Media Ethics in Crisis: Developing a Contextualised Normative Framework for Nigerian Journalism Practice

This study develops an original contextualised normative framework for media ethics in Nigerian journalism, addressing the inadequacy of universal ethics models for guiding professional practice in the distinctive political, economic, and cultural conditions of Nigerian journalism. Western media ethics frameworks, including objectivity, independence, harm minimisation, and accountability, have been widely adopted in Nigerian journalism education but sit uneasily with the realities of politically pressured, commercially fragile, ethically complex Nigerian practice. This study employs a constructivist normative theory development methodology combining analysis of 80 Nigerian journalism ethics case studies drawn from documented practice dilemmas over 2018 to 2023, focus groups with 72 practising journalists representing diverse media sectors and regions, interviews with 25 journalism educators and ethics scholars, philosophical analysis of the ethical dimensions of six major Nigerian press freedom cases, and expert normative panel deliberation for framework validation. The theoretical contribution critically assesses the transplantation of Western ethics frameworks to Nigerian conditions and proposes an original contextualised normative framework, the Nigerian Journalism Ethics Framework, built around six contextually derived ethical principles: truth-telling with epistemological humility, accountability without suicidal transparency, dignity above sensationalism, solidarity alongside independence, cultural competence as professional obligation, and safety-aware courage as the condition of ethical practice. Each principle is operationalised for specific practice contexts including conflict reporting, political coverage, community media, and entertainment journalism. The study contributes a theoretically rigorous and practically applicable ethics framework for Nigerian journalism and recommends its adoption in NUJ professional standards revision.

Keywords: media ethics, Nigerian journalism, normative framework, press ethics, professional standards.