Abstract
The media discursive representation of participants and their roles in conflict situations is the focus of this study. The Nigeria-Cameroon clashes over the oil rich Bakassi Peninsula have been reported in newspapers from the two countries. In a bid to demonstrate how social attitudes are expressed in the discourse structure of news reports, the study analyzed news reports from four newspapers in the countries published in the heat of the armed conflicts between 2002 and 2010. The analysis focused on the thematic representations, the representation of actors in the material processes and power hierarchy. Our findings show that newspapers from each of the countries presented perspectives that seemed to favour their positive images before the entire world, each claiming victim status for their key actors. In terms of the different ideologies and values that motivate the news reports, the Nigerian newspapers adopted event-oriented reporting style, thereby appealing to the value of social justice. The news visibly portrayed the abuse of human rights and injustice by Cameroon security forces. On the other hand, Cameroon newspapers, while presenting misfortunes of the country's security forces in the hands of the militant groups from Nigeria, portrayed Cameroon security forces as responsive and capable of handling the conflict. The foregrounding of the virtues of the country's security forces in the news reports in Cameroon newspapers demonstrates that they are motivated by the ideology of patriotism.
Highlights
Conflicts in the Bakassi Peninsula, a 1,690-kilometer oil-rich border between Nigeria and Cameroon predates the post-independence period of the two nations
Newspapers from each of the countries slant the news to represent the key participants – the Cameroon security forces and Nigerians living in the peninsula as people with social power in the discourse
Nigerian newspapers foreground the torturing experience of Nigerian citizens in the hands of Cameroon security agents, thereby using the news reports to illustrate a broader issue of human right abuse
Summary
Conflicts in the Bakassi Peninsula, a 1,690-kilometer oil-rich border between Nigeria and Cameroon predates the post-independence period of the two nations. A number of existing critical discourse studies have focused on media representations of different groups, especially in conflict and war situations. Ebuka Igwebuike and Rotimi Taiwo: Representation of Bakassi Peninsula Conflict in Nigeria 129 and Cameroon Print Media people, as well as the major source of violent events, while police, on the other hand, are mostly portrayed as victims of such acts (cf Trew 1979; Fowler 1991; Lee/Craig 1992). According to the analysis of transitivity, the Chinese government, (especially its police officers) were portrayed as aggressive and violent by predominantly positioning them as agents of transactive processes of "dragging" and "wrestling", "knocking over" and "dragging away" some other participants This constructs the image of the police as instigators of violence. The focus of this study is on how the principal actors in the Bakassi Peninsula conflict are represented in selected print media emanating from two countries (Nigeria and Cameroon) at the centre of the conflict
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