THE PRESS AND POLITICS IN NIGERIA: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF WEST AFRICAN PILOT AND THE NEWS

This study is about the role of the press in the pol itical process iNigeria; analysing its perception of political power, uses and interpretation of political realities in the country within the field of alternative media studies, using West Afr·ican Pilot newspaper and TheNews magazine as models. The study reviews relevant concP-pts such as political participation democracy, citizen's media, n·.odels of alternative press; its theories and practice, as well as the two publications used as case studies with emphasis ot ; editorial contents as our unit of analysis. The central argument in this study is that the social context of the exercise of political power by the state is a critical factor in the analysis of alternative press. This is in contrast with the intellectual posture in which the alternative press is discussed exclusively in terms of media hegemony and minority press.