EFFECT OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP ON POLITICAL REPORTING IN NIGERIA

This study examined the effect of media ownership on political reporting in Nigeria: a study of 2023 presidential election campaign in the voice and pavilion newspapers. The study critically examines the content of The Voice and Pavilion newspapers from October 2022 - February 2023. Both newspapers are weekly publications; therefore, each newspaper has 20 editions for the period of five months and a total of 40 for both The Voice and Pavilion. Also, questionnaire was administered to 24 journalists working with The Voice and Pavilion Newspapers. The study was anchored on media ownership theory and framing theory. Findings revealed that politicians influence news coverage in The Voice and Pavilion Newspapers during 2023 presidential election. Findings on the nature of coverage of the 2023 presidential election in The Voice and Pavilion newspapers revealed that the reports in both The Voice and Pavilion were straight news and the report were allocated full pages. And finally, the findings revealed that frames in The Voice were unfavorable to the ruling APC and Pavilion's frames were favorable of the ruling APC.