ASSESSMENT OF WOMEN JOURNALISTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF HAZARDS IN JOURNALISM PRACTICE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page – – – – – – – – i
Declaration – – – – – – – – ii
Certification – – – – – – – – iii
Dedication – – – – – – – – iv
Acknowledgement – – – – – – – v
Table of content – – – – – – – vii
List of tables – – – – – – – x
Abstract – – – – – – – xi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study – – – – – 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem – – – – – 5
1.3 Objectives of the Study – – – – – 6
1.4 Research Questions – – – – – – 7
1.5 Significance of the Study – – – – – 7
1.6 Scope of the Study – – – – – – 7
1.7 Definition of Terms – – – – – – 8
References
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0 Introduction – – – – – – – 10
2.1 Review of Concepts – – – – – – 10
2.1.1 The Concept of Journalism – – – – – 10
2.2 The Concept of Journalism Hazard – – – – 13
2.2.1 Women Journalists and Journalism Hazard – – – 17
2.3 Review of Opinions – – – – – – 18
2.3.1 Journalism Hazards – – – – – – 18
2.4 Review of Empirical Studies – – – – 20
2.5 Theoretical Framework – – – – – 24
2.5.1 Perception Theory – – – – – – 24
References
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction – – – – – – – 28
3.1 Research Design – – – – – – 28
3.2 Population of the Study – – – – – 28
3.3 Sample Size and Sampling Procedure – – – 29
3.4 Description of Research Instrument – – – – 31
3.5 Method of Data Collection – – – – – 31
3.6 Method of Data Analysis – – – – – 31
References
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF DATA, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
4.0 Introduction – – – – – – – 33
4.1 Data Presentation and Analysis – – – – 33
4.2 Discussion of Findings – – – – – 40

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary of Findings – – – – – 45
5.2 Conclusion – – – – – – – 45
Recommendations – – – – – – 46
Appendix

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Age Distribution of Respondents. – – – – – – 33
Table 2: Educational Qualification of Respondents. – – – – – 34
Table 3: Exposure to Journalism Hazards. – – – – – – 35
Table 4: Response if the Journalist Reports on a Beat. – – – – 36
Table 5: Respondents Beat of Reporting. – – – – – – 36
Table 6: Response If All Beats Have Journalism Hazards. – – – – 37
Table 7: Beats with the highest level of hazards. – – – – – 37
Table 8: Response on Hazard As It Affects Akwa Ibom Women Journalists. – 38
Table 9: Perception of How Hazards in Journalism Practice Affects
Akwa Ibom Women Journalists. – – – – – – – 38

Table 10: Media Organisation and Training of Women Journalists. – – – 39
Table 11: Role of Media Bodies/ Unions and Government in Assuaging
Journalism Hazards. – – – – – – – – – 39
Table 12: Media Bodies/ Unions and Government Effort in Assuaging
Journalism Hazards. – – – – – – – – – 40

ABSTRACT

This research was conducted to assess Akwa Ibom State women journalists’ perceptions of hazards in journalism practice. Survey research method was utilised by the researcher and questionnaire was the primary instrument for gathering data from the respondents. Perception theory was the theoretical foundation of the research. The researcher adopted simple random sampling to select respondents from the fourteen chapels in Akwa Ibom State. The population of the study was 91 with a sample of 74 respondents drawn from Taro Yamane sample size determination formula. Findings from the research show that Akwa Ibom State women journalists are exposed to journalism hazards and media organizations in the state do not provide women journalists with relevant training and professional development on how to handle journalism hazards. The researcher therefore recommends that media organizations should make it a deliberate policy to train and re-train women journalists on safety and security on how to handle journalism hazards.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Journalists all over the world experience occupational hazards especially in the process of news gathering and reporting. They tend to go deep in every investigation they undertake to acquire the accurate information that their readers or co-listeners want to know. As watchdogs of the society, journalists provide transparency and clear presentation of facts which include revealing of anomalies of people in authority. Journalists are aware of their social responsibility; they feel accountable when they discover that there is something unusual happening in the society, hence, they only more often than not feel relieved when they are able to air it out to the public. However, they have little awareness on how exceeding of limitations might affect their lives. One might see threats as part of their daily encounters, but one must also realise that experiencing such is not normal and must be put into an end before bigger problems entailing lives occur.
Journalists, when on field, get too absorbed with their need to come up with a story that they tend to forget that their lives and that of their families may be put in jeopardy. Hazards transpire when journalists highlight the negative sides of the people in authority and business tycoons.  These can create traumas and can affect their emotional and psychological well-being and those of their families. Thus, affect their normal way of living, Tarima (2012, p. 12).
Journalism plays a key role in democracies around the world, acting as a watchdog on the state and informing citizens about the decisions that affect their everyday life (Wahl-Jorgensen et al, 2016, p. 802). Journalism remains a cornerstone of democracy and popular participation worldwide. However, journalists face a number of threats that limit their ability to fulfill their watchdog role and they find themselves sandwiched between the exciting and fulfilling aspect of the profession and the hazards which is the somber side of journalism practice.
Over the years journalists have suffered unwarranted embarrassment and killings in the course of their duty. Journalists regularly endure threats, intimidation, and abuse in the course of their work; this is meant to frighten, harm, and ultimately silence them. Several kinds of threats endanger journalists’ safety, including assassinations, physical attacks, material risk, intimidation, digital harassment, sexual harassment and violence. Frequent perpetrators include government actors or militant groups who dislike what a journalist is reporting.
Impunity on the part of those who attack journalists has given rise to risks that turn journalism into a tightrope walk. The pervasiveness of direct and indirect threats means that journalists cannot reach independent decisions without fearing for their lives and their families’ safety. Correspondingly, those with power cause immense emotional strain for journalists, including through the death of colleagues and threats to their families. All of these influence reporters’ choices about what to report (Ashraf and Brooten, 2017, p. 151).
Murder is the most extreme form of silencing journalists, although jailing, threats and harassment are also used, not only during armed conflict, but most often in times of peace. Journalists fall victim not only to physical violence, but also to psychological and digital attacks. Reporting on issues such as politics, corruption, organised crime, human rights, the environment, protests and elections can be a life-threatening endeavor.

However, it is worthy to note that jailing or killing a journalist removes a vital witness to events and threatens the right of us all to be informed. High-risk assignments for journalists mean working in conditions where the likelihood of physical harm (death, injury or serious illness) is significantly higher than normal.
Uwakwe (2012, p. 15) says that “journalism is a precarious job in Nigeria. Many cases of police and other security harassments abound. Some journalists, in pursuit of certain stories have received physical assault from security operators. Some media men have lost expensive newsgathering equipment to overzealous security operatives.” Corroborating Uwakwe’s assertion, Leman (2014, p. 25) argues that:
Threats and attacks against the media are aimed at inducing fear and self-censorship. The recourse sometimes to fierce and lethal counter reactions to reports by journalists who would challenge the status quo or reveal discomfiting truths that would not augur well for democracy. The systematic, flagrant and widespread violations of international law in situations of armed conflict constitutes a threat to peace and security, especially the deliberate targeting of journalists, media personnel and associated personnel which is a violation of international law. Many journalists are killed, injured or harassed in war zones, either targeted by one side or another or caught in the crossfire of violence. Others are the victims of premeditated assaults and intimidation either by criminals, terrorists or by agencies of the state, the police, the military or the security forces-acting secretly and illegally. Very often there is little that journalists or media organisations can do to avoid casualties. There will, inevitably, be accidents, no matter how much care is taken to provide protection and there is little one can do when those targeting media use ruthless and brutal methods to crush journalistic inquiry.

For journalists around the world, their profession can be a dangerous one (Cottle, Sambrook, and Mosdell, 2016, p. 12). According to the President of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Jim Boumelha (2016) cited in Pate and Idris (2017, p. 161) laments that, “the world is becoming more dangerous for journalists. Around 2,700 journalist were killed in the past 25 years; an average of two journalists per week”. Imprisonment, repressive laws and restrictions of access to the Internet remain the most prevalent forms of intimidation and harassment against journalists (CPJ 2015a). Similarly, the 2012 global statistics on murdered journalists showed that 63 per cent and 50 per cent of those killed covered politics and war, respectively (CPJ 2013, p. 42).

The risks and threats stem from geopolitical changes as well as a perceived loss of neutrality for journalists (Wahl-Jorgensen et al., 2016, 16). According to figures from the International News safety Institute, more than 1,000 journalists have died on the job in the past decade often local journalists reporting on the news in volatile conflicts (http://www.newssafety.org/about-insi/, accessed April 10, 2018).
Just like journalists in other part of the world who have been killed while covering activities of terrorism, Nigerian journalists have equally suffered deaths in this regard. This is why Pate and Idris (2017, p. 163-164) reported that:
At the height of their terror activities, Boko Haram terrorists spared no one whom they felt could be an obstruction to their mission. They killed everyone and destroyed everything. Specific media houses and journalists were obviously among their targets. For instance, from 2009 to 2015, the group killed four Nigerian journalists. In October 2011, terrorists of the sect shot dead Zakariyya Isa, a cameraman with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in Borno State, “for working against the interests of the sect”. The sect said it killed Isa on the suspicion that he fed security officials with information about their activities. Similarly, in January 2012, Enenche Akogwu, the Kano state correspondent of Channels Television, was killed shortly after multiple bomb blasts at the farm centre police station, Kano. Akogwu was trying to learn the details of the attack from bystanders when the terrorists emerged, shot him three times in the chest and pumped an additional three bullets into his stomach. The terrorists also killed FaraMalah Modu, the information officer of Bama Local Government Area, when the group invaded Bama, while another journalist, Audu Madugu, on staff at Borno State Ministry of Information, was killed in error by the military when they were exchanging fire with fleeing terrorists.

Unaegbu (2017, p. 171) says that journalists are constantly made victims of various forms of threat, intimidation and harassment. This is corroborated by the Global Impunity Against journalist index, where Nigeria is ranked 13th globally (and 3rd in Africa after Somalia and South Sudan). Moreover, there are numerous incidences of unlawful arrest, mob attack, undue intimidation, closure of media outlets, seizure of tools, etc., directed at journalists.
The cases of impunity against journalists stretch from the military era, when impunity against journalists was at its peak and hardly talked about, to the present day (even with the signing of the Freedom of Information Act into law in May 2011). In the past, the killing of Dele Giwa – Journalist, editor and founder of Newswatch magazine – in 1985 by a parcel bomb in his home sent shock waves throughout Nigeria. That was the first time a journalist had been killed in such a manner. Since then, there has been one killing, harassment, and arrest after the other. In recent times, the case of BayoOhu – news editor of The Guardian newspaper who was shot dead in front of his home in 2009 (for reporting on local politics) – readily comes to mind. The three suspects initially arrested for the murder were acquitted of the crime in 2012 when the Nigerian Police failed to produce any evidence (Unaegbu, 2017, p. 172).

1.2 Statement of the Problem
A retrospection of the safety of journalists in Nigeria seems to indicate a downward trend. Between November 2014 and April 2015 (the period preceding the 2015 general election and shortly after), 47 journalists were attacked (IPC 2015). Sadly, most of the intimidation and harassment of journalist is usually perpetrated by security agents, political thugs, security details of government officials and unknown armed men (Unaegbu 2015, p. 45). This is why most of the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes against journalists and professionals who shape public opinion and keep the people informed go unpunished.
Female journalists face peculiar hazards in relation to their male counterparts; according to the Global Media Monitoring Project (2010, p. 17). This often times leads to increased restriction of women from reporting on the ‘hot beats’ of politics and conflict. In other situations, female journalists, in conforming to societal conditioning, makes them be placed in “soft beats” and to rather focus on lifestyle, entertainment and public relations news reportage. But there is a danger associated with this. With fewer women in ‘hot beats’ reporting, there is a possibility of inadequate gender-sensitive reportage, considering the societal norms and traditional practices in many parts of Nigeria. Conversely, do not sending female journalists to cover “hot beat” mean that they are protected from journalism hazards? Beyond the common challenge inherent in the journalism practice, female journalists face specific threats in relation to their gender – threats that can impede broader perspectives on issues (Unaegbu, 2017, p. 173). In the light of the above perspective, the researcher seeks to find out Akwa Ibom State women journalists’ perception of hazards in journalism practice.

1.3 Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of this research is to find out the Akwa Ibom State women perception of hazards in journalism practice, however; the study’s specific objectives are to:
Find out how Akwa Ibom State women journalists perceive hazards in journalism practice.
Find out Akwa Ibom State women journalists views on the beats in which hazards manifests in journalism practice.
Determine how journalism hazards have affected Akwa Ibom State women journalists in practicing the profession.
Ascertain the role played by professional bodies and government in assuaging journalism hazards.
1.4 Research Questions
The study will be guided by the following research questions:
How do Akwa Ibom State women journalists perceive hazards in journalism practice?
What are Akwa Ibom State women journalists’ views on the beats in which hazards manifests in journalism practice?
How have journalism hazards affected Akwa Ibom State women journalists in practicing the profession?
What is the role played by professional bodies and government in assuaging journalism hazards?

1.5 Significance of the Study
Findings will help to find out Akwa Ibom State women perception of hazards in journalism practice.
Findings of the research will help government and the general public to know the hazards women journalists face in the course of their duty and how to help lessen such hazards.
Findings will contribute to literature on the subject and will be significant to other researchers embarking on a similar study.