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Citizenship
and Diversity 1
by KEVIN ADINNU
Media Coverage
of Ethno-Nationalities - The Case of Ogoni Ethnic Minority
in Nigeria. A comparative study of the Punch, New
Nigerian, the Champion and the Guardian.
Background
Four newspapers were content-analyzed vis-à-vis their
coverage of the activities of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority
in Nigeria, and their umbrella organization, the Movement for the
Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP).
The daily newspapers
are the Punch, New Nigerian, the Champion and the Guardian. For
the purpose of this study, all of the April 2000 editions of these
newspapers were studied.
Choice of
Newspapers The objective of the study determined the choice
of newspapers. This study was conducted to examine the impact of
ownership and control of media houses on their coverage of issues
that border on diversity; in this case, on the Ogoni, a minority
ethnic group in Southeastern Nigeria now called south-south in Nigeria's
geopolitics. A Yoruba, belonging to the majority ethnic group in
Southwestern Nigeria, owns the Punch. The Federal Government of
Nigeria owns New Nigerian but it is managed and controlled by the
Hausa in Northern Nigeria. An Igbo, who belongs to a majority ethnic
group in Southeastern Nigeria, owns the Champion. An Urhobo, belonging
to a minority ethnic group in the now South-south region of Nigeria,
owns the Guardian.
Categories
and Methodology Categories used in this study are:
1] The number
of favorable, unfavorable, and neutral stories/items on the Ogoni
reported by these four print mediums [Table 1].
2] Prominence
given to favorable, unfavorable, and neutral stories/items on the
subject measured by points allocated to their page position using
the table below [Table 2].
3] Prominence
given to favorable, unfavorable, and neutral stories/items measured
by points that are awarded to the space allocated to the stories/items
using the table below [Table 3].
| PAGE
POSITION |
POINTS |
|
NO.
OF PARAGRAPHS |
POINTS |
| Front
Page |
4 |
|
21-Over |
5 |
| Back
Page |
3 |
|
16-20 |
4 |
| Pages
2, 3 |
2 |
|
11-15 |
3 |
| Feature
|
3 |
|
6-10 |
2 |
| Editorial |
4 |
|
1-5
|
1 |
| Any
Other Pages |
1 |
|
Editorial |
5 |
|
|
|
Feature |
4 |
Definition
of Terms
1] Favorable
stories: Items include any news story, editorial, feature story
or letter to the editor that attracts sympathy or justifies the
activities of MOSOP or the Ogoni people or blames and denigrates
the repressive actions of government officials in the area.
2] Unfavorable
stories: Items include any news story, editorial, opinion, feature
story, or letter to the editor that blames or denigrates the activities
of MOSOP or Ogoni people and justifies the repressive activities
of government agents.
3] Neutral
stories: Items refer to news reported on both sides without
slanting the story to favor or attract sympathy to either side.
Results of
Study
Number of favorable,
unfavorable, and neutral items on the Ogoni reported by the four
print mediums under examination:
| MEDIUM |
FAVORABLE |
UNFAVORABLE |
NEUTRAL |
TOTAL |
| THE
PUNCH |
10 |
7 |
3 |
20 |
| NEW
NIGERIAN |
5 |
5 |
| | 
