Research
When Freedom of Expression Goes Awry on Social Media: An Analysis of Comments on Naij.Com in the Run-Up to the 2015 Presidential Elections in Nigeria
This paper carefully analyzed public comments on Naij.com facebook page with the goal to expose the direction in which the comments of social media users followed in their bid to show support and canvass votes for their preferred candidates in the run-up to the 2015 presidential elections. Although the traditional media were perceived to have carried more venom in their campaign advertisements and commentaries, this study focused on whether or not social media users abused their freedom of expression on the facebook platform, and whether tribal sentiment determined the direction of comments. The findings revealed that facebook users posted abusive comments on Naij.com news page, but posted more comments endorsing candidates of their choice, followed by comments rejecting candidates they did not want. Tribal sentiment clearly reflected in the direction of comments, which finally played out in the outcome of the presidential election results
Gender Representation in the Editorial and Repotorial Staff of Newspapers in Nigeria
The issue of gender misrepresentation and stereotyping still occupies center stage in social science discourse across cultures, though at varying degrees, and the mass media being strong tools for shaping government policies and public opinion have become an area of focus in this regard. The expectation is that a fair or balanced gender representation in the mass media is capable of addressing, perhaps to a large extent, the seemingly nagging issue of gender misrepresentation and stereotyping. This is a content analysis study of four selected newspapers in Nigeria with a view to ascertain the ratio of male-female representation in editorial and reportorial capacities in newspaper journalism. The findings revealed that there is a huge male domination at both editorial and reportorial levels in the newspapers studied irrespective of the observed high number of female enrollments at mass communication and journalism schools in the country and across the world. Consequently, the study suggested an empirical enquiry into the reasons for the yawning gap between the high number of female mass communication/ journalism graduates in the country and the number of female professional journalists, and also why the few who practice professional journalism do not advance to the top as their male counterparts do.
