Newspaper Coverage of Corruption in Nigeria: Analysis of Daily Trust and The Sun

Abstract

This paper examined selected newspapers (The Daily Sun and Daily Trust) coverage of corruption in Nigeria from 1st August 2018 to 1st August 2019. The focus was on the frequency of corruption stories, the prominence given to corruption stories, the type of the reports (news, features and editorial) of corruption articles and the manner the selected newspapers treat corruption-related stories (Full page, half page and one quarter page). The study was anchored on Social Responsibility and Agenda Setting theory. The universe of the study was all editions of the Daily Trust and The Sun newspapers published between 1st August 2018 to 1st August 2019, which is 728 editions. One Hundred and Four editions were randomly selected. Data was collected using a coding sheet and analysed descriptively with SPSS version 25. Results showed that the newspapers selected reported eighty-two (82) stories on corruption of which 56.1% appeared on the front pages. Nevertheless, Daily Trust had more stories on the front page and inside pages than the Daily Sun. Overall, the selected newspapers paid significant attention to corruption coverage in Nigeria. However, 67.1% of the stories are straight news, and 70.7% are on half-page, and only 25.6% took a full page. This shows that though the stories were given prominence by appearing on the front pages of the selected papers, yet, the stories lacked in-depth treatment. This study recommends that newspapers, especially Daily Trust and The Sun should strengthen their depth of coverage and create room for more editorials, features and opinions on the subject matter.