| Abstract: |
The abduction of 276 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok caused worldwide outcry and demand for their rescue and release. The media are at the centre of it all by reporting and providing real-time updates of the unfolding story. This study investigated the themes and frames adopted in reporting the incident in the Daily Trust, Vanguard, Leadership, The Guardian, Premium Times and Daily Post online newspapers from 15th April 2014 to 14th April 2016. The study adopted framing theory as its theoretical framework and qualitative content analysis to examine news, features, editorials, cartoons, photos and videos under the framing functions of problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, treatment recommendation; and consequences as broad categories of contents to reveal the themes and frames in reporting the abduction. A total of 350 editions of the selected online newspapers were coded and analysed. Inductive method was employed to extract themes and subsequently sift and reveal frames on the abduction. Findings reveal a number of themes such as #BringBackOurGirls campaign, insecurity, ill equipped military, Chibok girls’ abduction, government ineptitude, insensitivity, irresponsibility; and corruption in the military and the government, among others, in reporting the Chibok girls’ abduction. Findings also reveal frames such as blame, rescue demand, condemnation, protest, insecurity, rescue effort, victim, political, hope, corruption and poor governance, among others. The study concludes that, the reporting of the Chibok girls’ abduction is mostly done with negative themes and frames and recommends that policy makers both on security and media issues should be more proactive and utilise the findings of academic researches such as this to serve as a mirror reflecting on issues affecting the society. |
