Journalism Practice in a Country Facing Division Threats : Newspaper Framing of Secession Agitations in Nigeria

Authors

Somtochukwu Victor OkekeFollow
Ogechi Eucharia OkwumbaFollow
Greg H. EzeahFollow
Gever Verlumun CelestineFollow

Date of this Version

Winter 9-16-2019

Abstract

Violent agitations for the secession of South-East from Nigeria is one of the conflict situations that has continued to persist, even after the civil war. The conflict is shredded in political and ethic alignments, thus threatening to drive the country into a second civil war. This study examined media framing of secession agitations pioneered by Indigenous People of Biafra. In doing so, a total of four newspapers- The Vanguard, The Punch, The Guardian and This Day- were content analysed while the study duration was June 1^st 2015 to June 1^st 2018. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the study. The result showed that most of the newspapers examined cited official sources. It was also found that less attention was paid to causes of the agitations as well as solutions. The implications of these results on the frustration aggression and media framing theories are also explored.