Ownership And Editorial Control In The Nigerian Print Media: Case Studies Of, The Daily Times, Daily Trust And Champion Newspapers.

ABSTRACT

This work examines Ownership and Editorial Control in the Nigerian Print Media,

using the Daily Times, Daily Trust and Champion newspapers as case studies.

Irrespective of Pluralist claim to the contrary, Marxist critical theories of media

ownership and control implies that ownership of the mass media biases its content so

as to further the owners' interest in particular and capitalist hegemony in general. The

Marxist critical construct provides the theoretical basis for this research. Available

studies are mainly concerned with conglomeration, concentration and cross media

ownership and control as it affects major world media. This study is a departure as it

directly tests the Marxist claim on ownership and control in the Nigerian context

using the Abuja bureau of these media houses as test grounds. Adopting a

triangulated methodologically reliable approach of opinion survey, content analysis

and interview sessions with key players in the print media industry, this study shows

that ownership influence is commonplace in the Nigerian print media. The Nigerian

journalist often engages in self-censorship because his source of professional

actualization is not located in serving the public interest but with his colleagues,

superiors and the publisher; the more pragmatic demand of his working environment,

which are outside his control but within the purview of ownership who often abridges

the public interest function to present his world view on the pages of his newspaper