THE INTERNET AND REDISTRIBUTION OF NEWS GATEKEEPING POWER IN NIGERIA: WHAT HAS CHANGED?

Abstract

The quest to redistribute news gatekeeping power has been an enduring subject
in both scholarship and policy realms. This is arising especially from the realities
of the capitalist society where economic cum political elite have enjoyed some
hegemonic control over the mass media, aided by the institutionalized and
centralised orientation of the traditional channels. Consequently, the advent of
the Internet has been seen as a game changer that will redistribute gatekeeping
power thereby ultimately inaugurating a new era of faultless media democracy.
However, this optimism has been questioned by critical scholarship which has
focused on the political, economic and cultural embeddedness of the Internet
which tends to subject it to the influence of the same “old†forces. Against this
backdrop, this study employed the theories of Technological Determinism and
Technological Constructivism to evaluate how much the Internet may have
helped democratize news gatekeeping in Nigeria by giving voice to independent,
non-institutionalised news creators who disseminate their content online. Data
were collected by interviewing five federal and five state civil servants in
Anambra state, Southeast Nigeria, making a total of 10 interviewees. Findings
showed that the Internet was surely having visible impact on the balance of
gatekeeping power within the Nigerian news sphere as online channels emerged
as a popular source of news among the populace. However, data indicated that
traditional media organisation were are also making their weight felt in the
online space where they had equally brought their businesses to. In addition,
they enjoyed some advantage of credibility perception vis-à-vis their rival non-
conventional counterparts (such as blogs), a situation that potentially positioned
them to retain some of the dominant power they enjoyed before the advent of
the Internet and citizen journalism. The study concluded that while the Internet
has achieved a lot in terms of democratising news gatekeeping in Nigeria, there
is still some ground to cover in this regard as certain societal and industry
variables still tend to favour the traditional media organisations in terms of
balance of power. It was recommended that the citizenry be enlightened on the
risk of misinformation associated with online news sources which are increasing
in number and gaining popularity among the audience.