| Title: | Media Trials and Objectivity: Nigerian Journalists’ Assessment of Sahara Reporters’ Framing of Corruption Allegations by Buhari Administration |
| Author(s): | Angela Nkiru Nwammuo, Gideon Uche Nwafor & Edith Chinelo Onuoama |
| Abstract: | The emergence of President Muhammadu Buhariset the stage for the resonance of anti-corruption war in the Nigerian chequered polity with a great expectation that the shifting political paradigm will result to purging of the system from every iota of corruption. Expectedly, the government spent time accusing, arresting and sometimes prosecuting some of the suspects. However, the reverberation of these arrests and detentions has been the dominant contents of media bulletins and forms a topical issue for public discussion and debate in the social media. Whether the framing of these corruption allegations by online media sites like Sahara Reports set a stage for media trials of the accused persons and questions the efficacy of objectivity is an issue which forms a core objective of this study. Using survey research method with a sample size of 400, the study was anchored on framing theory and it found that Sahara Reporters framing of the corruption allegations sets a stage for media trials of the accused persons before they are convicted by any court of competent jurisdiction thereby creating bias and subjectivity. The study recommends that social media publishers should be more socially responsible in their news. |
| Keywords: | Media Trials, Objectivity, Framing, Corruption Allegations |
