Television and conflict reporting: framing of ethno-religious conflict in Southern Kaduna by Nigerian Television Authority and Channels television

Abstract

Despite the lingering ethno-religious conflict in Southern Kaduna, studies regarding how the media frame the conflict are still at the developing stage. In particular, scholars have not examined how both private and public television stations frame the conflict. The current study attempted to fill this gap by examining how the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and Channels TV frame the conflict. The researchers focused on how ownership influenced the framing of the ethno-religious conflict with particular attention to sources of stories, frame used and language of framing. Content analysis was used to conduct the study. Data gathered were analyzed using a combination of descriptive and inferential statistics. The result of the study showed that a significant relationship exists between ownership and sources of stories on ethno-religious conflict. However, ownership was not found to be associated with frame used. Nonetheless, an association exists between ownership and language of framing. Overall, the TV stations studied mainly made use of official sources, thus giving little or no room for opposing voices. Also, there was the dominance of episodic frame in the reportage of ethno-religious conflict in Southern Kaduna. The theoretical, practical and scholarly contributions of the results have been highlighted.