Journalism fails those in need, new study by Nigerian scholar finds

A new study by a Nigerian media scholar based in the United States has found that news coverage of government-sanctioned forced evictions and demolitions in Nigeria marginalize suffering victims. In a recently published study titled “Journalistic Storytelling for Social Justice: A CDA of Global News Coverage of the Otodo Gbame Forced Evictions in Nigeria,” Nigerian […]

A new study by a Nigerian media scholar based in the United States has found that news coverage of government-sanctioned forced evictions and demolitions in Nigeria marginalize suffering victims.

In a recently published study titled “Journalistic Storytelling for Social Justice: A CDA of Global News Coverage of the Otodo Gbame Forced Evictions in Nigeria,” Nigerian journalism expert Munachim Amah, who is currently a graduate researcher and teacher at the University of Iowa, said journalistic language obscures suffering.

“The language of forced evictions is the language of sympathy, not the language of change. Journalists, particularly Nigerian journalists, reproduced a discourse of misery without transforming that discourse into possibilities for action,” Amah wrote in the study published in African Journalism Studies, a leading academic journal in the field.

Amah’s study analyzed news reports about the forced evictions in Otodo Gbame between 2016 and 2017. A low-income waterfront community of 30,000 residents, Otodo Gbame was hit hard by urbanization and modernization projects in Lagos. The community no longer exists. In its place now is an affluent neighborhood where property prices have soared.

“It is unjust,” Amah said. “A complete erasure of a community.”

Amah said Otodo Gbame can no longer be found on Google Maps. Instead, that exact area on the map is designated as “Periwinkle Residences Limited.”

Violation of residents’ human rights

Amah’s study emphasizes the human rights abuses that occurred during the Otodo Gbame forced evictions. A systematic analysis of news reports reveals that journalistic reporting of the forced evictions prioritized elite voices and failed to highlight the human rights violations and the socioeconomic implications of the evictions.

“Journalists paid little attention to how authorities violated residents’ human rights as well as the attendant social and environmental implications of urban development,” the study says.

The study cautions journalists to be more attentive to suffering. “Journalism must continue to expand and enrich its social roles and pay more careful attention to how these roles are enacted in the coverage of different issues.”

“In the face of environmental and social injustice, journalists have a responsibility to perform a diversity of roles that require them to be both detached observers (e.g. information dissemination, interpretation and monitorial roles) and active participants (e.g. advocative, radical and developmental roles),” the study says.

Journalism for social good

Amah’s study invites Nigerian and international journalists to prioritize approaches like solidarity and wisdom journalism that envision and drive social change during events involving human rights violations and structural inequalities. According to the author, it is important that the public understands the broader societal implications of human rights violations.

“Focusing on tales of misery and portraying affected citizens as victims of circumstance alone, without attention to the complexities of these people’s lives and the broader societal implications of human rights violations, can keep the discourse at the level of repetitive storytelling that maintains the prevailing social order and provides no motivation for institutional authorities to change behavior and policy,” Amah writes.

Amah’s study is particularly useful for journalists who want to make a positive change in society. Amah has been an advocate of journalism for social good. In a previously published study in the prestigious academic journal, Journalism Practice, Amah argued for a more responsible and respectful international coverage of impoverished communities. The current study extends that work.

Amah has taught undergraduate classes in Nigeria. He has facilitated trainings for journalists, PR and corporate communication professionals, and members of the Nigerian Police Force. He was a lead facilitator at the 2020 Solutions and Data Journalism Workshop in Nigeria sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Amah has received multiple international awards of excellence for his research, including the Robert L. Stevenson Faculty Research Award and the African Journalism Studies Best Paper Award for Journalism Research, prestigious honors in journalism and mass communication research that buttress the impact of Amah’s work.