Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism

Prebendal political conflicts are crises of the ruling and political class, owing to disagreement in respect of appropriation and sharing of resources and wealth of a nation state, as personal needs and entitlements, Prebendalism, which is a strong concomitant of political godfatherism, has disturbed Nigeria’s democracy. The period between 2004 and 2006 has recorded a ruinous prebendal political conflict in the South-Eastern geo-political zone of Nigeria. The conflict, which involved an erstwhile Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige and a political chieftain in the state, Chief Chris Uba, occurred with attendant violence. However, empirical studies on the role played by the press in this type of conflict situation are faint in political communication literature. This study therefore was conducted to investigate how selected newspapers reported the Ngige and Uba prebendal political conflict in South-Eastern Nigeria between 2004 and 2006. Four Nigerian national newspapers were chosen for the study, namely: Daily Champion, Daily Trust, Nigerian Tribune and The Guardian. Purposive sampling was used to select 84 journalistic genres out of 72 editions of the newspapers. The study was organized within hermeneutical framework. All the newspapers reported scenarios that aided escalation of the conflict. The coverage reflected partisanship. Most particularly, Daily Champion took side blatantly and unprofessionally with Ngige against Uba. The reportage predicted destruction of lives and properties and violent acts that were perpetrated by the supporters of the conflicting parties in Anambra State of Nigeria between 2004 and 2006. The journalistic slanting of the conflict contravenes the tenets of a socially responsible press. Newspapers in Nigeria must be socially responsible in reporting political conflicts so as to bring about a peaceful political order in the country.

In recent times, in India, as in most other developing nations, there has been an exponential increase in global foray, whether be it of industry, multinational companies, or even art, both popular and otherwise. This has successively made the window of outlook wider and the border more porous, at least figuratively. It is the changes brought about by these transnational elements, mostly, cinema, and particularly those made during the last two decades that formed the core subject of this study.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are transforming the face of modern journalism. The new tools have great potential in facilitating fast, cost-effective and targeted journalism than the traditional media before them. However, this potential cannot be realized fully if the journalists lack the requisite skills to exploit it. Most schools of journalism have recognized the need to equip their graduates with adequate ICT skills and are already offering regular ICT programmes not only at the undergraduate but also at the graduate levels. Further, there are also a number of online courses and on-the-job training models organized by media houses or journalists’ professional associations. In Kenya, however, schools of journalism seemed stuck in time and continued to focus largely on offline journalism. But recently in an attempt to catch-up, these schools have now introduced a number of ICT courses. Using the survey technique this study investigated how effective these ICT courses are. The findings reveal that the courses are not effective.

The problem of time and eternity in science (physics and natural sciences), culture and in the Bible is profoundly discussed. In the Bible, unlike to all European languages (except old Greek), there are two words for time-chronos and kairos. Their meaning is explained. In conclusion it is discussed what the Bible says on that how it is necessary to use time of our life.

The past has witnessed a growing interest among researchers in exploring the linkages between the media attitudes and behaviours of youth in Kenya. In the context of increasing use of social media, research on the influence of social media on youth leisure is significantly low. Very few studies have explored media use patterns among youth in terms of their media preferences and active leisure participation. A recent review of youth use of social media recommends the need for research aimed at understanding how the social media influences youth and how youth allocate time in active leisure as they use social media. Therefore this research seeks to find out the influence of social media on youth leisure in Rongo University College Town Campus.

This paper examines the right to privacy, the new media and national development efforts in Nigeria. It draws attention to the need to be ethical in using the new media of communication which have practically made the world a “global village” as previously predicted by media iconoclast and scholar, Marshal McLuhan. The social responsibility theory of the press provides theoretical anchor for the paper. This paper which depends on secondary data, identifies some new media to include the electronic mail (e-mail), Internet, GSM, videoconferencing and others. Depending on the constitution f the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Code of Ethics for Nigerian Journalists, the author makes a robust case for the protection of the privacy of the individual to enable him/her contributes meaningfully to national development efforts. Some cases on the invasion of peoples privacy have been highlighted especially the Sir Keith Rupert Murdoch incident in England, the Anita Hagan Bassey and Oge Okoye cases in Nigeria. It has also been noted that certain factors tend to limit the use of he new media in Nigeria, such as poor power situation, high costs, lack of adequate knowledge and skill as many persons, including journalists, do not make themselves available for instruction and training. In order to improve the use of the new media in a professional and responsible manner, it is recommended among others, that computer education should be given institutional and government attention, media houses should show more interest than they are doing at the moment in handling issues related to ICT while ethical orientation should be given more attention than it is receiving at the moment by all concerned.