News Framing and Ethnic Conflicts Vulnerability in Multiethnic Societies

Abstract

The springboard of conflicts in most multiethnic African societies have been alluded to the media and ethnic group leaders, however much attention has not been directed at these helixes. More so that there is a new strong concern about the increasing cases of ethnic conflicts being stimulated by dramatic surge in intolerant expressions, the hardening of ethno-political positions and the proliferation of ethnic militias that have unleashed varying degrees of violence and terror on the polity while the government interventions appeared ineffective. This motivates the main objective of this study which goes beyond understanding the immediate motives for ethnic conflicts in Nigeria but to discover the mainsprings of ethnic conflict behaviour in relation to the roles of newspaper framing and ethnic groups’ attitudes alongside a long lasting solutions. Therefore, series of accusations against the Nigeria newspapers by the ethnic group leaders lead us to understand that the media are indeed insensitive on the issues of ethnic conflict. Also, that from bias framing of ethnic issues, newspapers have enormous power in setting ethnic differences which shape conflict behaviour. Another salient but veiled influences emanating from the findings are the ethnic consciousness and intolerance that have continued to impede the relationship among ethnic groups as well as progress of Nigeria. Due to high level intolerance for each other, every action and inaction is given ethnic coloration as a result conflict ensue. Meanwhile, both government and media self-regulation should be strengthened to curb the excesses that stimulate ethnic conflicts. Hence, how the newspaper presents news of ethnic issues should be a direction for future research. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s1p496