Newspaper headlines as a tool for political propaganda in Nigeria’s 2015 General Elections: The Sun Newspaper in focus

Abstract

In spite of the continuous blossoming on new media, the newspaper is still seen by most Nigerians as a credible and reliable means of disseminating information. Millions of Nigerians look forward to the print newspaper every morning to keep abreast of recent happenings in the country. However, many Nigerians do not, in fact, buy a paper; they merely scan through the headlines from which they guess the contents of the story and are fast in drawing conclusions on the issues in the news. Propaganda and negative stories about political opponents are staple features in electioneering campaigns. Nigerian newspaper readers have the characteristic of scanning newspaper headlines and politicians effectively have played into this tendency to brand opponents negatively, based on half-truths and inadequate information. This paper examined headlines in The Sun newspaper and their potential as a tool for political propaganda during the 2015 general elections in Nigeria. Data for this study were generated from The Sun Newspaper headlines published between December, 2014 and April, 2015. This content analysis was triangulated with a (limited) survey of readers in the greater Calabar area of Cross River State (comprising, Calabar South, Calabar Municipal and Akpabuyo Local Government Areas). Findings from the study revealed that propaganda those not have much effects on readers of newspaper as well as their choices as voters.

Keywords: Propaganda, Newspapers, Headlines, Electioneering campaigns, Voter choices