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Articles

CJOC: VOL. 11 NO. 1, JUNE 2024

News culture and routinisation of production processes in Vanguard newspapers

Submitted
June 22, 2024
Published
2024-08-23

Abstract

News production goes beyond the routine of accessing, selecting, processing and interpreting events considered as newsworthy. It involves consequences of journalistic practices that are capable of influencing the professional culture, knowledge and expectations of the given medium. Though news production processes may be influenced by the editorial policy of a newspaper organisation, they should be managed away from slanting which involves omission, differential placement or even burying of anti-policy stories in inside pages.  The study is an exploratory attempt that is designed on the methodology of participant observation or ethnography, and constitutes part of the author’s work experience in the editorial and news production desks of Vanguard newspapers spanning 26 years. Its theoretical underpinnings are the gatekeeping and the agenda setting theory of communication. The paper examines the routine news culture and production processes in Vanguard Media Limited, publishers of one of Nigeria’s leading national daily and weekly newspapers in Lagos. Results of these routine processes include balanced and in-depth reporting of events by the newspaper establishment.