Abstract

An evidence of urbanisation is the wide layout of roads and proliferation of vehicular activity leading to traffic congestion. This development gradually degenerates if left unchecked to decay, environmental pollution, loss of man hours, accidents and a general state of chaos. The study considers newspaper framing of these issues, focusing on the issues of frequency, slant and theme. To this end, Daily Sun, The Guardian, and Daily Trust newspapers were content analysed. The research relied on mid year reports -May to August, 2017 editions  and it is situated within the framing theory. Findings reveal low frequency for traffic congestion reports, more than half of which are negative, with major focus on fatalities, crimes, and bad roads as themes. This confirms that traffic congestion is not given adequate priority by Nigerian newspapers.

Key Words: News Framing, Traffic Congestion, Urban Roads, Nigerian Newspapers.

*     Vincent Adakole Obia is of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria.

**     Emmanuel Paul Idakwo is of the Department of Theatre and Media Arts, Federal University, Lafia, Nigeria.

© ^AMCRON Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 11, No. 1, April 2019, pp. 173 – 180