Abstract
This study explores the implications of news commercialization during the 2023 general elections on public trust in broadcast media, focusing on Ethiope East Local Government Area (LGA) of Delta State. News commercialization—the practice of prioritizing paid content over impartial reporting—has raised concerns about the credibility and objectivity of broadcast media, especially during critical periods like elections. Using a survey research design, data were collected from residents of Ethiope East LGA through structured questionnaires and interviews. The findings reveal that news commercialization significantly eroded public trust in broadcast media, as audiences perceived election coverage to be biased and profit-driven rather than factual and balanced. This distrust led to increased skepticism towards media reports and greater reliance on alternative information sources such as social media and interpersonal communication. The study highlights the ethical dilemmas faced by media organizations in balancing financial sustainability with professional integrity. Recommendations include enforcing stricter regulatory frameworks, promoting ethical journalism practices, and enhancing transparency in news production to restore public confidence in broadcast media.
Keywords: News commercialization, broadcast media, public trust, elections, Ethiope East LGA, media ethics.
Table of Contents
Abstract. 2
CHAPTER ONE. 4
INTRODUCTION.. 4
1.1 Background to the Study. 4
1.2 Statement of the Problem.. 8
1.3 Objectives of the Study. 9
1.4 Research Questions. 10
1.5 Significance of the Study. 10
1.6 Scope of the Study. 11
1.7 Definition of the study. 12
References. 12
CHAPTER TWO.. 13
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK. 13
2.1 Conceptual Review.. 14
2.1.1 Broadcast media as a Concept. 14
2.1.1.1 Concept and Overview of Radio Broadcasting. 16
2.1.1.2 Concept of Television Broadcasting. 19
2.1.2 Election as a Concept. 21
2.1.3 Nature of News Commercialization. 22
2.1.4 Implication of News Commercialization during election in Nigeria. 24
2.1.6 Implication of Objective and Credibility from News Commercialization during election on public trust of Broadcast in Nigeria. 25
2.2 Theoretical Framework (Social Responsibility Theory). 26
2.3 Empirical Review.. 27
CHAPTER THREE. 28
METHODOLOGY. 28
3.1 Research Design. 28
3.2 Population of Study. 29
3.3 Sample Size. 29
3.4 Sampling Technique. 31
3.5 Data Collection Instruments. 31
3.6 Reliability and Validity of Instruments. 32
3.7 Method of Data Collection. 33
3.8 Method of Data Analysis. 33
3.9 Limitation of the Study. 33
CHAPTER FOUR. 35
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS. 35
4.1 Demographic Distribution of Respondents. 35
4.2. Data Analysis based on Research Questions. 38
4.2 Data Analysis Based on Research Questions. 47
4.3 Discussion of the Findings. 50
CHAPTER FIVE. 53
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 53
5.1 Summary of the findings. 53
5.2 Conclusion. 54
5.3 Recommendations. 55
References. 56
(QUESTIONNAIRE). 59
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Broadcast media has been identified as political instrument of public enlightenment in any country. In view of this, broadcast media is a genre of the mass media that that use electronic technologies in information gathering, processing and dissemination. The practice of dissemination of information and programmes is known as broadcasting. Broadcasting has been described as the planned provision of information, education and entertainment to a large heterogenous audience through the medium of radio and television. (Didiugwu, Ezugwu, & Ekwe, 2015). The idea also has been defined as the business of conceptualizing, developing, producing and sharing radio and television programmes to target audience who are scattered around the allocated areas, (Talabi, 2011). Globally broadcasting has been described as the process of spreading messages far and wide, it entails the transformation of information through technological equipment like Television and radio, to a vase, large and heterogeneous audience who are scattered around the globe.
Broadcasting shares broad ideas, information and pictures in a still or motion like manner to perform the function of entertaining, informing and surveillance. Obijiofor & Hanusch (2013),) avers that broadcasting deals with the transmission of messages from a station to a heterogenious audience scattered across a reasonable spheres of coverage. And that the audience receives the message simultaneously, irrespective of where they are, in time and place, provided that they are within the effective range of coverage. In the view of Nwanne (2016), the broadcast media is divided into three which are the radio, television and film. And that these afore mentioned media outlets are strengthened for informing, entertaining and educating the society concerning the going -on around government and individuals who made news worthy events. Journalism is the business of generating information from the people to the people. This is done with the aim to serve the information inquisitive of the people. The flow of information has been from the location of happenings to the distance location or to those who were not aware of the happenings. According to Nielsen & Schrøder (2014), since the invention of printed press till the early years of internet; news was done by professionals and journalists and it was unthinkable to share news before being disseminated by news organizations.
The survival of any organization is the availability of fund. According to Orji and Mojaye (2016), funds are crucial for the establishment and continued survival of any organisation, especially, whether in the public or private sector, a media or non-media outfit. In fact, money is like oxygen for the blood. Without it, nothing can succeed. Indeed, media management is often money-gulping, always giving the managers sleepless nights on how to remain financially solvent without reneging on their commitment to their readers, listeners/viewers. This challenge becomes even more worrisome because returns on media investment are not often very high, as recent media history has shown. In the past decades or thereabout many media houses have had to shut down on g rounds of financial insolvency. Even seemingly financially sound companies were not spared the challenges of mortality, part of the problem arises because investors in the media industry often see the glamour and media power, without adequately appreciating what goes into running an efficient and sustainable media organisation. The result, quite often, is that no sooner do such outfits open shop than they are forced to shut down, (Nwanne, 2018).
One of the ways which broadcast media solicit fund is through news commercialization. This comes in form of content advertisement. According to Acholonu, Igbozurike and Agwu (2015), the concept of news commercialization by the media is seen as shying away from the social responsibilities to the public. Indeed it is extremely difficult to embrace commercialization without compromising social responsibility to the citizens who, at least on paper, have a right to know. News commercialization would suggest all efforts made to “commodity’ news and sell it to the highest bidders. The idea of news in the process, suffers mortality because the traditional and professional idea of news is sacrificed on the altar of financial expediency.
Another concept in this study is election. Elections offer the chance to elect, re-elect, or remove governments; that is, to choose to elect a new government, keep the current government, or vote it out. According to Kalu and Gberevbie (2018), election is one of the fundamental duties of citizens in democratic settings. Election has been the medium through which contemporary representative democracy has functioned. Elections have become the most acceptable method by which citizens choose their leaders. Election enables people to choose the politicians that want to represent their interest in government. From the perspective Ojo (2018), election is formal expression of preferences by the governed, which are then aggregated and transformed into a collective decision about who will govern, who should stay in office, who should be thrown out, and who should replace those who have been thrown out. In their study, Sesan and Imran (2018) noted that election is a manner of choice agreed upon by people out of many to occupy one or a number of positions of authority. Ojo (2018) argued that elections have always been the legitimate way of transferring power from one regime to another through the ballot box. Through election, popular conduct and participation in Public Affairs is created in the society.
That is why, Johari (2017), noted that election is the process of choosing leaders in a democratic process where a legitimate change of government is constitutionally allowed. That means, for individual contestant to be elected, he or she must present his or her self, party and manifesto to the electorate for public acceptability. Dwelling on election exercise as the motive for political debate, Sule (2019), noted that election has taken place in Nigeria since 1922. At that time, the principle for election was given for Nigeria vying for elective posts during the colonial rule. Election in the fourth Republic started in 1999. This period is remarkable because of it is the longest regime of democratic rule in the history of Nigeria and by the development witnessed so far, Nigeria democracy will not be interrupted by military rule. Election takes place in Nigeria every four years. There are seven categories of election in Nigeria and these include presidential, senatorial, National Assembly, gubernatorial, State House of Assembly, Chairmanship and Councillorship, (Sule, Sani and Mat, 2017). Election is characterized with many activities and these activities are organized to influence the voting decision of the electorates. A candidate must belong to a particular party and won the primary election to bear the flag of the party to contest against other opponents, (Olujide, Adeyemi and Gbadayan, 2011).
In recent times, news commercialization had increased during election. This is because through commercialization of news, many political parties procure air time to projects some of the party achievement through inviting the news media to cover their events. In the event of this, there is need for the broadcast media to project the course of the sponsors as well as the objectivity element of the media ethical considerations. The value system is the engine room of any society. Decades ago, the Nigerian society was known for honesty, fairness, hard work, justice and humility. According to Nwanne (2016), the society has value system for which the broadcast media are assessed and judged based on media ethics. People obtain money through criminal and fraudulent means and are celebrated. Until such a time when people are asked to prove the source of their wealth, the current deification of wealth which erodes the moral foundation of a society, would continue unabated. This situation encourages cheating and promotes mediocrity. National development cannot be anchored on a corrupt and shaky foundation. As Nwanne (2016) has observed, ‘in contemporary Nigeria, many do not seem of uphold the maxim of dignity of labour. There is a tendency to prefer the shortcut, with the result that due diligence is sacrificed’. This also presents its peculiar problems: news is supposed to be a ‘raw material’ for national development. However, news commercialization tends to compromise the sacredness of information to the nation. Such a situation gives undue privilege to the ‘monied and propertied’ class to dictate and frame news from their point of view. Due to the power of money, which news commercialization promotes, news is tainted and even obliterated, to the eternal disadvantage of the people and the impairment of national development efforts.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In an effort to survive financially, many media outfits have often abandoned the professional practice of gathering and presenting the news of the day, unfettered, to a news – hungry world. Rather, they have entered into an unprofessional alliance with business persons and other interests to “rig” the news and, therefore, make it less worthy especially for the teaming populace who depend on genuine and relevant news to steer them in the right direction of national development. In the process many disguise advertising as news, a disservice to news consumers (Dominic, 2019). Such surreptitious marketing is aimed at benefiting the sponsor who gains legitimacy with the cover of the media. The presentation relies on the social responsibility theory of the press, which presupposes that the media must act in the overall interest of the society in which they operate. In Nigeria, media ownership revolves around government and private investors, (Nwanne, 2018)..
From a professional point of view, news commercialization is unacceptable because it interferes with professional news judgment. According to the Code of Ethics for Nigerian Journalists (1998) which was endorsed by Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Nigeria Press Council (NPC) “Decision concerning the content of news should be the responsibility of a professional journalists” News commercialization repudiates the above ethical pillar of journalism which states that the job of determining the content of news should not be handed over to anyone, except the professional journalist. It is likely that if news is handled from the outside on the consideration of financial benefit the ingredients of news will disappear while the outside interest is the beneficiary at the detriment of national development effort.
Despite this, the 2023 general elections was characterized with high level of news commercialization especially the campaign events of political parties and their party faithful.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The primary objective of this study is to examine the implications of news commercialization during general elections in 2023 on public trust on broadcast media: a study of Ethiope East LGA. To achieve this objective, the following specific objectives were formulated to;
- Determine the nature of news commercialization during general elections in 2023.
- Investigate the implications of new commercialization during general elections in 2023 on public trust of broadcast media among residents of Ethiope East LGA
- Explore the relationship between credibility and news commercialization during general elections in 2023 on public trust of broadcast media among residents of Ethiope East LGA
- Examine the relationship between objectivity and news commercialization during general elections in 2023 on public trust of broadcast media among residents of Ethiope East LGA
- Examine the relationship between news commercialization and news media function during general elections in 2023 on public trust of broadcast media among residents of Ethiope East LGA
1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions were formulated to guide the study
- What is the nature of news commercialization during general elections in 2023?
- What are the implications of new commercialization during general elections in 2023 on public trust of broadcast media among residents of Ethiope East LGA?
- What are the relationship between credibility and news commercialization during general elections in 2023 on public trust of broadcast media among residents of Ethiope East LGA?
- What is the relationship between objectivity and news commercialization during general elections in 2023 on public trust of broadcast media among residents of Ethiope East LGA?
- What is the relationship between news commercialization and news media function during general elections in 2023 on public trust of broadcast media among residents of Ethiope East LGA?
1.5 Significance of the Study
This study will benefit journalists and academic researchers. The study of news commercialization during these elections carries significant academic significance for several reasons. The study will help News media play a crucial role in informing voters and shaping public discourse. Studying the commercialization of news during elections sheds light on how changing media priorities and revenue models can influence the information presented to the public. This can provide valuable insights into the evolving media landscape in Nigeria and its impact on democratic processes.
For the media practitioners, the study will help them understand commercialization can lead to a focus on sensationalism and entertainment to attract viewers and advertisers. This can potentially compromise the objectivity of news coverage. The study can explore how commercialization influences the framing of political narratives and assess the risk of biased reporting that favors certain candidates or parties.
For the public, the study will help them understand the quality and accessibility of election-related news can significantly impact voter choices and political participation. The study can examine how commercialization affects the depth and breadth of election coverage. This can highlight potential consequences, such as voters being less informed or disengaged from the political process. Finally, the study will contributed to media ethics as journalists will gain insight into potential regulations or ethical frameworks to guide news media practices during elections. This may involve examining international best practices and identifying potential strategies to ensure balanced and informative election coverage despite commercial pressures.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The study will adopt three types of scope of the study. First the contextual scope of the study is limited to the study of implication of news commercialization during election on public trust. Second, the periodic scope will focus on 2023 general election in Nigeria and third scope if geographic scope which is limited to ethiope East LGA residents.
1.7 Definition of the study
Broadcasting: This refers to the transmission of programmes or information either by radio or television.
Television: A television is a system for converting visual images (with sound) into electrical signals and displaying them electronically on a screen.
Radio: This is the genre of electronic media that disseminate audio contents to the audience using magnetic spectrum.
Broadcast Journalism: This is the act of gathering news and dissemination of news to the general public through a electronic channels of mass communication.
Participatory Democracy: This is the activities of citizens in engaging in democracy by making suggestions, opinions and criticism.
