Assessment of Television Documentary Production Standards in Nigerian Broadcasting

Documentary production in Nigerian television occupies an important space between journalistic investigation and cultural storytelling, yet production standards and their consistency across public and private broadcasters remain insufficiently evaluated in academic literature. This study assessed television documentary production standards among practitioners at selected Nigerian broadcasting organisations. A qualitative survey design was adopted, combining semi-structured interviews with 20 documentary producers and programme directors from NTA, Channels TV, TVC, and African Independent Television, supplemented by documentary review of 30 recently produced Nigerian television documentaries from 2021 to 2023. Production quality was assessed across research depth, narrative structure, visual storytelling, ethical compliance, and audience accessibility. Interview data were analysed thematically. Results showed significant variation in production standards between well-resourced private broadcasters and state-owned organisations. NTA producers cited funding constraints as the primary barrier to high-quality documentary output, while private broadcaster respondents emphasised advertiser influence on documentary topic selection. Research quality was rated as the most deficient production element by 65 percent of respondents, with time and resource pressures limiting investigative depth. Documentary treatment of sensitive cultural and security topics was inconsistently governed by formal ethical guidelines, with 60 percent of respondents reporting absence of documented production ethics frameworks at their organisation. The study recommends that broadcasting organisations adopt formal documentary production guidelines incorporating research standards, ethical frameworks, and audience accessibility requirements, coordinated through the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria.

Keywords: television documentary, production standards, Nigerian broadcasting, broadcast journalism, media quality