Crisis Reporting and Professionalism in Journalism: An Analysis of Reporting Practices in Cameroon and Nigeria.

Abstract

This study examines the dynamics of journalistic professionalism in crisis reporting in Nigeria and Cameroon: countries which have experienced sustained violent secessionist crises since 2015 and 2016 respectively. These crises have led to new approaches to crisis reporting, in which local journalists cover events amid severe violence and the strong nationalist ideologies typical of secessionist movements. Using an innovative mixed method that combines regression analysis and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the article explores the nuances of journalistic professionalism in the reporting of these crises through a survey of 302 journalists from the secessionist regions in these countries. With professionalism operationalized through objectivity, the regression analysis revealed the use of emotions, the inclusion of ideologies on nationalism/secessionism, the freedom of journalists, their use of multiple/variety sources in reporting, and the inclusion of opposing views as factors affecting journalistic objectivity in crisis reporting in Cameroon and Nigeria. The FsQCA results further stress the nuances in the independence of these factors and the complex circumstances where their presence or absence could enhance objectivity in reporting. In this way, the study reveals the dialectics of existing literature on media systems using an innovative methodological approach.