Keeping Up with Power/Corruption in a Pandemic: A Study of an Investigative Journalist’s Twitter Handle

Abstract

Investigative journalists have the special role of conducting investigations and reporting on them. In Nigeria, studies have confirmed that a lot of investigative reports are found in the traditional media, both broadcast and print, and most of these reports, which are about financial scandals, originate from government agencies saddled with the responsibility of battling corruption. This paper applies the social responsibility theory of the press to investigate the transformation and change in investigative reporting in Nigeria as occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and disseminated on the social media. The study focuses on the COVID-19 tweets of Fisayo Soyombo, an acclaimed Nigerian investigative journalist who has over 101,000 followers on Twitter. Soyombo’s tweets from 1 April 2020 to 30 June 2020 harvested from his eponymous Twitter handle formed the study sample. By identifying narratives of corruption, scandal stories and follow-up stories in the tweets, the paper finds out that unlike what obtains in the traditional media, Soyombo initiates investigation into the non-financial activities of people in positions of authority and seizes the opportunity of asynchronous communication on Twitter to report his findings regularly. However, the same asynchronicity as well as the unfolding events of the pandemic also cause him to end up with many questions and not enough answers. Nonetheless, the paper concludes that such questions can form the basis of further investigations beyond the pandemic.

Keywords

• Fisayo Soyombo
• Twitter
• COVID-19
• Nigeria
• Investigative Journalism

Pandemide İktidarı/Yolsuzluğu Takip Etmek: Bir Araştırmacı Gazetecinin Twitter Kullanımına Yönelik Bir Analiz

Abstract

Araştırmacı gazeteciler çeşitli araştırmalar gerçekleştirmeleri ve bunları haberleştirmeleri bakımından özel bir role sahiptirler. Nijerya’da yapılan çalışmalar, yolsuzluğa karşı mücadele etmekle sorumlu olan hükümete yakın kurumların da dahil olduğu finansal skandallara dair çok sayıda araştırmacı gazetecilik haberinin geleneksel medyada mevcut olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Bu çalışma, basın dahilinde toplumsal sorumluluk kuramından hareketle Nijerya’da COVID-19 pandemisiyle birlikte araştırmacı gazetecilikte yaşanan değişim ve dönüşümleri sosyal medyadaki yayınlar bağlamında analiz etmektedir. Bu kapsamda çalışma, Twitter’da 101.000’den fazla takipçisi olan Nijeryalı gazeteci Fisayo Soyombo’nun COVID-19 hakkında yayınlamış olduğu tweet’lere odaklanmaktadır. Soyombo’nun 1 Nisan 2020 ve 30 Haziran 2020 tarihleri arasında atmış olduğu tweet’ler çalışmanın örneklemini oluşturmaktadır. Tweet’leriyle belirtilen dönemdeki yolsuzluk anlatılarını, skandal hikayelerini ve sonrasındaki gelişmeleri teşhis eden Soyombo’nun araştırmacı gazeteciliği, iktidar konumundaki kişilerin finans dışı aktivitelerini gün ışığına çıkarmakta ve Twitter’dan yürüttüğü asenkronize iletişim ile geleneksel medyanın aksine düzenli bir biçimde araştırmalarını haberleştirmektedir. Diğer yandan Soyombo’nun gerçekleştirdiği asenkronize iletişim pandemide meydana gelen olaylar ile birlikte düşünüldüğünde gazetecinin çok sayıda soruyla karşılaşması sonucunu meydana getirirken, gazeteci tarafından verilebilen cevapların sayısı azalmaktadır. Buna rağmen bu çalışma, öne çıkan soruların pandemi sonrasında yapılabilmesi muhtemel gelecekteki gazetecilik araştırmalarının çıkış noktasını oluşturabileceği sonucunu ortaya koymaktadır.

Keywords

• Fisayo Soyombo
• Twitter
• COVID-19
• Nijerya
• Araştırmacı Gazetecilik

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