Media Framing of Herdsmen-Farmers Conflict in Nigeria

  • Somtochukwu Victor Okeke University of Nigeria, Nsukka
  • Emeka Samuel Orekyeh University of Nigeria, Nsukka
  • Uchenna Ogemdi Eze University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Keywords: grazing reserves, farmer-herdsmen clashes, framing theory

Abstract

There have been series of farmer-herdsmen clashes in various parts of Nigeria which have claimed several lives, displaced indigenes and destroyed crops on farmlands. Consequently, the media have been reporting these clashes. This study sought to investigate how the media framed the clashes between farmers and herders in Nigeria. Using framing theory, the study examined the story genres and the dominant frames employed by the four selected newspapers (Guardian, Daily Sun, Vanguard, The Nation) between November 2017 and April 2018. The newspapers were purposively selected and content analysed. The continuous week formula was used and each week was selected for the dailies making it a total of 42 editions. Findings show that Daily Sun had the highest stories on farmers-herdsmen clash and the story genre that was mostly used was the straight news format. It was concluded that the newspapers gave the farmers-herdsmen clash enough coverage and therefore recommended that grazing reserves should be built for the herdsmen.

Published
2020-02-19
How to Cite
Okeke, S. V., Orekyeh, E. S., & Eze, U. O. (2020). Media Framing of Herdsmen-Farmers Conflict in Nigeria. University of Nigeria Interdisciplinary Journal of Communication Studies , 23(2). Retrieved from https://journal.ijcunn.com/index.php/IJC/article/view/31
Section
Articles