Media use by religious leaders and their adherents has become one of the major issues defining religious praxis in the contemporary world. In Nigeria, this has become accentuated by the upsurge of Pentecostalism and the overriding presence of its preachers and healers on the country's airwaves. There are a hundred and one preachers, healers, counsellors, exorcists and singers identified with this burgeoning Christian movement who buy air time on national, local and private radio and television stations to proclaim their message. Some also pay for newspaper space to publish their messages. The most notable figures among them are: Tunde Bakare of the Later Rain Assembly, Chris Oyakilome of Christ Embassy, Matthews Ashimolowo of Kingsway International Christian Centre, Enoch Adeboye of Redeemed Christian Church of God, Mike Okoonkwo of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission, David Oyedepo of the Faith Tabernacle, Taiwo and Bimbo Odukoya of The Fountain of Life Church. Due to the huge profits they are bringing to the media industry, the Pentecostal movement has become a major force in the implementation of the country's media policies. It is easy for them to bend some of the media rules and get away with it. This dominance infringes the principle of equal access to all religious organisations that is enshrined in the Broadcasting Code promulgated by the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission. Against the backdrop of this Pentecostal dominance, this article examines the problem of media access by the country's minority religious groups. A religious group could be in the minority in terms of overall size, or the number of its adherents in a given locality. We can thus have Christian minorities in Muslim dominated Northern Nigeria, and Muslim minorities in Christian dominated Southern-Nigeria. The major questions this paper asks are: How do religious minorities in Nigeria live with their perceived exclusion from the media, and are they adopting any discernable strategies to make their presence felt? To answer these questions, a social survey involving the use of questionnaires and interviews was conducted among Muslims living in the Christian-dominated Southern city of Port-Harcourt. The paper reflects on how the Muslim minorities in the city feel about their access to the state's broadcast media. This exercise provides new perspectives on how the media can mitigate or exacerbate religious differences in the country.

The Boko Haram conflict has inflicted untold hardship to the peace and society of the Northeast region in Nigeria and surrounding countries. Within the Nigerian front, the military has been mandated to engage the insurgents and bring them to submission. Opinions on the position of the media in helping the government to bring the conflict to a conclusion were divided as reports emerged that newspaper articles have caused low morale within the military during combat. This study employed content analysis on four Nigerian newspapers, Daily Trust, Premium Times, The Nation and Vanguard to investigate how military casualties were reported from 2014-2016. The research was based on the Framing theory of the press. Findings showed that 185 reports mentioned 33 military casualties. There were no images of military casualties found in any of the reports, where mentions of military casualties were predominantly found in the body and concluding parts of articles. The study found no evidence to support the claim that media reports were to blame for soldiers not being able to confront the Boko Haram insurgents. This study recommends cooperations between the media and military to coordinate efforts to end the conflict.

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The media have been accused of bias against the military by framing Boko Haram group as being superior thereby making better-armed soldiers afraid of confronting the group in open battle. This accusation was without any empirical underpinning, thus this study objectives were to identify the framing patterns used by Nigerian newspapers in the coverage of military operations against the Boko Haram group in NorthEast Nigeria. Four national dailies, Daily Trust, Premium Times, The Nation and Vanguard, were analyzed to find out the framing patterns in the reportage of military operations against Boko Haram to ascertain if the frames were more pro-military or anti-military. Hinged on the framing theory, the research method was content analysis. Inter-coder reliability was tested using the coefficient of reliability suggested by Chadwick et al. (1984). Findings showed that the Injured/Arrest/Capture/Death of Boko Haram members frame was predominant across three newspapers (Daily Trust, Premium Times, The Nation) which made up 22% of the frames while Vanguard emphasized Cooperation frame with 11% of the total frames. Results also indicated that there was a 24% prevalence of the 17 frame categories used in the study. This shows that Nigerian newspapers reported the military favorably with 80% of the frames. Overall, findings do not support the statement that the media are to be blamed for the shortcomings of the military in the fight against the insurgents. Other factors like corruption, non-motivation of personnel amongst a host of others should be investigated.

The electoral process in Nigeria is now more dynamic than in earlier years because of the nature of competitions among politicians. In a bid to sell candidates and woo voters, political parties engage in election campaigns during which statements are made. Campaigns ought to address issues of public importance, but in some instances the comments are mere expressions of personal sentiments. The press is not just the fourth estate of the realm but also the voice of the people to report issues for voters’ enlightenment. This paper examined newspaper coverage of issue-based political statements and campaigns in Nigeria’s 2019 electoral process. Two theoretical frameworks for the study were Agenda Setting Theory and Development Media Theory. The study was both quantitative and qualitative, covering newspaper reports from two national dailies, Vanguard and The Punch. A total of 76 editions were studied using the content analysis research design, with quoted statements buttressing the argument. The data were presented with frequency tables and analysed through simple percentages. There were 116 reports on the subject in the dailies. The paper found out that while there were coverage over some national issues like restructuring, security, corruption, economy, and electricity, the greater volume of political statements were not issue-based. There is the need for the press to pay less attention on matters that would not serve to educate voters adequately. The study recommends that the press use the editorials to canvass for issue-based comments. The study also contributed to knowledge as the seminal analysis of political statements in 2019 general elections.