International Journal of Sub-Saharan African Research (IJSSAR)

Background: Vote buying emerged as one of the most significant threats to the credibility and integrity of Nigeria's 2023 general elections, undermining democratic accountability and public confidence in the electoral process. Although several studies have examined vote buying and media coverage of elections in Nigeria, there is limited empirical evidence on how newspaper reportage shaped public perceptions of electoral credibility and the extent to which newspapers covered the phenomenon through different journalistic approaches. This study therefore investigated newspaper coverage of vote buying during Nigeria's 2023 general elections and readers' perceptions of its implications for electoral credibility.
Objective: The study examined the level of public awareness of vote buying, readers' perceptions of its impact on electoral credibility, the extent and patterns of newspaper coverage, and the dominant journalistic approaches employed in reporting the phenomenon.
Method: The study was anchored on the Social Influence Theory, Social Responsibility Theory, and Agenda-Setting Theory. It adopted a mixed-methods design comprising a survey and quantitative content analysis. The survey involved 383 academic staff selected through stratified random sampling from three tertiary institutions in South-South Nigeria. The content analysis examined 144 purposively selected editions of The Punch, The Guardian, Daily Trust, and Daily Sun published between January and December 2023. The unit of analysis was individual newspaper stories on vote buying. Stories were coded based on frequency of coverage, story type, placement, prominence, news sources, tone, and thematic focus using a structured coding sheet. Two trained coders independently analysed the content, and inter-coder reliability was established using Holsti's reliability coefficient, which exceeded the acceptable benchmark of 0.80. Results: The findings revealed that public awareness of vote buying was relatively high, largely driven by media reports and civic education campaigns. Respondents perceived vote buying as having significantly undermined the credibility of the 2023 general elections despite increased public awareness of its consequences. The content analysis showed that newspapers devoted only modest attention to vote buying relative to other electoral issues, with Daily Trust and The Punch recording the highest frequency of coverage. Most reports were presented as straight news stories, while investigative, interpretative, and editorial reports were comparatively few. Coverage focused predominantly on political events and actors, with limited attention to the structural, legal, and socio-economic factors that sustain vote buying.
Conclusion: The study concludes that Nigerian newspapers contributed to raising public awareness of vote buying and partially fulfilled their agenda-setting and social responsibility roles. However, the predominance of event-driven reporting and the limited use of investigative journalism constrained the media's capacity to expose the systemic nature of vote buying and promote meaningful electoral accountability.
Unique Contribution: The study contributes to scholarship by integrating audience perception with quantitative newspaper content analysis to demonstrate how patterns of media coverage shape public understanding of vote buying and perceptions of electoral credibility during Nigeria's 2023 general elections.
Key Recommendation: The study recommends that Nigerian newspapers strengthen investigative and interpretative reporting on vote buying, devote greater editorial attention to its systemic causes and democratic consequences, diversify their news sources, and collaborate more closely with electoral management bodies and civil society organisations to enhance voter education and reinforce electoral integrity.