ABSTRACT

The upsurge in the rate at which ethno-religious conflicts do break out across Nigerian cities especially in northern part is worrisome. It has put the unity and harmonious co-existence among the various ethnic and religious groups under serious threat. Nigerian press as the watch-dog of the society has covered this endemics deficiently. The inadequacy in the coverage pattern has compounded the challenges faced by the federal government in attempting to arrest the incessant crises. The objectives of the study are: to know the level of prominence Nigerian Newspapers gave to coverage of ethno-religious conflicts; the extent at which they ensure balance, if they have been responsible in their reportage of the conflicts and if ownership interests do influence coverage of conflict stories. Employing the mixed method of data gathering, the study content analysed the daily and weekend editions of Tribune, Sun and Daily Trust Newspapers on the coverage of Jos crisis and Boko Haram Insurgence (Ethno-Religious conflicts) for a period of twenty months (April, 2010- December 31, 2012). In addition, Six conflict reporters from the three sampled Newspapers were also selected for In-depth Interview. The Framing theory of the media was employed as the theoretical framework. Findings revealed that Daily Trust was less sensational while, Sun and Tribune tended to be sensational in that, most of their stories with screaming headlines ran from front page to inside page. Daily Trust Newspaper did well at balancing its report by allotting more space for stories written in full pages while Sun and Tribune allocated less space hence, level of balance in their stories were affected. Accordingly, during the study period, the papers gave high prominence to coverage of Jos crisis and Boko Haram Insurgence by publishing (42.6%) of the stories as front page, they are responsible in that most (56%) of the stories were tucked inside and a minimal (1.2%) on back pages. More so, most (84.0%) of the stories were written as Straight News as „major‟ form with minimal feature (11.2%), letter (1.5%), editorial (1.2%), the use of evocative pictures were also de-emphasized (20.6%), the sampled papers were neutral (58.1%), negative (38.7%) minimally (3.3%) positive in their reports. The study then concludes, that contrary to the widely held view that Nigerian Media indulge in unethical conduct in its reportage of ethno-religious crisis, and that ownership pattern do influence to some extent media content the Media, still do strive to ensure ethical reporting, and they also practice responsible journalism. It then recommends among others that Journalists should be properly trained on media ethics so as to ensure that they write balanced and objective stories and, strive to be responsible when presenting information on conflicts to the general public.

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Introduction