📖 ABSTRACT/OVERVIEW
Nigerian television drama has historically served as a mirror of societal values, with corruption narratives featuring prominently as both entertainment content and implicit social commentary on the normalisation of corrupt practices in public and private life. This study analysed how popular Nigerian television dramas portray corruption and examined the influence of these portrayals on the attitudes of UNIZIK students toward corrupt behaviour. The study was anchored on the Social Learning Theory, which holds that attitudes and normative perceptions are significantly shaped by observational learning from media representations of behaviour and its consequences. A mixed-method approach was adopted, combining a content analysis of three popular Nigerian television dramas with survey data from 318 UNIZIK Mass Communication students selected through stratified random sampling. Content analysis coded 96 drama episodes for corruption type, character roles, depicted consequences, and moral resolution. Findings from content analysis revealed that corruption was frequently depicted as a normalised survival strategy rather than a moral failing, with consequences typically portrayed as avoidable rather than inevitable. Survey data indicated a significant positive correlation between high drama consumption and attitudes normalising petty corruption, particularly among respondents with lower critical media engagement scores. Respondents who frequently discussed drama narratives with peers demonstrated more critically evaluative attitudes toward corruption portrayals. The study concluded that popular Nigerian television drama contributes to the cultivation of corruption-tolerant attitudes through normalising narrative frames. It was recommended that the National Broadcasting Commission develop content guidelines requiring realistic depiction of corruption consequences and encourage producers to adopt anti-corruption narrative frameworks.
Keywords: television drama, corruption portrayal, social learning theory, UNIZIK students, Nigerian media
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