Reporting violence or mediating peace? The Nigerian press and the dilemma of peace building in a democracy

This study explores the mediation of ethno-religious conflicts by the press and investigates their potential for escalating or minimising such conflicts. Undertaken in the context of the protracted sectarian conflicts plaguing the Nigerian nation since return to democratic governance in 1999, the study focuses particular attention on the Nigerian press and seeks to locate the press within these conflicts. It addresses the wider debates around the reporting of war and conflict, particularly the contentious issues of the relationship between media and conflict and explores the implications of this relationship on the course of violent intra-state sectarian conflicts. Research on news culture confirms that media representations generally tend to glamorise war, violence and propaganda with negative implications for the resolution of such situations. This has raised critical issues about mainstream journalistic practices in the coverage of violence and scholarly arguments as to whether journalism is a participant or a detached observer in the conflict cycle. This study engages these difficult and much contested issues within the context of emerging alternative strategies for conflict reportage, focusing particular attention on the concept of peace journalism and its applicability to routine journalistic practice. The research utilises a repertoire of quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection, including content analysis, framing and critical discourse analyses and semi-structured interviews. The data collected is interrogated using a theoretical framework that incorporates ideas from ethnicity, media and ethnic conflicts, critical political economy as well as debates about alternative approaches to conflict coverage and reportage. The objective is to understand the intricate relationship between conflict dynamics, conflict analysis and the reportage of ethno-religious conflicts. The research reveals significant flaws in the quality of coverage and with the framing and representational patterns of the conflicts. These flaws are located within the historical development of the Nigerian press, the commercialisation of its operations as well as weak institutional structures. It further engages the context of news production with specific focus on the issues of professionalism, training and media regulation and how these affect content. It argues for the adoption of journalistic practice patterns and styles that will make the press less predisposed to aiding conflict escalation. This has implications for both teaching and research in the field as well as for news practices by the press