AKSU Journal of Communication Research (AJCR)

ANALYSIS OF THE NATION, DAILY SUN, THISDAY, AND DAILY TRUST NEWSPAPERS COVERAGE OF 2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Author:  EMMANUEL STEPHEN EBONG, PROF. MBUK MBOHO and DR. ANIEKEME IKON

Abstract
The study was carried out to determine the frequency and prominence of newspapers' coverage of 2023 presidential election; to ascertain whether such coverage was moderated by journalistic principles of fairness and balance using content analysis. Data were sourced from editorial contents of four Nigerian daily newspapers (The Nation, Daily Sun, ThisDay and Daily Trust) geographic location spanning Nigeria's North, West and East regions. The newspapers editions studied were published between August 2022 and September 2023. Data were analysed using mean and simple percentage, and the percentage determination of the respective groups were represented graphically while the statistical analysis were done using GraphPad Prism version 5.03 for windows; grouped bar chart to compare differences between selected newspapers on the same category of report. One-way ANOVA was used to test for variation in the newspapers' activities among selected groups with post hoc comparison of mean performed by Bonferroni's multiple comparison. Findings indicated a moderately high prominence with front, back and center pages attracting attention score of 426, despite a minimal 8.7% frequency. Furthermore, Daily Sun and The Nation newspapers allocation of 90 and 68 stories respectively to the issue while playing down on religion portends a remote ownership influence. The study therefore recommends that newspapers should devote more space, frequency and prominence to presidential election in subsequent elections and strive for professionalism.