IMPACTS OF 2027 GENERAL ELECTION’S REPORTAGE IN SELECTED NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS

Abstract

This study sets out to analyze political news stories of 2027 General Election. The aim of the study was to find out how newspapers that are based on the northern and southern parts of the Nigerian State reported political parties that have dominant leadership in the country. The study is anchored on; Critical Political Economic theory. It analyzed six newspapers both from the Northern and Southern Nigerian regions. The time frames were 1st December 2025 to March 2027. From a population of 1080 newspapers' editions, 276 issues were sampled and studied using a constructed calendar which represented everyday of the week. The unit of analysis consist of all news items relating to the presidential elections. The Newspapers that are based on the northern and southern parts of the Nigerian State reported political parties that have dominant leadership in the country. The study is anchored on; Critical Political Economic theory. It analyzed six newspapers both from the Northern and Southern Nigerian regions. The time frames were 1st December 2025 to March 2027. From a population of 1080 newspapers' editions, 276 issues were sampled and studied using a constructed calendar which represented every day of the week. The unit of analysis consists of all news items relating to the presidential elections. The findings revealed that leadership newspaper dominated depth of coverage; news reports were predominantly slanted in favour of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and that campaign news stories dominated the election reportage. It was also revealed that, the newspapers did not slant their news stories because of the region where they were based. It was because of the political party in power (APC). It was therefore recommended that newspapers managers should give all contesting political parties equal level ground on coverage of campaign news.