UTILISATION OF FEMALE JOURNALISTS AS POLITICAL NEWS SOURCES IN NIGERIA

Simbiat Abidemi Ademuyiwa, Michael Felix Nyeche

Abstract


Media critics posit that the Nigerian media industry pays more attention to male politicians than female politicians. With this, women and their political ideologies are being under- represented and this creates an uneven playing ground for female politicians. Pegged on the tenets of social responsibility theory and liberal feminism theory, this study was carried out in Lagos State. The political news contents of some television houses were content analysed for a period of two months. Findings revealed that women are less utilized as political news experts in the media. The study concluded that factors such as level of expertise, attitude of women towards politics, media ownership and reporter-in-charge of the news contributed to their being less utilized as news experts in the media. The study recommends that there is need for more women experts in different fields to promote their interest on political issues affecting the country.


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References


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