Mass media and social integration, Journalism, Nigeria, Mass media policy, Nigerian newspapers, Press and politics, History 

"This study investigates the role of the press in the multidimensional and intractable problem of national integration which has remained a major feature of the political process of contemporary Third World countries in general and Nigeria in particular. The disintegration of the USSR into component ethnic groups, likewise the separation of Czechoslovakia into two states, and the civil war in former Yogoslavia indicates just how fragile national boundaries can be even in Old World European nations. The British colonial government, to mitigate against the forces of ethnic rivalry, sought to 'channel irreconcilable inter-ethnic hostility and conciliation and federal cooperation by creating three federal states.' Similar moves were made in other colonies during this period. The irony, however, is that if the intention was to use such policies to engineer national integration by emphasizing diversity in order to enhance unity, the opposite appears to have been the outcome. Traditionally, the newspaper press is considered as the one of the media of mass communication that serves as a channel of communication between politicians and the public; it follows that journalists have an important role to play in diffusing ethnic tension and publishing the truth."--Back cover. 

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-258) and index.