Regional parallelism and the reporting of corruption in the Nigerian press

This article examines the reporting of corruption in the Nigerian press. The purpose of the article is to develop a thesis that explains the factors that influence the practice of journalism in Nigeria using the reporting of corruption as a yardstick. The article stems from in-depth interviews with Nigerian journalists in 2007 in which they were asked about the way they report corruption, and whether the regional divide in the country is apparent in reporting stories about corruption. Following the work of Hallin and Mancini (2004, Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press), this article suggests that what exists in Nigeria is regional parallelism, which implies a modification of Hallin and Mancini's framework of political parallelism. The findings of the research suggest that regionalism is a key factor in Nigerian journalism. However, it is much more complex than the simple assumption of north-south dichotomy; rather, there are intra-regional factors in the nature of ownership in the Nigerian press. The regional parallelism thesis identified six factors that explain the character of the Nigerian press. The article recommends that courses on corruption and the media should be introduced in Nigerian and other African universities teaching journalism and mass communications, so that future journalists will understand the challenges ahead. The article also recommends that an independent commission for the protection of journalists in Africa should be established.