Dangers of Unnamed News Sources and the Negative Impact on Economic Growth
Nigeria’s economy remains fragile, owing to multiple factors such as growth and vulnerability to changes in external conditions, especially oil price, fluctuations as well as internal factors due to political and social unrests; hence this research investigated how the arbitrary use of anonymous sources could lead to the spread of disinformation and also endanger the nation’s economy. Anchored on the uses and gratifications theory, the paper asserts that fake news about Nigeria has negative consequences on her image and the ability to attract foreign investments into the country, thus, constituting a danger to the nation’s growing economy. It further identified other factors such as financial misinformation, fall in the nation’s stock price, panic withdrawals of depositors’ funds as a result of unforeseeable factors which could be a liquidity crisis for the bank, among others. This paper therefore concluded that as a way to check disinformation, there should be a policy by news organisations in Nigeria, stating that any reporter who wants to use anonymous sources in news reporting should obtain permission from his/her editor.
Keywords: News source, Economy, Disinformation, Reporting and Dangers.