INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE PUBLIC RELATIONS ON THE REPORTAGE OF CORPORATE ORGANIZATIONS BY DAILY TRUST AND VANGUARD NEWSPAPERS
INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE PUBLIC RELATIONS ON THE REPORTAGE OF CORPORATE ORGANIZATIONS BY DAILY TRUST AND VANGUARD NEWSPAPERS
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Date
2014-11
Authors
SULEIMAN, HASHIM MUHAMMAD
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Abstract
Corporate public relations demand that organizations maintain cordial relationship with the media. This situation gives rise to corporate public relations providing information subsidy and attempting to influence media‟s reportorial activities, with the goal of controlling media narrative. On the other hand, the press is expected to beam its lights on each and every societal institution in order to checkmate the activities of corporate organizations. However, the press in conducting its coverage has to contend with powerful interests such as those of the corporate organizations. Therefore, understanding the way corporate organizations influence the reportorial activities of the press is of paramount importance. Two theories, second level agenda setting and political economy were used as theoretical framework to the study. This study sought to find out the influence of corporate public relations on the reportage of corporate organizations by Daily Trust and Vanguard newspapers. A content analysis of the two dailies from January 2010 to December 2012 was carried out. Further, key informant interviews, comprising of twelve informants were conducted with selected journalists from the two dailies and corporate public relations personnel. Data were collected with the aid of coding sheets and interview guides. Data collected from content analysis were computed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) while data from key informant interviews was analyzed using thematic textual analysis. Findings from this study indicated that corporate public relations do have significant influence on the way Daily Trust and Vanguard newspapers give coverage to corporate organizations. This study recommends that press/journalists should strive to observe the principles of fairness, objectivity, balance and should give all claim makers equity in terms of access as well as resist being megaphones of corporate organizations. The Nigerian Press Council and Guild of Editors should promote conducive working environment for the journalists so as to checkmate the excesses of corporate organizations over the press. Indeed, the corporate public relations practitioners should always engage the press with factual information and should observe NIPR‟s ethical code that bars them from corrupting the press.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE IN MASS COMMUNICATION.
DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION,
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY,
ZARIA-NIGERIA.
Keywords
INFLUENCE,, CORPORATE PUBLIC RELATIONS,, REPORTAGE,, CORPORATE ORGANIZATIONS,, DAILY TRUST,, VANGUARD NEWSPAPERS.,