Nigerian Media Tops World Trust Chart
Aderemi Ojikutu
survey this morning, of how the media (print and electronics) have
become the truest guage of happenings in our country...Pls, read on...
Here is the news. Nigerians would buy a used car from the local media
but not from their country's government. Tune off the BBC, and turn on
NTA. That, in everyday language, is the translation of the spaghetti of
statistics that declared the Nigerian media the most trusted in world,
and the government about the most meddlesome.
Across the world, Nigerians are by far the most satisfied with their
journalists. Nearly 90 per cent of Nigerians polled in a huge "global
survey" on trust of the media, published last week (May 3), said they
trusted the media more than they did the government. In a similar
survey in 2002, only 61 percent trusted the Nigerian media.
Interestingly, Americans and Britons put greater trust in their
governments.
Seventy five percent of Nigerians polled said the government interfered
too much with the free operation of the mass media in the country. Even
in Egypt, a country with a life president where the pollsters were
unable to ask whether respondents trusted their government, only 49 per
cent of respondents said the government interfered with the media. Only
South Korea's government (71 per cent) came close to the Nigerian
government's dubious achievement.
"The poll suggests that media is (sic) generally trusted across the
world - more so than national governments, particularly in the
developing world," Doug Miller, president of GlobScan, the company that
managed the polls, said.
The surprises do not end there. Nigerians trust their media more than
they do the western media - including the BBC. And here is why. The
Nigerian media report news accurately, cover news people care about,
strike a balance between freedom of speech and respecting cultures, and
report all sides of the story, according to the survey.
The 10-country poll commissioned by the BBC, Reuters and the Media
Centre, a US-based media think tank, surveyed 10,230 people in 10
countries with strong mainstream media, and in most cases, huge
populations. The countries are: Nigeria, U.K., U.S., Germany, Egypt,
India, Indonesia, South Korea, Brazil and Russia representing Afica,
Asia, Europe, North and South America.
A Lagos-based company, Market trends Research International, conducted
the Nigerian survey. The Nigerian team led by J. O. Ebhomenye, randomly
sampled 1000 urban Nigerians aged 18 or above and living in Lagos,
Abuja, Kano, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt and Enugu between March 13 and
25.
The researchers found that Nigerians (90 per cent) considered
television stations - Channels TV, NTA and AIT , in that order - most
trustworthy. National and regional print media were next in reckoning
(75 per cent). They rated local electronic and print media higher than
the BBC World Service.
The first question in the survey went like this: Please tell me ho much
you trust each of the following institutions to operate in the best
interest of our society. Would you say you have a lot of trust, not
much trust, or no trust at all in...our national government... the
press and media.
At a global average is kinder to governments. The media are not as
trusted as they are in Nigeria (only 61 per cent) but 52 per cent of
respondents across the countries trusted the government. Trust in the
media is highest in Nigeria, followed by Indonesia, Egypt and Russia.
The reliance on television in Nigeria reflects a world trend - an
average of 82 per cent. Television is also the most trusted mass
medium, globally. The perception of Nigerians is considered strategic.
Citizens of Nigeria, the UK and India "define the average position
across the 10 countries," GlobeScan said in a May 3 release.
Nigeria parts ways with the rest of the world when it comes to the use
of the internet as an alternative source of news. Elsewhere, media
consumers are losing trust in the traditional media and switching to
the internet. But in Nigeria the majority would "value the opportunity
to get news" over the internet.
Source: http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/news/article04 From Ndaeyo
Uko, in Melbourne.