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THE BLEAK PROSPECT OF THE NEWSPAPER IN CONTEMPORARY TIME

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The readership of newspapers determine their circulation figures. In the last decade, the circulation figures of newspapers have continued to dwindle. The prospect of the newspaper in the traditional sense of the printed word is increasingly becoming bleak.
There was a time when the Sunday Times alone sold about a million copy. Though the circulation figures of newspapers are closely guarded like news sources, it is doubtful if all the newspapers combined now sell up to 500,000 copies in a day, even when we have more newspapers than before. The Times titles have since disappeared altogether.
This regression is not due to dwindling purchasing power of Nigerians or the emergence of cable television and the new media alone. Increasingly, public trust in newspapers for accuracy and relevance has equally waned. Atrocious grammar, self-contradiction, superstition and rumour mongering, outright falsehood and brazen attempt to incite the public into a particular political direction or action, among others, have eroded the credibility of newspapers.
Modern history of Nigeria has continued to record print journalists that betrayed their calling. They never remembered to side with the people only with their paymasters. The material inclination of most print journalists feeds Nigerians’ distrust in the media and the belief that the media is biased.
Now most Nigerians don’t trust the media, let alone look to newspapers for guidance. Just 32 percent of adults said they had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the media, according to a poll sometimes ago. Twenty years ago, that number was closer to 70 percent.
It is my sincere hope that print journalists should beat a new path and carve a niche for itself in accuracy, fairness, truth and relevance. Humans will always buy any item they consider to be valuable. Even as things stand, newspapers will continue to rise and some, no matter how successful they might think they are, are going to fall, once they overplay their cards and take the reading public for granted.
Getting involved in investigative journalism and being objective is a way for newspapers to regain some trust, and maybe even some readers.

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