FRAMING OF THE COVERAGE OF HERDSMEN/FARMERS CLASHES BY PUNCH AND GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS (2016-2018)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to ascertain how The Punch and The Guardian newspapers covered the
herdsmen and farmers’ clashes in Nigeria. The study relied on secondary data from the contents
of the selected newspapers as its source of data using content analysis as its method. The study
reviewed critically, news stories, editorials, interviews, opinions, comments, letters to the editors
and features stories as published by The Punch and The Guardian. The purposive sampling
technique was used to select only issues bordering on herdsmen/farmers crisis published within
the 3 years studied. A total sample size of 275 issues were discovered, coded and analyzed from
1096 publications using the quantitative content analysis method. The findings revealed that the
Punch newspaper allotted greater number of spaces to the herdsmen/farmers clashes than the
Guardian newspaper. The study also found that the herders/farmers clashes episodically reported
as straight news (95.5%). The study further disclosed that the newspaper reports were written in
20 frames out of which action frame and attack frame dominated the reports. Most of the reports
were just reported as a mere action or an attack. The study therefore recommends that
Prioritization of event that take human life should be a must and not optional in the Nigerian
media. It is further recommended that Journalists should be investigative in their reports giving
their audience the privilege of conclusive investigation etc.