Ifechelobi: Language use and the Mass Media: A Focus on Selected Nigerian Newspapers
Language use and the Mass Media: A Focus on benefit the individual as a member of a society; these functions
Selected Nigerian Newspapers
Abstract
It is a well known and acknowledged fact that the English language
serves a lot of functions in Nigeria. It is the language of
communication, instruction, commerce, law and is one of Nigeria’s
official languages. Correct usage is usually considered a great asset
towards helping the second language learner to grow and become
proficient in his use of the language. One discovers that there is a
great disparity between accepted forms of the English language and
what one finds in the daily newspapers. Nigerian newspapers are
now seen as promoters of ungrammatical forms and ill-formed
constructions in their use of language. Most often the reading public
learns and uses such constructions as correct models of the English
language. The focus of this paper is to highlight some of these
deviant constructions so that the second language learner would be
cautious so as not to be misled while the print media should do all in
their power to write in such a way to help the ESL learner to
achieve communicative competence through the pages of the
newspapers.
The newspapers used were The Nation, Daily Sun, Daily
Independent, The Guardian and Champion.
Introduction
The information function of the Mass Media is all
embracing and indispensable for the meaningful existence
of members of society. Through their various contents,
the mass media collect, store, process and disseminate
news, data, pictures, facts, messages, opinions and
comments which members of the public require in order
to react knowledgeably to personal, environmental,
national and international conditions, as well as to be in a
position to take appropriate decisions. (Okunna 274)
The mass media is used to perform a number of functions which
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range from informational, educational functions to lighter functions
like entertainment. Language therefore becomes the veritable tool
by which any of these functions are accomplished in the society
through the mass media.
News and information benefit the reading public when they are
used to communicate meaningful ideas in context and also meet the
needs and priorities of the people. It is the mass media that serves as
an intermediate transmitter of information and news to a large
number of people.
Communication therefore is a process by which
professional communicators use the mass media to
disseminate messages widely, rapidly and
continuously to express intended meanings in large
and diverse audiences in an attempt to influence
them in a variety of ways. (Defleur and Dennis qtd in
Okunna 5)
The mass media (radio, television, magazines, and newspapers) are
powerful tools for disseminating information globally. They
constitute tools for opinion moulding, agenda setting, public debate,
integration, entertainment, education, motivation and mobilization.
The most exciting of all the mass media is the print media.
According to Samson, “everywhere in the world, the press, like all
other influential users of the language, suggests and participates in
determining standards of correctness” (42).
The position of English as a second language in Nigeria is
incontestable. It is at least for the time being the country’s official
language, making communication possible across all ethnic barriers.
One of the domains in which the English language plays a very
important role in national life is the media in which the newspaper
stands out. It is a truism that every newspaper which aims at being
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read in every nook and cranny of this nation must be published in
the English language.
The print media is where a writer’s register of word: utilization of
sentences, clauses and phrases... is most prominent and because the
print media has tremendous influence on its audience, it must write
well.
According to Okunna et al, “It is plain truth that mass
communicators use English more than the owners of the language.
Indeed they are called “the users of the language” (234).
But she went on to maintain that one has no business in mass media
communication if one is “not at home with the English language”.
What this means is that media writers should know the language
and have its nuances at their finger tips in order to write effectively.
Communication is successful to the extent that the interpreters
assign values to the meanings intended by the writer.
Communication necessitates the ability of the writer to articulate in
very clear terms so that the receiver can understand the message
very well. The more appropriate and effective the language is, the
more likely one will create satisfying productive, and meaningful
relationship in personal, social, business, political, educational and
public lives.
Language therefore becomes the tool to use in maintaining
communication among human beings. The knowledge of language
use is the knowledge of how to use language appropriately, that is,
how to get it do what one wants it to do in the appropriate
circumstances.
As the language for wider communication between people
of different ethnic groups and the medium of general
education, the affairs of government, the newspapers, the
large businesses, the public agencies, etc, it has rightly or
wrongly become the tool for nationhood. (Baldeh 39)
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Ifechelobi: Language use and the Mass Media: A Focus on Selected Nigerian Newspapers
Language use by the Nigerian Print Media
This linguistic dimension concerns not only the way English
permeated the vocabulary of Nigerians but also how it is learned. It
is pertinent that “influential” users of language should have a good
command of the English language as many look up to the media,
especially newspapers as conveyors of correct and standard forms
of the English language.
The newspapers should indeed maintain correctness and meaningful
interpretation without ambiguity or double meaning, otherwise the
future of English in this country will be doomed.
According to Banjo, “the Nigerian press has contributed to the
positive acquisition of English language than any other social
institution in the country” (34).
Banjo also sees the language of the print media as serving a great
role in determining the standards of correctness of the English
language.
Duyille does not hold the same view. According to him, “Many
students and scholars alike are being misled into applying the most
common mistakes of writing that causes breakdown in the
communication chain which is very characteristic of Nigerian
newspapers” (48). A serious demand of communication is the
ability of the reader to understand the points, or ideas intended by
the writer.
Roberts reacting to the modern daily newspapers in their use of
language stresses that:
The newly formed journalese at its worst was the
new language of the press without a soul. It is a
shrieking, gaudy, sensation-loving, devil may-care
kind of English that is used to lure the reader by all
possible means. (78)
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According to Cook,
… the techniques of writing and illustrating which
were the prides of the newspaper organization had
been turned to perverted uses, twisting the facts of
every day news into whatever form that seems best
suited to produce sales for the howling newsboy.
Worst of all, instead of giving readers effective
readership, it misleads them by drawing attention to
a language that assaulted and contravened all
grammatical rules of the English language, both
directly and indirectly. (302)
The press, in trying to make their messages stand out in large,
colourful, but short headlines often creates a lot of ambiguities
which do not help the second language learner in acquiring good
English for effective communication. Ambiguity interferes with
meaning by making the learning of English an arduous task as it can
create confusion and a misinterpretation of issues involved.
Learning a language includes learning the “acceptable” meaning of
certain strings of sounds, and learning how to combine these
meaningful units into larger units which also convey meanings.
Newspaper headlines for example need to be as short as possible,
while obeying grammatical rules but must be very careful not to
leave out certain words that will result in highly ambiguous forms.
The print media, instead of misleading its reading public, should
aim at educating, informing, persuading, mobilizing, integrating,
and even entertaining in correct and good English.
Adesanoye, reiterates that:
we can go a step further to consider the
competence level of those papers published in the
favourable language, a careful analysis would
reveal that not a few of the articles, the features
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Ifechelobi: Language use and the Mass Media: A Focus on Selected Nigerian Newspapers
and the editorials - are written in the kind of
language that seems deliberately designed to
bamboozle and frustrate the average Nigerian
reader of these papers.… (qtd in Okunna 235)
Ossai maintains that whatever be the reason of the print media,
ideas must be so organized that they make sense to the readers.
It is a well known fact that language use is not just a product of a
number of individual languages - “knowledge bits” which reside
completely within language users. It is also profoundly affected by
a number of other factors such as the social context, that is, the
person one is communicating with and for what purpose, the mode
of communication and the constraints. Taking these and other
factors into account gives us a much richer and more accurate
account of the way language is actually used and leads to a better
description of the knowledge and skills which make up language
proficiency. There seems to be an unexpressed view that the learner
act as a “container” into which language knowledge could be
poured. Learners are active participants in the learning process and
should be allowed to take partial responsibility for their own
learning. Since learners are active participants, it follows that care
should be taken concerning the quality of their learning. Readers
usually strive to decode and construct meanings and messages
whereas writers use language resource to encode and express
meanings. These meanings and messages occur at the level of text
or discourse. The learner is usually engaged in processing
contextual information to achieve an appropriate interpretation or
realization of textual meanings and messages. Unfortunately, one
discovers that most often the intended meaning of the writer is not
the information the reader decodes. If the language used is
ambiguous then the reader has difficulty in understanding the
intended meaning of the message. This difficulty will result in
various forms of confusion, misinterpretation and misunderstanding
of the message.
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There is a feeling of disgust about the communicative competence
of most print media writers. Many writers (Cook, Roberts, Pinker)
have expressed worries about the poor standard of the language use
of some of the newspaper writers. It is essential that language of
newspapers should follow clear rule of word order so as to reduce
the possibilities of ambiguity and confusion in receiving of
messages.
According to Ogu,
incorrect sentence structure is another prominent
feature of Nigerian newspapers. There are clear
cases of the violation of the rules that govern the
generation of well-formed sentences in English. The
sentences are often too long and incoherent thereby
leading to obscurity of the message being conveyed.
The problem is enormous because in reading, there is
no one to ask and, unless the term is marked so as to
designate the meaning intended, it may be
impossible to distinguish one meaning from another.
( 87 )
The following examples from Nigerian newspapers illustrate the
point:
1. * The natural question to ask whether all of the Nigerian
police officers have gone for summer-break too since
that is the new fad.
This Day, September 1, 2009
Is the reference to police officers that are Nigerians or to officers in
the police force?
√ The natural question to ask is whether all the Nigeria
police offices have gone on summer break, since that is the
new-fad.
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Ifechelobi: Language use and the Mass Media: A Focus on Selected Nigerian Newspapers
2. * The second letter to Mark was about the Somali pirate
who has held in captivity about ten Nigerians who were
on their legitimate duty from Saudi Arabia where they
had gone to acquire a new ship for their employers since
August 2008.
Vanguard, September 8 2009
√ The second letter to Mark was about the ten Nigerians on
a legitimate duty to Saudi Arabia where they had gone to
acquire a new ship for their employers but have been help
capture by Saudi pirates since August 2008.
3. * It takes an uncommon gut for any Nigerian public
official to take the type of steps taken by Sanusi in the
face of unlimited access of the otherwise untouchable
bank executives and cohorts to carrots and sticks, which
they could delay to either compromise or intimidate him.
Vanguard, September 8 2009
4. * The state shall direct its policy towards ensuring that
suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate
food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age
care and pensions and unemployment, sick benefits and
welfare of the disable, are provided for all citizens.
The Guardian, September 17 2009
√ The state shall direct its policy towards ensuring that an
adequate shelter, food, reasonable national minimum
living wage, old age care and pensions, unemployment,
sick benefits and welfare of the disabled, are provided for
all citizens.
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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 3 No. 1, 2012 Ifechelobi: Language use and the Mass Media: A Focus on Selected Nigerian Newspapers

What is your take on the position of the northern

5. * He said the delay of screening the new nominees was governors…? (incorrect)
caused by the National Assembly who has been on
precess which needs to screen the new nominees has
What is your stake on the position of the northern
been on recess. governors…? (correct)
Champion September 25 2008
Daily champion-6th September, 2010 (page 10)
√ He said the delay of screening the new nominees was
caused by the National Assembly who has been on recess  It amounts to gross inconsiderateness…(incorrect)
which needs to screen the new nominees has been on  It amount to gross thoughtlessness. (correct)
recess.
Daily Independent, 12th October, 2010(Page 30 - 31)
The print media sometimes deviates from established rules of the  …he may not be disposed to allowing Nigerians
English language. Examples: participate fully … (incorrect)

The Guardian Newspapers - 26th December, 2010 (page 20)  …he may not be disposed to allow Nigerians to
participate fully … (correct)

The US government is…worried that the  As usual of many parts of the country some …
pubicisation of its cables would…(incorrect) (incorrect)

The US government is…worried that the publicity of its  As it is usual with many parts of the country, some …
cables would…(correct) (correct)

…experimental antibiotics… with which children were  …many of the indigenes and the youths are rooting
treated in the middle of a meningitis epidemic… for him as the next local government boss.
(incorrect) (incorrect)

…experimental antibiotics…with which children were  …many of the natives and youths are clamouring for
treated during a meningitis epidemic…(correct) him to be elected as the next local government boss.
(correct)
Daily Champion -14th August, 2010 (pages 11 and 12)

Why do you think politicians are having such  But the question is: Why did OBJ insist that
insatiable…? (incorrect) Yar’Adua should be the president, knowing fully
well that the state of health of Umaru might not be

Why do you think politicians have such insatiable…? able to fully cope with the rigorous… (incorrect)
(correct)
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 AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies Volume 3 No. 1, 2012
 … full well (correct)
Daily Sun. Saturday, November 6, 2010
 Fleet of campaign vehicles is maintained on a daily basis.
(incorrect)
 A fleet of campaign vehicles is maintained on a daily
basis. (correct)
There are even incomplete sentences in the newspapers. Example:
It was the kind of setting and he would have loved.
The Nation. Tuesday, September 14, 2010.
The question is “love what?” The object is seen to be omitted.
According to Baldeh, “any regular reader of the Nigerian press will
be shocked at the many apparently incorrect uses of English” (18).
So the print media should do all in its power to deal with omission
of articles, inappropriate use of words, wrong use of verbs and poor
construction of sentences.
Conclusion
It is of utmost importance that the print media as influential users of
language should have a good command of the English language.
The reality that mass disseminated information is directed at a
widely dispersed audience who interpret the message to derive
meaningful information should spur them into simplicity and
succinctness of language. Realizing that meaning lies with the
reader, will go a long way to help the writer in use of language to
desist from unnecessary use of ambiguous expressions,
grammatical constructions that do not conform to the basic rules of
standard grammar, improper use of idiomatic expressions, use of
complex words and incoherent sentence constructions.
The unfortunate thing is that the newspaper serves as a medium of
communication and the reading public comprises both the elites and
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Ifechelobi: Language use and the Mass Media: A Focus on Selected Nigerian Newspapers
the mediocre. Some of the reading public see the print media as
models of linguistic performance without recognizing these deviant
structures, nor the double, or alternative meanings created by
ambiguity in language use. The presence of these misconception-
prone words, most often create serious problems of comprehension
for the reader. At the end of the day, the intended meaning of the
writer is never realized by the reader.
Nigerian newspapers would do well to take the advice of Ogu. She
emphasizes that:
The use of language is of utmost importance to both
the writer and the reader. When language is properly
used, effective communication takes place and the
intended meaning is passed across to the reader
effortlessly. On the contrary, when language is
inappropriately used, the meaning intended becomes
misconstrued due to the resultant vagueness and
ambiguity. The second language learner is adversely
affected as he imitates some of the deviant structures
as the correct forms.
( 115 )
Nigerian newspapers should therefore try as much as possible to
adhere strictly to the rules of Standard English usage and good
grammar. Close attention should be given to correct choice of
words and expressions to achieve international intelligibility.
Jane N. Ifechelobi, Ph.D teaches in the
Department of English Language & Literature,
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka
janefechi@gmail.com
Works Cited
Akmajian, Adrian et al. Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and
Communication. New Delhi; Prentice Hall Pub., 2006.
Babaleye, Ayodele. “The Grammatical Peculiarities of Nigerian
Newspaper Headlines”. (Unpublished research), 2007.
Baldeh, Fodeh. Better English Learning and Teaching. Nsukka: Fulladu
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Publishing Company, 1990.

Cook, Collins. Effective Communications .Newcastle: Theorogoog
Pub.1999.
Danuta , Reah. The Language of Newspapers. London: Routledge, 2003.
Duyile, Banjo. English Language in the News. Ibadan: Heinemann, 1991.
Fromkin, Victoria et al. An Introduction to Language. (7th Edition)
Boston: Thomson Heinle, 2003.
Ogu, Nkiru. A Linguistic Analysis of the Language of Nigerian
Newspapers. An unpublished M.A. Thesis, 2008.
Okunna, Chinyere (ed). Teaching Mass Communication: A Multi-
Dimensional Approach. Enugu: New Generation Ventures Ltd.,
2002.
Okunna, Chinyere, Kate Omenugha and Uche Ebeze. Writing for the
Mass Media in Teaching Mass Communication: A Multi-
Dimensional Approach. Enugu: New Generation Ventures Ltd.,
2002.
Oluga, S.O. “Ambiguity in Human Communication”. Malaysian Journal
of Communication. Vol. 26:37-46
Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct.
http://www.putleaningfirst.com/language/
06senten/ambiguity.html (on line) 12/8/2008.
Sewall, Murph. Ambiguous Newspaper Headlines. http://www.fun-with-
words. com/ambiguous headlines.html 2008.

Newspapers
This Day. September 1, 2009.
Vanguard. September 8,2009
The Guardian. Sept.17,2009
__________. Dec, 26,2010
Daily champion Aug,14,2010
___________. Sept 6,2010
___________. Sept 25, 2010
Daily Independent. Oct 12,2010
Daily Sun. Nov 6,2010
The Nation. Sept 14, 2010

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