 and state- owned radio stations in 36 states set-up by respective State laws. There are over 350 broadcast stations in Nigeria (public and private) as of August 2010 (Odufwa, 2011). Radio is the key source of information for many Nigerians not only because it is easily accessible both in the cities and the village, but also most of the programmes are in local languages. Apart from newspaper and magazine there are over two hundred daily and weekly newspapers and most of Nigerian magazine are printed monthly. According to Mediafact Radio recorded highest penetration with 82.9 percent in 2011, TV 80.6 percent, newspaper 25.7 percent (Mediafact: 2011). This shows the power of radio in Nigeria is above other medium.There are several regulatory body that regulates the affairs of news media in Nigeria among them are: National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) regulates broadcast media i.e. Radio and Television, Nigerian press Council (NPC) regulates journalism practice i.e. Newspaper and magazine while Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) regulates all media advertising.
Media Ethics
Everything that a journalist does has ethical consequences, whether to a lesser or greater degree. This is true on the grounds that everything that a journalist composes or says or fails to compose or say has an effect on individuals. The impact can either be positive or negative. Since the media have a huge impact, it is imperative that news coverage be rehearsed in a responsible and capable manner. If this does not happen, it is at this point that the media demonstrate untrustworthiness (Chiyamwaka, 2008). Bertrand (2018:9) states that in order to judge media competency in serving the public, one ought to know what services these media are supposed to provide.
In present day society, the media are renowned for broadcasting speedy and full reports on occasions occurring in the world around us. Their job is to acquire the data, break them down, translate them and then channel them through the wording available to their audiences. They should specifically watch out for the three political forces (the official, authoritative and legal executive) between election intervals (Bertrand 2018). This is just one of the functions of the media alongside other functions such as fostering social communication, reflecting an image of the world, transmitting the culture of society, selling and contributing to the promotion of happiness or entertaining the audience. Against the background of all these functions, media houses and practitioners have to adhere to ethical guidance to ensure that the information disseminated to the audience can be trusted and that the way in which it was created did no harm to any party. This is where ethics come in to protect both journalists and the audience.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In order to analyze the meaning and violation of journalism ethics in Nigeria, the research proposes to use discourse analysis as research method. Teun van Dijk defined discourse analysis as an analytical research that “primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context” (Van Dijik, 2001). As such, the central aim of discourse analysis is to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social inequality.The concept of discourse analysis has become vague, either meaning almost nothing, or being used with more precise, but rather different, meanings in different contexts. But, in many cases, underlying the word „discourse‟ is the general idea that language is structured according to different patterns that people‟s utterances follow when they take part in different domains of social life, familiar examples being „medical discourse‟ and „political discourse‟. „Discourse analysis‟ is the analysis of these patterns (Jorgensen and Phillips, 2002: 2-16).
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusion
This study was meant to explore the Journalism ethics in Nigerian news media. discourse analysis was used as yardstick. Major finding of this research revealed that; Nigerian journalists are not obeyed the codes; journalists are expecting to be moral-crusaders but some time they are doing otherwise. As the research exposed the reason behind this, is the complex nature of the Nigerian state. Nigeria has over two hundred and fifty ethnic group and religions. Journalist from opposite part of the country opposed each other in their publications. According to Oso, the factors that can lead to unethical practices in Nigeria are: poor technical knowledge, conflict of interests, ownership pattern and control, pressure of the market, poor pay, weak professional regulation, and loose organizational policies and control (Oso, 2007: 150). These factors that lead to unethical in journalism field is not only experienced in Nigeria, the problem is similar in many third world countries. Ethics in the media is, at its essence, about duty. It comes with concepts of freedom and responsibility. It comprises a set of principles and rules determined by members of the profession, preferably in cooperation with public opinion, to allow most if not all of the media to perform a better service. Unethical conduct, immorality or negative values are devoid of ethical benchmarks. They are dangerous social evils. They can be damaging to the society, to the extent of leading to a failed state. And, like all forms of things that are wrong, the dangers are multifaceted and some of them concrete enough (Pate, 2013). In light with this, for any society that want to develop code of ethics need to be apply; media has a vital role to play on this. There is need for the other researchers to explore Nigerian code in broadcast media houses because it‟s the major source of information for Nigerians, not only exploring the problem but to provide possible solutions to salvage the situation.
Recommendations
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Ethics are set in place for a reason and having considered the findings, it clearly stands out that they are not equally applied and not all of them are adhered to. Having carefully considered the findings, these are the recommendations that can be adopted.
- Disciplinary measures- clearly, there are inadequate punitive actions that are being taken against offenders. That is why many journalists find it so easy to ignore certain rules and regulations and work on their own terms. When journalists were assessed on action that is taken should one broadcast against set ethics, the majority of them spoke about getting their licences revoked, being sued or facing disciplinary hearing. This is clearly inadequate. Despite the fact that many broadcast radio stations have been taken to court, many of them still do the same things they got punished for. Media ethics should be applied categorically; no one should be named and shamed before he or she is found guilty. Defaming a person should be a serious criminal offence. Once a person’s name is publicly dragged through the mud, it becomes very hard for society to trust that person and accept them back into the community and sometimes, the family will also suffer the consequences. There has to be a law that protects anyone who has not yet been found guilty. In this way, people’s reputation would be saved.
- The findings of this study reveal that most of the broadcasted stories are based on a certain categorical level; however, looking at the findings, it does not look like there is much understanding of the effects that crime news can have on the public. The portrayal of violent crime often entices the younger generation who often find pleasure in what they see. The media personnel need to be educated on contemporary ethical issues. Even though media ethics disapproving of violence have been preached many a time through the NBC, the BCCSN and even the Nigerian Constitution, the country still experiences many accounts of violence including violent protests. Media still need to be made aware of the psychological damage that can occur. This can be done through developing various educational programmes. These programmes can showcase real individuals who have been affected and the challenges and difficulties they now face.
In light of the above, the problems caused by failure to adhere to media ethics will be minimised if these recommendations are taken on board.
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