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

Year 2021, , 142 - 154, 31.12.2021

Omotayo Omitola

https://doi.org/10.17829/turcom.932506

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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