Traditional Sources
Vanguard: This is a daily newspaper in English straight out of Lagos, Nigeria that has been published by Vanguard Media since 1983. This source includes access to the latest news on politics, business, technology, style, and entertainment from Nigeria. According to the source: “Media: Is Bola Tinubu The Biggest Media Entrepreneur in Nigeria?”. M2 Marketing Management, 2008, this is one of the few publications in Nigeria thought to be free from political control and influence. As this corruption is a big problem in Nigeria, Vanguard will be an invaluable source of objective information. I selected this source because of its reputation and popularity in Nigeria.
The online version of the newspaper, https://www.vanguardngr.com, provides easy access to the news stories, as well as the publication’s account on Twitter, @vanguardngrnews. This source is updated hourly.
The Punch: Much like Vanguard, this is a daily newspaper published in English with an online version, http://punchng.com, and an official Twitter, @MobilePunch. This newspaper was founded in 1971 in Nigeria and is published by Ajibola Ogunsola. According to the website, The Punch is the “most widely read newspaper in Nigeria.” A 2014 article from the “About Us” page on the website alleges that the Research and Marketing Services (RMS) Lagos conducted a “current” survey in which The Punch, Saturday Punch, and Sunday Punch constituted the most widely read publications in Nigeria. (https://web.archive.org/web/20031015215403/http://www.punchng.com/aboutus#mission).
I also selected this source because of its reputation and popularity in Nigeria.
The Independent UK: The Independent is a UK-based news publication that has a complete collection of articles and commentary on Nigeria. Although this is not a newspaper that originates from Nigeria, The Independent is a reputable British online newspaper (which won the British Press Awards in 2004) and which has been in publication since 1986. Articles are added daily. I chose this source because of the newspaper’s vast collection of articles on Nigeria and its reliance on freelance journalists to report internationally, allowing for the inclusion of more global perspectives. Additionally, the UK and Nigeria share a deep historical and cultural connection, due to Britain’s history of colonization in this country and the large number of Nigerian-Brits that live in England today.
The Independent has a Twitter account (@Independent), useful for keeping up to date with their stories/reporting on Nigeria. (https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/Nigeria)
The Nation Nigeria: The Nation is an English-language, daily newspaper that is published in Lagos, Nigeria. According to 2009 and 2011 reports by the Advertiser’s Association of Nigeria, The Nation was the 2nd most-read newspaper in Nigeria. According to the website, the paper stands for “freedom, justice, and the market economy.” In the “About Us” section of the newspaper’s website, it states that the target audience is the business and political elite, the affluent, and the upwardly mobile. The newspaper is owned by publishing company, Vintage Press Limited, whose “Who We Are” section describes The Nation as “a quality, national, newspaper with credible and dependable information. Not beholden to any interest group. Loyalty is to the nation.” The website is updated daily.
I chose this source because it adds a conservative perspective to my Information Network. Unlike more general news sources like The Punch and Vanguard, The Nation seems to target a more specific audience, the elite class. Additionally, The Nation focuses more on Nigerian business and economy than my other sources, and these aspects are important in the understanding of the economic makeup of a country. (http://thenationonlineng.net)
The Daily Trust: The Daily Trust is a daily Nigerian news website that is owned by a private publishing company called Media Trust, which also owns a weekly edition called The Weekly Trust. The company is based in Abuja, Nigeria and is produced in English. According to The Guardian, a British-based publication with ties to Nigeria, both newspapers rank among the top seven for advertising revenue in Nigeria. According to the website, this publication specializes in Nigerian breaking news and daily life.
Kabiru A Yusuf, chairman of the Media Trust Board, was the Southern African Correspondent of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) prior to venturing into local Nigerian publications. This provides a unique, dual perspective to my Information Network, because the chairman has had experience working with both an international publication and a national publication. Additionally, the website includes pages for Agriculture, IT, and Women in Business, which none of my other traditional news sources included. I think the IT page is especially relevant to this course, because it is an entire homepage dedicated to information technology, including stories on Facebook, Microsoft developments, and other prominent tech news. (https://dailytrust.com.ng/news/it-world/)
News Media Sources
Naij.com: According to Alexa, an Amazon Company tool, Naij.com is the 7thmost visited website in Nigeria (https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/naij.com), and according to another news website, YNaija, naij.com is a “Nigerian news and entertainment portal that features aggregated news content,” (https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/naij.com). The official website is https://www.naija.ng, and the accompanying Twitter is @naijcom.
Unlike my other two sources, naij.com is not a newspaper, rather a news website created in 2012 in Lagos and is part of the global consumer internet company, Genesis Media. Another unique feature to this source is the available content based on user-submitted stories. I think that this source will provide a different, and more personalized, approach to the news in Nigeria because of this user involvement, but might fail to provide more comprehensive breaking news stories, due to its reliance on reader’s stories, rather than typical journalists.
Nigerian Entertainment Today (NET): NET is a Nigerian newspaper with a popular website of the same name, which specializes in entertainment and breaking celebrity news and interviews; it is updated hourly. According to Amazon’s Alexa software, NET.com is Nigeria’s 33rdmost visited website, meaning that much of the country’s population visits or has visited this site before, its target audience is under age 35. This publication has its headquarters in the capital, Lagos. I selected this source, because it is more like a tabloid or blog than to a traditional news source. Although this source would not report on politics, popular culture is also important to the identity of a country (Nollywood, for example, is extremely important to Nigerian culture and is extensively covered by the NET) and this is currently the only source in my Information Network that deals specifically with this type of news coverage.
The NET has a Twitter account, @theNETng.
Social Media Source
President Buhari: I will be following Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) on Twitter. My first 3 sources are following this account, and I believe that it is important to stay up-to-date with what the leader of a country is telling his own country and the world about news, politics, and policy, whether this information is propaganda or unreliable, or accurate and reliable. This will serve as a point of contrast between what the press is saying and what the head of state is saying. This account does not provide information on who is running the account, but several tweets are in first person, maybe to convince people that the President is doing the tweeting. This account was created in December 2014.
Richard Mofe-Damijo : Nigerian actor, Richard Mofe-Damijo (aka RMD) is one of the most popular actors in Nollywood and has over 1 million followers on Instagram alone, showing his massive influence on Nigerian pop culture. In 2005 RMD won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. According to his website, rmdtheactor.com, he has starred in over 60 movies and TV series, both locally and internationally. I am choosing to follow him because celebrities have a tremendous influence on a country’s culture, and are also often vocal in their own political opinions on what is going on in their country and around the world. Just as I stated that is important to follow a publication that focuses on Nigerian popular culture, I think it is equally important to follow one of the popular culture icons that are so often reported on, to gain a better understanding of Nigeria.
Data Sources:
The World Bank Nigeria: I will be using the official Nigeria page of the World Bank database website (http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nigeria) to keep informed about Nigeria’s population, GDP, economic growth, and development statistics. This website is published by the World Bank, and Nigeria’s page specifically is directed by Country Director, Rachid Benmessaoud, who is based out of Abuja, Nigeria. The World Bank does not have a Nigeria-specific Twitter account, but rather a “World Bank Africa” account (@WorldBankAfrica). I find this to be odd, seeing as Africa has over 50 independent countries, each with their own regional, cultural, political, and economics needs and differences, but the World Bank is a valuable and reputable source of data.
International Monetary Fund Nigeria: I will be monitoring the IMF reports on Nigeria by checking its webpage on Nigeria (http://www.imf.org/en/Countries/NGA#featured)once a week, for any new information on Nigeria’s economic development. The IMF is a useful database because it shares the 2018 Projected Real GDP, as well as annual reports on Real GDP growth and the inflation rate, starting from 1980. This source will give me a detailed picture of the Nigerian economy and how it improves or worsens with time. The IMF’s Nigeria page is run by Resident Representative, Amine Mati, who is based in Abuja. This source includes daily news reports and articles, but the economic data is updated annually. The target audience for this source appears to be less towards Nigerians themselves and more for scholars and economists who are interested in the economic development and progress of countries on the macro level.
Visual/Audio Sources:
Channels Television is an independent 24-hour news and media channel based in Lagos, Nigeria that is run by owner John Mamoh. This source classifies itself as a “watchdog” of the government, which I believe is invaluable to the press in every country. According to the African Press Organization (APO), Channels TV won the best Nigerian TV award for the 8th time in 2014. The Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/channelsweb) is useful for keeping up to date with Nigerian news via visual information, including interviews with politicians and locals, and events in real time. This source provides live streams daily.
Guardian TV: Guardian TV is the media outlet of The Guardian Nigeria newspaper. This source specializes in science and technology, business, and sports reports, as well as political and breaking news and is updated daily. This source is different than the newspaper edition, because it adds the visual elements of interviews and demonstrations of new technology that is being reported on, for example there is a video titled “What you should know about cerebral palsy” on the homepage which shows a child with cerebral palsy along with text providing information about the condition. This is an effective way to communicate information, because many people would prefer to watch a short video clip, rather than reading an article on the same matter. The targeted audience is adult, educated Nigerians who are interested in keeping up to date with this subject matter. The inclusion of the video of the child allows the viewer to see what cerebral palsy looks like. This source is useful for keeping up to date on any new health, science, and technology reports specifically.
(https://tv.guardian.ng/guardiantv-exclusive/what-you-should-know-about-cerebral-palsy/)
Reflection
To find the sources, I first Googled “top Nigerian Newspapers” and then verified each source with its respective Wikipedia page, then its website, another website that mentions it, and finally, its Twitter account, as Twitter seems to be the easiest and most effective way to stay up to date. Googling terms like “Nigerian Twitter” was not as successful because dozens of unverified accounts were the first to pop up. I learned that searching for international information requires a lot more digging and verifying than American and British publications which I am more familiar with and which I know for a fact are reputable. To add additional sources, I plan on repeating my searching strategy, as well as digging deeper using the LibGuide and other library databases for lesser known sources. Although more difficult than finding news sources from America, finding Nigerian sources was not very difficult. I think this could be because of Nigeria’s close ties to Britain, its status as the most populated African country, and the official language being English; these factors could contribute to the output of readily available information.
To locate new sources for my Information Network, I googled key terms, such as “Top Nigerian news authorities”; “Nigerian Newspapers by popularity”; “Nigerian economic report” etc. I used Wikipedia to get summaries of sources, and then verified them using the citations at the bottoms of the pages. Additionally, I used the LexisNexis database to locate more traditional news sources for my final draft, as the traditional sources were the hardest to find and verify. Since Nigeria is an English-speaking country, I faced little difficulty utilizing local sources, however, I found that this second time around I had to include some British-based publications (The Independent, the Guardian) which could be because of the Nigerian government’s contentious relationship with local press or less availability of local journalism due to a lack of resources (compared to resource-rich countries like Britain). I have gained a greater appreciation for researching information sources outside of the United States because the lack of familiarity I have with publications outside of my home country (although I am familiar with The Independent and the Guardian because of the US’s close ties with British journalism). I found myself taking more steps to verify new sources than I would with domestic publications because of this unfamiliarity. I think that if Nigeria did not have such close ties to Britain, or was majority English-speaking, many of the stories wouldn’t reach the headlines of international publications, which is a barrier to the global information society.