CITIZEN JOURNALISM AND PRINT MEDIA INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF FIVE SELECTED NEWSPAPER INDUSTRIES IN NIGERIA)

ABSTRACT This research takes a critical look at challenges of citizen journalism in Nigeria. It also tried to establish the factors that have influenced the increasing growth and popularity of citizen journalism. Citizen journalism for the purpose of this research was limited to blogging. Blogging has become a channel through which people share ideas, news, advice and analyses on different happenings in the society. The practice has turned out to be journalistic, with a good number of bloggers running authoritative and influential blogs, where thousands of people flock for information. In Nigeria, blogs are now a permanent fixture in the media environment as their popularity grows, with bloggers holding influence on political, economic and social discourses. Their growing influence has made bloggers share audiences with traditional media (newspapers). This study tried to identify challenges posed by blogging on print journalism and how journalists respond to new threats. The study also sought to identify the factors that have influenced citizen journalism (Blogging) in Nigeria and how journalists perceive bloggers. The study was guided by the following research questions: (i) what challenges citizen journalism has posed to print media industry in Nigeria? (ii) How newspapers respond to challenges posed by citizen journalism in Nigeria? (iii) What factors influence citizen journalism practice in Nigeria? (iv) How print media industry perceives citizen journalism practice in Nigeria? To achieve these objectives, descriptive survey and cross-sectional designs were carried out. The research sampled 80 journalists in five media houses in Nigeria, namely Vanguard, New Vision, Daily Trust, Guardian Newspaper and Observer. To put this research in perspective, New Media and Public Sphere Theories were briefly examined. The findings reveal that there are some threats posed by blogs on print media, but most journalists read blogs because they find information on the sites useful and they are now getting ideas for their stories from the sites. The study concluded that bloggers are not journalists but their work is very important in complementing the work of journalism.