Nigerian journalists and the media have been urged not to abdicate its agenda-setting roles to politicians and political parties. This was one of the submissions reached by participants at a two-day media workshop on conflict-sensitive, gender-supportive, professional and public interest reporting of 2015 elections for south-west journalists recently held at Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State. Participants maintained
Participants at the workshop.
Nigerian journalists and the media have been urged not to abdicate its agenda-setting roles to politicians and political parties. This was one of the submissions reached by participants at a two-day media workshop on conflict-sensitive, gender-supportive, professional and public interest reporting of 2015 elections for south-west journalists recently held at Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
Participants maintained that reporters and editors should stop surrendering the agenda-setting function to politicians and the political parties and other influence-peddlers by being more discerning in the coverage of and reporting of elections. They noted that not every statement, claim or accusation by politicians should be headline news, and so should undertake issues-based, knowledge-based and public-driven reportage of elections.
They submitted that this had become important because gaps and inadequacies continue to exist in media reporting of elections in general as politicians and political gladiators are subtly becoming the agenda setters through the clever use of press conferences, press releases and press statements.
The forum observed that while the media robustly reported the Ekiti elections, there were noticeable instances of undue sensationalism, especially in the choice of headlines and the language deployed by some columnists. It also noted that some section of the media was unconsciously becoming partisan tools in the hands of politicians, thus the tendency for one-sided reporting, advancement of political acrimonies and under-reporting of real issues.
Read more at http://ngrguardiannews.com/features/media/181785-why-media-must-not-abandon-its-agenda-setting-role
