MEDIA REPORTAGE OF POLICE HARASSMENT AND BRUTALITY OF NIGERIANS: A STUDY OF THE PUNCH AND THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS
Keywords:
Mass media; Print Journalism; Police; Assault; NigeriansAbstract
Mass media keep the members of a society well informed about what is happening around them, and failure on this duty could result to public distrust in the media. Social ills of police brutality and harassment have resulted into death of young Nigerians, just as many are maimed and imprisoned unjustly, which has culminated into anger from various quarters, with resultant protests experienced in Nigeria in recent times. In view of this, this study was conducted as a content analysis of media reportage of police harassment and brutality of Nigerians. The population of this study were the Punch and Guardian newspapers (July to September, 2021) and a multistage sampling technique deployed with purposive and systematic sampling technique to draw the sample size. It was discovered that a gap exists in newspaper reportage of contents on Police Harassment and brutality against Nigerians. Less prominence is given to the issue of a social menace that could degenerate into violence and unrest in the country. There were no editorial, opinion, feature writing, letter to the editor or carton on the focus of the study, but mainly straight news stories and pictures. Bribery and extortion were the leading themes in the categorisation of harassment and brutality. The study, therefore, recommends that stories on police brutality and harassment should be given more prominence and frequent reportage for quality public engagement on the issue and to maintain public trust in the mass media as agent of positive change.
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