Abstract

The study was undertaken to analyse the Nigerian newspaper reportage of the activities of secessionist agitation in Nigeria between May 1^st – September 30^th, 2021. The objectives were among others to determine the Nigerian newspaper sources of stories on reportage of the activities of secessionist agitation in Nigeria. The agenda setting theory, social responsibility theory and frustration aggression underpinned this study. The research design adopted in this study was content analysis. Content analysis was chosen because the focus of the study is to study the corpus or content of Nigerian newspapers in Nigeria. The research population was limited to four prominent and most-read newspapers in Nigeria. So, Daily Trust, The ThisDay, The Nation, and The Sun Newspapers were selected. The sampling frame was May 1^st –September 30^th, 2021 publications of the four Nigerian Newspapers covering May 1^st –September 30^th, 2021, giving a total of 338 issues of the four Nigerian newspapers. The major instrument for gathering data was a coding sheet or coding schedule. The descriptive and inductive statistics were used for the study. The result revealed that the four Nigerian newspapers under study depended on formal sources of stories on activities of the secessionist agitation in their framing of activities of secessionist agitation. The study concluded that at the moment, newspapers frames of secessionist conflict are lacking in terms of highlighting the precipitations and suggesting ways of addressing them. It was, therefore, recommended that Nigerian newspapers should highlight the remote and immediate reasons of secessionist agitations and always highlight panacea to secessionist agitations in Nigeria.

Key Words: Nigerian Newspapers, Reportage, Secessionist, Agitation, Content Analysis.

About the authors

*    Opeyemi Muideen Adeyemi is a doctoral student of the Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. His research interests include digital communication, crisis management communication, corporate communication and public relations.

**  Chigozi Eke is a doctoral student of the Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. His research interests include journalism, media studies, corporate communication, print and broadcast media, development communication, public relations and advertising.

^JCMR Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 2023, pp. 131-142.

© Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria (AMCRON).

Article Citation

Adeyemi, O. M. & Eke, C. (2023). Sources and framing of news stories on secessionist agitations by newspapers in Nigeria. Journal of Communication and Media Research, 15 (2): 131-142.

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