Dilemma of the Nigerian Press and Difficulties in Adherence to Journalism Ethics: A Survey on Prescriptive and Situational Ethics in Journalism Practice

Abstract

This study examines the difficulties facing journalists during the process of news gathering, news framing, news reporting, and news editing. It focuses on their considerations on what to report and how to report it in conformity with their work ethics and journalism ethics. The survey research method was adopted, and interviews and questionnaires were used as data gathering instruments. Using the purposive sampling technique, a sample size of sixty respondents was selected from among journalists in ten media establishments with a 220-journalist population. This study was anchored on framing theory and cognitive dissonance theory. Findings reveal that journalists adopt both forms of ethics in their approach to news framing and in their news judgements. They are of the view that adopting situational ethics does not constitute unethical behaviour and that using the two types of ethics should be acceptable in journalism practice. The study recommends that journalists should strictly adhere to the prescribed ethics of journalism in order to guarantee objectivity in journalism practice.