For twenty-three years, the Christian Council of Nigeria made plans for a newspaper with which to plead the cause of the disadvantaged in Nigeria. In April 1967, it eventually launched the <I>Nigerian Christian</I> magazine as a Christian journal for reporting and reflection on matters of importance to the nation. This thesis assesses the <I>Nigerian Christian</I> magazine's response to oppression in Nigeria, in order to determine whether the magazine lived up to its foundling vision. The study is delimited to 1) the <I>Nigerian Christian's</I> reporting and reflection over a twenty-year period beginning from its debut, and 2) the following issues: (i) national ideology, (ii) the rule of law, (iii) constitutional view of subsistence rights, (iv) official corruption, and (v) the strike phenomenon. The concept of advocacy press, a journalistic category, currently articulated and promoted by the World Association for Christian Communication, was adapted and used as a normative frame of reference, for assessing the <I>Nigerian Christian's</I> response to oppression in Nigeria. Having established that the criterion is both a journalistic category and a socio-ethical tool with a sound theological basis; its news-worthiness criteria were adapted and reformulated for this study as follows: 1) alternative time-frame, 2) alternative social actors, 3) alternative narrative. The analysis shows that the <I>Nigerian Christian</I>, in its reporting, lived up to its founding vision with respect to the first news-worthiness criterion. It was less faithful to its vision with the second. With reference to the third criterion, the <I>Nigerian Christian</I> betrayed its founding vision because its reflection on the five issues was an echo of the <I>status quo</I>.

<p>The master’s project consists of two parts: the journalistic part Project Awaiting (texts) including four journalistic genres and the subsequent Research Report Project Awaiting. These are 23 pages and 32 pages respectively.</p>