3Ws: The Social Composition of News in Selected Nigerian Newspapers

Journalists produce the news based on certain established routines and values. Through these conventions, journalists ask, and answer questions based on the 5Ws and H. Answering these questions determines whether an event or issue is newsworthy and the facts to be included and/or played up. The interplay of these routines and values tends in a very subtle manner, makes the news ideological product in addition to the information it provides. Based on the theory of organisation of news and using content analysis, this study investigates the social composition of the news in selected Nigerian newspapers to examine the issue of bias in the news. Our findings show that based on three of the five ‘W’s (Who? What? and Where?), there is an element of structural bias in the news which, simply put, means the news net tends to capture the prominent, big, and powerful not just in terms of personalities but even concerning geography and locations.