‘Fake News’ in the 2019 Nigerian Presidential Election

The next speaker in this entertaining IAMCR 2019 session is Adeyanju Apejoye, whose focus is on ‘fake news’ in the 2019 Nigerian presidential election. ‘Fake news’ has become a critical issue in Nigerian politics, given the highly contested nature of the campaign, the shortcomings of Nigerian mainstream media, and the increasing role of online and social media in the country.

The project examined such issues through surveys and qualitative content analysis of news stories and comments, focussing on some eleven news stories with a particular focus on a province seeking to secede from the country. Some such stories used highly tendentious frames or employed out-of-context issues.

Social media users (who are mainly using Facebook) believed that ‘fake news’ were an issue during the campaign, but said that such stories did not influence their vote. Because in this election, both major candidates were Muslim, the major focus of such stories this time around was about the struggle for power, rather than about religion or ethnicity (as is otherwise more usual in Nigeria) – this means ‘fake news’ is a floating signifier attaching itself to whatever stories are currently most effective, Adeyanju suggests.

Such ‘fake news’ stories were also picked up by mainstream, legacy news outlets; this confirms the presence of intermedia agenda-setting processes between social, online, and mainstream media. The ultimate effect of such dissemination remains unclear, however.