NIGERIAN MEDIA REPORTAGE OF CHILD RIGHTS PROTECTION: ANAMBRA RESIDENT JOURNALISTS’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v7i3.1236Schlagwörter:
child rights, journalists’ perception, challenges, prospects, media reportageAbstract
This study investigated the challenges of child rights reporting in Nigerian media. It aimed at understanding the challenges as directly perceived and encountered by the key players in media content production; the journalists. To achieve the objective of this study, two research approaches were adopted – survey and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The participants for the study were drawn from the list of all registered journalists in Anambra State numbering 456. The study found out that reporting child rights issues in Nigerian media proved to be a herculean task as journalists are faced with a plethora of challenges ranging from media ownership policies to cultural and religious beliefs which do not conform to the Child Rights Acts. Suggestions that entail active participation of the various stakeholders in child care and development; the media, religious leaders, parents and the government were proffered by the journalists themselves as the best possible panacea to curb the identified challenges. On that basis, the study proposes government interventions on strict and uniform implementation of the Child Rights Acts across all states of the federation as well as media policies that prioritize child rights issues in their media contents.
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