Abstract
The Boko Haram terrorists have consistently attacked Nigerians in different parts, especially the northern part, of the country. The actions and inactions of this group have been covered, visually and verbally, by different media outlets. Extant studies on Boko Haram (BH) terrorism in Nigeria have gained attention from scholars from other non-linguistic fields. Hence, sufficient attention has not been paid to BH terrorism by linguists. Some of the linguistic studies that have examined the coverage of the BH actions and inactions have emphasised the verbal representations, neglecting the visual representations of the reports. This study, therefore, examines the pictorial representations in selected newspapers in representing BH terrorism. In gathering data, BH-related pictures and images are purposively selected from four newspapers which were published from 2011 to 2014. The four purposively selected newspapers, that is, Daily Trust, Leadership Nigeria, The Punch and The Nation are representative of the northern and southern parts of Nigeria. The newspapers allocate space to the pictorial representation of the BH activities. The analysis is mainly guided by van Leeuwen’s (visual) representation of social actors; and complemented with other relevant multimodal models. The newspapers’ visual representations cognitively and imaginatively influence readers’ experiences in relation to the activities of Boko Haram terrorists.
Highlights
Media reports in recent years have widely covered attacks across the world
For most civilians who could not move near the ‘battlefield’, the representations and presentations in the newspapers give some of the actual effects of Boko Haram (BH) terrorism in Nigeria
Two tools – individualisation and collectivisation have been identified in the visual representations
Summary
Media reports in recent years have widely covered (terrorist) attacks across the world. Media outlets across the world have played a major role in reporting terrorism and the fight against terrorism locally and internationally. Such reports, which have not sufficiently provided a complete view of global terrorism, have succeeded in covering attacks from New York to Moscow, Paris to Istanbul, Buenos Aries to Mumbai, Syria to the Philippines, the Middle East and other countries in West Africa like northern Nigeria and Cameroon, and so forth. The local media outlets based in the countries or regions that are regularly hit by terrorists, together with other national and international media outlets which are miles away from the regions, have incessantly taken an occupation on the reportage of terrorism and the fight against it. Newspaper outlets in Nigeria have widely reported both the BH activities and the war on the activities of the group
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