Abstract
ABSTRACT The conflict between farmers and herdsmen in Nigeria has been going on for many years, resulting in huge loss of lives and resources, and the media have expectedly been covering the conflict. This study investigated how Nigerian newspapers covered the conflict with a view to finding out if there is ethnic othering in the reportage. A total of three Nigerian newspapers (The Punch, The Sun and Leadership) were purposively selected and studied for a period of seven months (1 January 2018–31 July 2018). About 598 online copies of newspaper articles were content-analysed, with the code sheet as the instrument for data collection. The result was analysed quantitatively, using tables and percentages and supplemented with qualitative analysis using verbal quotes. Findings showed that the newspapers gave adequate coverage of the issue with the straight news format as the most used, while the dominant voices heard in the news reports were those of the Government and victims/residents. The results also showed that there is ethnic othering in the newspapers as reports indicated that the terms “herdsmen” and “Fulani herdsmen” were used interchangeably, with labels like “Fulani terrorists”, ‘Rampaging/marauding Fulani herdsmen”, “killer Fulani herdsmen”, among others.
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