Ganiyat Tijani-Adenla | April 28, 2022
Abstract
Nigerian journalism has encountered and continues to confront many threats, majority of them exogenous; repression by colonial and post colonial administrations, clampdown by military regimes, draconian and repressive decrees and codes, attacks on facilities, prevention of circulation and closures, intimidation, imprisonment and worse of all – murder. The Nigerian news media however found ingenious ways to overcome these challenges or work around them. The nationalist press contributed significantly to securing the country’s independence from Britain and put successive democratic administrations in check. The industry also served as a bother for military administrations and worked in tandem with the civil society to return democratic rule to Nigeria in 1999, after years of incessant military coups and take-overs which spanned over three decades. Unfortunately, this industry that has withstood such enormous trials without wavering may be brought down by a more insidious endogenous challenge that many have identified but do not significantly appreciate; information disorder. Information disorder embodies all the various ways by which the integrity of published information is compromised. Classified broadly into disinformation, misinformation and malinformation (based on intent and harm-caused), information disorder, which was perceived as the merchandise of unprofessional and ‘emergency journalists’ and bloggers is now becoming the Achilles’ heel of the Nigerian news media. Using a mixed-method approach (content analysis, interview and survey) and guided by attention economy and political economic approach to media management theories, this study argues that the mainstream media may lose the trust of their audiences while political actors will use information disorder to justify their renewed efforts to gag the media. The study ends by recommending that news media organisations in Nigeria re-design their management models so that they can remain competitive without losing the integrity that has preserved the news media in the country.
