ONLINE JOURNALISM COVERAGE OF THE 2019 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA

This study titled ‘Online Journalism Coverage of the 2019 Presidential Elections in-Nigeria5 explores how various online media reported the 2019 presidential elections in Nigeria. Bearing in mind that there is no legislation to control online news content or formal regulatory body in Nigeria, there have been several questions regarding the reliability of news and information online, as such, publishers of online news are perceived to be persons with religious and ethnic affiliations. Six theories were adopted in the course of this work, namely: New Media Theory, Persuasion Theory, Social Responsibility Theory, Agenda setting theory, Media Equation Theory and Technological Determinism Theory. In order to successfully carry out this study, content analysis methodology was adopted. The findings show that Online news media failed to give voice to minority groups/political parties that are not popular during the 2019 presidential elections in Nigeria; that the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) was mostly portrayed positively by online news media during the 2019 presidential elections in Nigeria; that Online news media were more interested in reporting conflict matters during the 2019 presidential elections in Nigeria; and finally, that Online news media saw Features stories as a viable reporting tool to influence the behaviour of electorates, and as a result, the outcome of the 2019 presidential elections in Nigeria. The study concludes that online media did not give fair and balanced attention to different political parties that were involved in the said elections. To this end, the study recommends that online news media should strictly abide by the principle of social responsibility theory as it would engender fair coverage of all political parties and minority groups during the future elections in Nigeria.