Illegitimation of same-sex sexualities in news reports of selected Nigerian newspapers

Abstract

Nigeria has stringent legislation against same-sex identified people and their supporters. Scholarly attention on same-sex relationships in the Nigerian context has mainly been on the legalistic and sociological perspectives, with little attention paid to how language serves as a means of illegitimising same-sex sexualities in the Nigerian media. This study, therefore, examines illegitimation strategies in the representation of same-sex sexualities in news reports of selected Nigerian newspapers. van Leeuwen’s theory of legitimation and Critical Discourse Analysis were adopted as the framework, for their contextual approaches to language. A total of 80 news reports on same-sex sexualities from four purposively selected Nigerian newspapers ( Vanguard, The Punch, Nigerian Tribune and The Sun) were randomly sampled. The newspapers were selected based on their preponderant coverage of reports on LGBT people between 2013 and 2015. Journalists used experts’ authority, role-model/personal authority, authority of tradition, conformity, moral evaluation and analogy to legitimise discrimination against non-heterosexuals in news reports. This paper argues that the media are instrumental in the continuous violence against non-heterosexuals in Nigeria.