Monkey-pox is a rare and infectious disease caused by monkey virus, transmitted from animals to human, with symptoms similar to those of smallpox. This study examined newspaper framing of monkey- pox outbreak in Nigeria and its influence on south east media audience. The study aims at ascertaining the genre of the story, prominence, kind of frames, dominant frame and influence of the frame on south east media audience. Three newspapers; The Guardian, The Punch and Vanguard were selected for the study which covered a period of four months. Mixed methods were used in the study (Content analysis and survey research method). Results showed that the newspapers used the straight news format most in the reportage of the monkey-pox outbreak in Nigeria. The outbreak was not given prominence in the studied newspapers, especially in terms of placement. Transmission/causes frame was the most dominant frame used by the newspapers which accounted for 47(34%) issues, transmission/causes frame used by the newspapers raised fear on media audience. The study recommends detailed reports that will educate the public more should be employed be the media and solution/control frame should be used when covering health related matters or outbreak of diseases in other to douse tension among the media audience.

This paper examined the perspectives of public relations professionals in Nigeria on the Made-in-Nigeria (MiN) campaign. The study was necessitated by the discordant tunes emanating from Nigerians about the project that indicates lack of mutual understanding of the campaign between the government and the people. Using an in-depth interview to gather data from 10 selected PR professionals in Lagos State, the thematic pattern in their responses showed that the PR professionals viewed the MiN initiative as laudable. However, they berated the lack of clear objectives with which the campaign may be measured from the project initiators. They faulted the stakeholders’ engagement and communication strategies used in propagating the campaign and identified these as reasons for the poor acceptance and execution of the project. Source credibility was also a major issue as the proponents of the initiative appear not to be committed to the goal of the campaign in terms of their ‘words and actions’. The study concluded that although public relations professionals perceive the MiN campaign as good, they have reservations on the stakeholders’ engagement and the communication strategies used for the project. Thus, the study recommends that the government should practice development public relations by engaging public relations professionals to articulate a robust and effective implementation strategy rather than simply appointing choice individuals who may not be able to provide a sustainable programme that will generate public interest in the project.

Social media especially Facebook and Twitter have given organizations and public figures an inexpensive platform of engaging with the public. Some organizations and public figures have adapted well to social media and others have not while another group looks at it indifferently. This study looks at the followership of the two main political parties (APC and PDP) in Nigeria on Facebook and Twitter after the 2015 general elections using content analysis, the uses and gratification theory of the media underpinned the study. An earlier study before the election in 2014 revealed that APC had 20,702 followers on Facebook and 49 followers on Twitter in, while PDP had 36,268 fans on Facebook and 5839 followers on twitter. Despite winning the general election and defeating the incumbent PDP, the APC still trailed the PDP on the social media where their Facebook and Twitter followers numbered 28,818 and 244 respectively compared to the defeated PDP’s numbers which increased to 74,503 and 79,516 for Facebook and Twitter respectively. The result found this oddity where popularity on the social media does not equate to cast votes on election days. In the time after the data collection, both APC and PDP have gone on to announce the formation of new social media accounts in 2018 due to internal party disagreements.

In 2011, the Ethiopian government commenced the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissances Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, trans-boundary River with tense political confrontation with Sudan and Egypt. That received great coverage from the Egyptian, Sudanese and Ethiopian mass media and on the international, regional level. The study aimed to highlights The Impact of Media Coverage on the Issue of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Inter-Relations among the Eastern Nile Basin Countries and examines the Egyptian, Sudanese and Ethiopian mass media, salient frames related to the dam project and how these frames reflect Egyptians, Sudanese and Ethiopian government dominant perspectives on Nile politics. To this end, the study is based on qualitative research analysis, in order to adequately present various significant issues in the newspapers. This study reveals that same prominent frames have emerged in general and have been used by media organizations in the Nile Basin countries (Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia). These are ‘Development’; ‘National Image’; ‘Right’; ‘Victimhood’; ‘Mutual benefit’; and ‘War’ frames. The study recommended that the mass media of Nile basin countries must set aside negative statements that can increase differences and cause problems of proposals on how to deal with the impact of the media coverage.

The pluralist theory of media ownership argues that media contents are mainly shaped by consumer demand in the marketplace giving the buying ‘public’ what they want. Moreover, editors, journalists, and broadcasters have a strong sense of professional ethics, which act as a system of checks and controls on potential owner abuse of the media. With this in mind, we examined the coverage of 2015 presidential campaign in Nigeria by the Nigeria Television Authority to determine the frequency and direction of coverage given to contending political parties. Findings reveal evidence of disequilibrium in the frequency of news coverage of the political parties. The directions of news coverage are suggestive of relative content censorship of campaign broadcast in terms of favourability to contending political parties. It is of critical professional concern that NTA was overly bent in favour of the ruling party – PDP, while portraying other parties in weaker directions and frequency. This finding challenges the pluralist perspective of independent media whose content are shaped by consuming public and recommends that measures such as enforcement of code of election coverage be put in place by professional regulatory bodies including the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to ensure that NTA operates on the regulatory tenets of equal opportunity for political parties to air their views during elections.

There is a notion that Nigeria as a nation has failed in many aspects of its national life. However, the failure of the nation’s political system is perhaps of greatest consequence because everything is tied to the way the political architecture is managed and the survival of any nation depends on its political fabric. The pogrom in parts of the nation, cultural catastrophe, social malady, religious confusion, economic debacle, infrastructure crisis, weakness of institutions of government, ethnic hatred and communal clashes and the palpable insecurity in Nigeria are all evidence of absence of governance and indication of the inability of political leaders to provide leadership in real sense of the word. While acknowledging the media as a critical partner in governance and the capacity of media people to mobilize the populace and leaders towards the proper management of the nation, this paper notes that rather than do this, the media in Nigeria have quickened the process that has brought about Nigeria’s political failure. The paper proposes that the people should take up the responsibility of mobilizing themselves through mass self-communication using the social media platforms. Since these platforms have given back to them, the power of journalism, citizens can reject the narrative that sees nothing wrong in the status quo and through this process initiate a trend that will get the media to be responsible and effective in carrying out their watchdog function. It will also compel a political re-orientation and ultimately change the way politicians run the nation.

Book Review : Book Title: Theories and Models of Communication, Jos University Press, Jos. 2017 ISBN 978166390. p 413 Authors: Ezekiel S. Asemah, Angela N. Nwammuo, Adline O.A. Nkwam-Uwaoma