Did the media go for money instead of national interest, Samuel Nwokoro looks for answers
BY SAM NWOKORO l Tuesday, January 07, 2019
LAGOS, Nigeria – This year’s Man of the Year announcement by media houses has been greeted with sundry put-downs by many Nigeria’s information and media content analysts.
There is a certain consensus that the choices as announced by the media houses reflected more of the political and ideological inclination of their various owners than be a true reflection of good editorial judgement and standard criteria for selecting MAN or Person Of The Year
Most respondents spoken to were unanimous in their opinion that the Man of the Year 2019 would have been no other than the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP ) Presidential candidate during the last 2019 general election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Waziri of Adamawa who is generally believed to have won the March 28, 2019 presidential election.
Some other aggrieved politicians who contested that presidential election are still contesting the result of that election even though the Supreme court has decided the suit filed by the main challenger Atiku Abubakar and confirmed the president as winner of that poll.
In the tradition of the media, Man of the Year is given to someone whose activities or social engagements within the year impacted on the volume of issues that spurned out from it. He must have dominated headlines throughout the year in review and impacted on the consciousness of the people generally in positive ways.
It was the consensus of some of the respondents spoken to that the media, especially Lagos based ones allowed some other factors to influence their choices of Man Of the Year, than by the traditional criterion used by the media.
According one respondent, a newspaper vendor, Christopher Igwilo: “This year, it was like the Newspaper houses, especially the major dailies printed here deliberately did not want to announce that Atiku Abubakar was the man of the year.We our-self who sell the papers we know he is the one that is supposed to be Man of the Year 2019.
Nobody needs to be told that one. But I dont know. Most of these people they are telling us is Man of the year or persons of the year are people we read about every day. There is nothing special about them again ,especially in 2019, most of them were not even heard about.
Another newspaper vendor, Shade said:”The newspapers want to make money. Maybe they believe Atiku may not give them money if they announce him as Man of the Year because he, Atiku himself don tire to de give journalists and newspapers houses money since the election and the court cases. So that can be why they did not choose him as Man of the year”
Barrister Chidiebere in his opinion said that most of the media houses may not like to present themselves to be more political than their owners who are also politicians. He was of the view that since the Supreme court has decided Atiku Abubakar’s petition and awarded it in favor of Buhari, pronouncing Atiku as Man of the Year 2019 might appear offensive to the establishment.
“I suspect some element of phobia on the part of the Press. They don’t want government to start branding them as enemies or opposition Press. So they thought it is better not to veer that path”
A prominent Journalism teacher, who did not want his name mentioned analysed:”The reason why the mainstream media, especially the main national Dailies and cable networks did not announce Atiku Abubakar as Man of the Year is because they succumbed to pressure from their owners who are mostly politicians. Again in journalism there is the concept of pacifist approach to issues management and editorial output.
Here there is the tendency on the part of information managers to steer away from kicking up controversies when they have judged that the polity is already heated up, and so more controversy or news likely to resurrect old and stale arguments are not necessary. (I suspect that is what could have persuaded most of the media houses not to name Atiku Man of the yEAR 2019. OTHERWISE JUDGING BY EVERY OTHER PARAMETER, Atiku was the Man of the Year 2019 in many respects”
According to the Professor of Communication Arts “Atiku’s social engagements, that is his political activities throughout 2019 dominated headlines throughout the country and also stories and issues around his person peaked during the last political season. You can safely say that he was the main issue throughout 2019. But most fundamentally, so far he is about the only person in the country to date that subjected the country’s electoral process to one of the most challenging and forensic test of credibility to the admiration of not only Nigerians, but the whole world. And the issues he raised during the elections, the processes, and the legal trials are still making news. I don’t think there are any other issues more prominent than these last year.
There were also commentators who felt that the media houses have turned what otherwise used to be a solemn credible assessment of individuals in the country for the sake of good values and future of good governance into a commercial venture where monetary gain supersedes its glorious values.
Pastor Peter, a voracious newspaper reader who shepherds at a branch of Lord Chosen Charismatic Revival Movement in Lagos says : “Money should not be the overriding criterion for selection. I know media houses are expensive to fund but media houses can also be moderate in the manner they give awards, because most of those they have given Man Of The Year Awards later turned out to be robbers and treasury looters and most of them are in jail houses now.
“So media houses need to be innovative in revenue generation and extra investments than relying on getting money from politicians and individuals who are law breakers and fraudulent people to sustain their operations”
It could be observed that on January 1st, usually slated for publication of Man of the Year photos on the front pages and on TVs screens, what took over was Federal Governments advertorials, being the xmas message of the President published as special front page adverts and supplement documentaries on the electronic media.
