Content analysis reveals how media strategies upheld political objectives for Governor Suntai, suggesting implications for democracy and information freedom.
Image makers and political propagandists tend to use the media to maximize favorable publicity as well as alter the spread of negative news against their clients. Using content analysis of purposely selected three of the major national newspapers in Nigeria; Daily Trust, The Punch and The Nigerian Tribune, the paper explores the practical news management strategies used by the image makers of Taraba State Governor, Danbaba Suntai, to control and/or manipulate news of their client. The Governor suffers from “brain damage” after an air crash when he was piloting his jet which crash landed on 25th October, 2012. The main objective of this study is to highlight the strategies the image makers of the “incapacitated” Governor had been using variety of techniques, for about three years, through the media for the attainment of their political objectives of keeping the governor in the helm of affairs of State. The stance of the spin doctors is seen as a violation of the rule of law where the Governor could have been constitutionally impeached. The study buttresses the facts that image makers could be detrimental to the entrenchment of constitutional democracy, inimical to unhindered freedom of information and unhealthy to ethical journalism practices. The work, therefore, recommends ways of dealing with political public relations managers and journalists relations.
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Umar Jibrilu Gwandu (2015) studied this question.
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