Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

The debate about what is fake news is not exactly new in Nigeria. It may have evolved and shifted into something more cosmetic in recent times because of evolution in the sphere of communication technology. Many political office holders in Nigeria expect the media to be their waiters, serving the menu of their beck and call. Where media reporters exhibit common intelligence to identify and qualify news outside the ambience of constituted authority’s approval they sometimes risk being branded as aligning with the opposition and falsehood. (Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts, 2012; Kaye, 2017; UN/OSCE/OAS/ACHPR 2017). In Africa, particularly Nigeria, with a complex of political orientation and ideological geography, meaning/understanding of fake news and how to deal with some genuine case of new media rascality problematize freedom and quick spread of information and publications especially in that social media orientation and the Internet use prescribes no clear-cut requirement to be unbiased in reporting news nor neither demands accuracy. Using triangulation of instruments: questionnaire, focus group discussions, and interviews with a select population in Nigeria, the study identifies the complexion of fake news meaning, its socio-political context, and implications on freedom of information in the most populous black nation as it relates to a globalized world of new media order.