Online news outlets are growing rapidly in various economies along with the yearly increase in internet users worldwide. In the past ten years, a number of digital news platforms have been developed from the global north to the global south in an effort to challenge the dominance of traditional outlets. Many traditional media organizations have converged with emerging technologies, particularly the internet and social networking sites, and are still doing so in order to avoid being absorbed by technological trends. This allows them to reach sizable global audiences.
The Reuters Institute, like other countries, notes in its yearly digital news consumption report that in 2022, more than 90% of surveyed educated English-speaking Nigerians access news weekly via digital and social platforms. This clearly demonstrates that the country’s digital media ecosystem is thriving, necessitating the production and dissemination of news with long-term value for all audiences.
However, similar to what is obtainable in other countries, media practitioners (journalists, bloggers, content writers) are not immune from practicing repetitive journalism. A practice that involves the use of the same stories, phrases, or content in multiple times. This type of journalism often occurs when a news outlet is trying to capitalize on a popular topic or trend. Repetitive journalism can be seen in many different forms, from copy-and-pasted articles to regurgitated news stories. It is often criticized for contributing to the spread of misinformation and for diluting the quality of reporting.
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While many scholars and practitioners regard it as repetitive journalism, our analyst believes it is more appropriate to view the practice as news abuse. It is an abuse because media practitioners manipulate the minds of their audiences and create confusion in the minds of readers and viewers who lack critical skills and knowledge for dissecting repeated frames and issues.
Our analyst specifically reiterates that news abuse is a type of media manipulation that involves the misuse of news content, including the creation of false news stories and the misrepresentation of facts and events. It is often used to advance an agenda, influence public opinion, or manipulate the press. News abuse can take the form of false stories, selective editing of stories, misreporting of facts, or the promotion of particular stories over others. It can also involve the use of sensational headlines, biased language, and other tactics to manipulate the news.
After compiling and analyzing several news stories from popular online newspapers such as The Punch, The Guardian, The Nigerian Tribune, and The Nation, our analyst concludes that editors engage in the practice primarily by rewriting headlines and changing images that accompanied previous news stories on their websites. These approaches make it easier for the audience to reach a hasty conclusion because headlines and illustrations are the primary attention-grabbers.
Unfortunately, many media outlets are ignoring this issue. To address the problem, governments, social media companies, and civil society organizations must collaborate to develop new policies and regulations that protect vulnerable audiences while also combating online news abuse.