An Original Framework for Understanding Communication Power in Nigerian Media-Politics Relationships

The relationship between media organisations and political actors in Nigeria involves complex exchanges of communication power that are inadequately theorised by simple agenda-setting, instrumentalisation, or fourth-estate frameworks derived from Western media systems with different ownership structures, press freedom traditions, and political economy contexts. This study developed an original theoretical framework for understanding communication power in Nigerian media-politics relationships. A theory-building methodology integrating political economy analysis, communication power theory, and field theory was employed. The political economy analysis examined ownership structures, advertising dependency, access patterns, and regulatory relationships across the Nigerian media landscape using documentary analysis and 30 structured interviews with media executives and political communication professionals. Critical engagement with Lukes' three dimensions of power, Bourdieu's field theory, and Manuel Castells' communication power theory identified the conceptual building blocks requiring contextual adaptation. The original Nigerian Media-Politics Communication Power Framework proposes three power dimensions: structural power (media ownership and economic vulnerability creating durable political influence capacity), relational power (interaction-based negotiated authority between media and political actors governing specific information exchanges), and discursive power (the capacity to define legitimate political communication norms). Original contributions include the concept of patronage power dynamics, describing how political actor financial patronage of media creates indebted editorial obligations distinctive to the Nigerian context, and the multi-stakeholder power dispersion model, theorising how digital media has distributed but not eliminated political communication power asymmetries. Expert review by twenty scholars confirmed the framework's original contribution.

Keywords: communication power, media-politics relationships, political communication theory, Nigerian media, original framework