BENIN RESIDENTS PERCEPTION OF BROADCAST MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE 2020 ENDSARS PROTEST IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The researcher examined Benin residents’ perception towards the media’s coverage of the 2020 EndSARS protest in Nigeria. The research has established that the media as a crucial tool for information dissemination. The study is limited to two local government areas in Benin purposively selected by the researcher. The objective of the study was to determine the Audience extent of exposure to the medias’ coverage of the #EndSARS protest, to find out the station through which they gain access to the message and to determine the audience perception on the media coverage of the 2020 #EndSARS protest. Adopting survey method as the research method, a 14item questionnaire was shared to 384respondents. The Multi-Stage Cluster Sampling technique was considered for this study. The Findings from data analysed were presented with the aid of frequency tables and simple percentages. Findings revealed that the residents of Benin believed the media’s coverage of the 2020 was bias and ineffective. The respondents were dissatisfied with the media coverage of the 2020 EndSARS protest in Nigeria. The study therefore concludes that the residents’ perception towards the protest was that it was bias and ineffective. The study recommends among others that government should not interfere with media content to enable the media relay objective and credible news content.