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THE EDITORIAL CHALLENGES OF ELECTION COVERAGE IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study 

Investigation of the effect of newspapers on political attitudes, behaviour, and subject knowledge of news events found that even short exposure to a daily newspaper appears to influence voter attitude and may affect turnout behaviour (Gerber, Karlan& Bergan, (2019). Media sources then may influence the public not only through the slant of a particular news report (Della Vigna & Kaplan, (2007) but also through editorial opinion. Voters therefore, learn much of politics and government from newspaper editorials (McNair, 1995, Franklin, (2018).

The learning is necessary because the ability of the citizens to discuss socially significant matters depends on the availability of ideas, opinions and factual background data that contributes to knowing and making sense of the contingency from the most varied perspectives possible Gronemeyer & Porath, (2015). Editorials influence social values and community beliefs, attitudes and aspirations through the ideas, opinions and attitudes that they provide for public debate Fuenzalida, 2005, Bandura, (1986). Through editorials, newspapers do not only act as neutral information agencies providing a forum for other actors but also, take an active role in the political process by selecting and structuring information, assigning relevance, interpreting and evaluating the stream of events continuously taking place Eilders (2000).

Opinion journalism of this sort gives the media the power to set the dominant political agenda and establish the dominant interpretative frameworks within which on-going political events are made sense of McNair, (2018). It is through the opinion pieces also that social reality is produced, negotiated and changed Gnanaseelan, (2015). As unsigned texts, published in spaces dedicated to opinion that represent the position of the media itself, the editorial facilitate awareness, reflection and analysis of current affair from a particular stance or point of view (Blanks, 2008; Ho& Quinn, 2009). Newspapers use the editorial to explain the meaning of the news and thus, influence public opinion; interprets, examines, contextualizes and judges key events, and on the whole, influence voting behaviour, modify government decisions, and strengthen (or discredit) political institutions. In short, editorials affect public opinion both as agenda-setting and in the way they influence social debate, decision making and other forms of social and political action (González, 2019, van Dijks, 2017, Filippi, (2018).

Through interpretative, evaluative and potentially persuasive content, the editorial can provide orientation to the voters on election matters by the judgements made regarding policy, political actors and political decisions Eilders, (2017). This helps the publications typical reader to be informed, educated, persuaded and influenced. Principally, editorials educate, provoke debate and offer enlightened judgments to their readers. Editorials help citizens obtain an adequate understanding of their context, including political preferences and the moral and value choices at stake (Schudson, 2018).

By their role in shaping public policy and igniting change, editorials can make the political messages of newspapers significantly associated with the substantive political attitudes of a national sample of their readers Entman, (1989). When they exercise their opinion-making power in the form of candidate endorsements, editorials potentially intervene in the democratic process by influencing readers’ voting decisions Meltzer (2017).Even though it may be difficult, if not impossible to quantify the impact of editorials on political leaders or presidential administrations, it is certainly the case that editorials have influence over the readers and the decisions they make Tomask (2003).

Globally, newspaper editorials exerted much influence on social, political and economic issues including the abolishment of slave trade in the eighteenth century. Washington Post (2003) reported that the New York Tribune publisher made the newspaper a national voice against slavery in the United States of America, Europe and Africa. The paper’s editorial in 1862 ‘Prayer of Twenty Millions’ implored United States President Lincoln to set slaves free. In the end, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which abolished slave trade soon after. Also, during the civil rights movement, editorials played key roles to

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