A Theoretical Discourse on the Mediatisation and Framing of Jos Ethno-Religious Conflicts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/journal.v6i2.953Keywords:
Mediatisation, framing, ethno-religious conflicts, indigenes, settlers.Abstract
Studies on the role of journalists in the Jos ethno- religious conflicts are enormous, but none examines this phenomenon through the theoretical lenses of mediatisation and news framing to understand the logic that underpins the construction of conflict narratives. While mediatisation describes media logic in news production, news framing suggests the way the narratives which constitute news are constructed. Both theories explain journalistic practices in many respects. For instance, understanding media logic is the first step in identifying journalists’ role in the Jos conflicts which in turn determines the brand of journalism they adopt.The Jos conflicts involve a ‘settler’ group craving for recognition and legitimacy on the one hand, and a group of ‘indigenes’ that insists the territory is its inheritance on the other. Based on critical analysis, this paper argues that journalists impose media logic on their audiences through news framing and make them to understand reality from their own point of view. This effort is a new thinking towards understanding theoretical dimensions to media and/or journalistic interventions in the Jos violent conflicts so that researchers may build on these frameworks.
References
Ademola, F. (2006). Theories of social conflict. In S. G. Best (Ed.), Introduction to peace and conflict studies in West Africa (pp. 35-60). Ibadan: Spectrum Books.
Anifowose, R. (1982). Violence and politics in Nigeria : the Tiv and Yoruba experience. New York: Nok Publishers.
Archetti, C. (2007). A multidisciplinary understanding of news: Comparing elite press framing of 9/11 in the US, Italy, France and Pakistan. Journal of International Communication, 13(1), 86-118.
Backholm, K., & Björkqvist, K. (2010). The effects of exposure to crisis on well-being of journalists: A study of crisis-related factors predicting psychological health in a sample of Finnish journalists. Media, War & Conflict, 3(2), 138-151.
Beaudoin, C. E., & Thorson, E. (2002). Spiral of violence? Conflict and conflict resolution in international news. In E. Gilboa (Ed.), Media and Conflict: Framing Issues Making Policy Shaping Opinions (pp. 45-62). Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers.
Best, S. G., & Rakodi, C. (2011). Violent conflict and its aftermath in Jos and Kano, Nigeria : what is the role of religion? Birmingham: University of Birmingham.
Blaikie, N. W. H. (2010). Designing social research : the logic of anticipation (2nd ed.). Maiden, MA: Polity.
Brewer, P. R., & Gross, K. (2010). Studying the effects of issue framing on public opinion about policy issues: does what we see depend on how we look? . In P. D'Angelo & J. A. Kuypers (Eds.), Doing news framing analysis : empirical and theoretical perspectives (pp. 159-186). New York: Routledge.
Cappella, J. N., & Jamieson, K. H. (1997). Spiral of cynicism : the press and the public good. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Christensen, M., & Jansson, A. (2014). Complicit surveillance, interveillance, and the question of cosmopolitanism: Toward a phenomenological understanding of mediatization. New Media & Society, 17(9), 1473-1491. doi:10.1177/1461444814528678
Cline, L. E. (2011). ‘Today we shall drink blood’: internal unrest in Nigeria. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 22(2), 273-289. doi:10.1080/09592318.2011.573399
Coleman, R. (2010). Framing the pictures in our heads: exploring the framing and agenda-setting effects of visual images. In P. D’Angelo & J. A. Kuypers (Eds.), Doing news framing analysis: empirical and theoretical perspectives (pp. 233-261). New York: Routledge.
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2015). Basic qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (4 ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Cottle, S. (2006). Mediatized conflict: issues in cultural and media studies. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Couldry, N., & Hepp, A. (2013). Conceptualizing Mediatization: Contexts, Traditions, Arguments. Communication Theory, 23(3), 191-202. doi:10.1111/comt.12019
Crisis Group Africa Report. (2012). Curbing violence in Nigeria (1): The Jos crisis.
Crotty, M. (1998). The foundations of social research: meaning and perspective in the research process. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
D’Angelo, P., & Kuypers, J. (2010). Introduction: doing news framing analysis. In P. D’Angelo & J. A. Kuypers (Eds.), Doing news framing analysis: empirical and theoretical perspectives (pp. 1-13). New York: Routledge.
Danfulani, U. H. D. (2006). The Jos peace conference and the indigene/settler question in Nigerian politics. Retrieved from http://www.ascleiden.nl/pdf/paper-danfulani.pdf
Deacon, D., & Stanyer, J. (2014). Mediatization: key concept or conceptual bandwagon? . Media, Culture & Society, 36(7), 1032-1044.
Deacon, D., & Stanyer, J. (2015). ‘Mediatization and’ or ‘Mediatization of’? A response to Hepp et al. Media, Culture & Society, 37(4), 655-657. doi:10.1177/0163443715580761
Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51-58. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x
Ewart, J., & McLean, H. (2015). Ducking for cover in the ‘blame game’: news framing of the findings of two reports into the 2010–11 Queensland floods. Disasters, 39(1), 166-184. doi:10.1111/disa.12093
Fahmy, S., & Johnson, T. J. (2005). “How we performed”: Embedded journalists' attitudes and perceptions towards covering the Iraq war. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 82(2), 301-317. doi:10.1177/107769900508200205
Falasca, K. (2014). Political news journalism: Mediatization across three news reporting contexts. European Journal of Communication, 29(5), 583-597. doi:10.1177/0267323114538853
Falkheimer, J., & Olsson, E.-K. (2015). Depoliticizing terror: The news framing of the terrorist attacks in Norway, 22 July 2011. Media, War & Conflict, 8(1), 70-85. doi:10.1177/1750635214531109
Feierabends, I. K. (1969). Social change and political violence: cross national patterns. In H. D. Graham & T. R. Gurr (Eds.), The history of violence in America : historical and comparative perspectives: a report submitted to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. New York: Praeger.
Frame, J. D. (2013). Framing decisions : decision making that accounts for irrationality, people, and constraints. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Fuller, J. (2010). What is happening to news : the information explosion and the crisis in journalism. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.
Galadima, H. S. (2011). Media, conflict and development. In J. H. P. Golwa & J. P. Ochogwu (Eds.), Media, conflict and peacebuilding in Nigeria (pp. 17-34). Abuja: Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution.
Galadima, J. D. (2010). Brothers against brothers: the press, identity politics and conflict in northern Nigeria Jos: Selidan Books.
Gilboa, E. (2002). World perspectives on media and conflict. In E. Gilboa (Ed.), Media and conflict: Framing issues, making policy, shaping opinions (pp. ix-xv). Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers.
Giles, D. (2010). Psychology of the media. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Giles, D., & Shaw, R. L. (2009). The psychology of news influence and the development of media framing analysis. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 3(4), 375-393. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00180.x
Gill, J., & Johnson, P. (2002). Research methods for managers (3rd ed.). London: Sage.
Golwa, J. H. P. (2011). The media and conflict management in Nigeria: how far, how effective in a transitional democracy? In J. H. P. Golwa & J. P. Ochogwu (Eds.), Media, conflict and peacebuilding in Nigeria (pp. 89-112). Abuja: Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution.
Hepp, A. (2013). The communicative figurations of mediatized worlds: Mediatization research in times of the ‘mediation of everything’. European Journal of Communication, 28(6), 615-629. doi:10.1177/0267323113501148
Hepp, A., Hjarvard, S., & Lundby, K. (2015). Mediatization: theorizing the interplay between media, culture and society. Media, Culture & Society, 37(2), 314-324. doi:10.1177/0163443715573835
Hepp, A., & Krotz, F. (Eds.). (2014). Mediatized worlds : culture and society in a media age. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing consent : the political economy of the mass media. London: Vintage.
Hjarvard, S. (2008). The mediatization of society. Nordicom review, 29(2), 105-134.
Hjarvard, S. (2009). Soft individualism: media and the changing social character. In K. Lundby (Ed.), Mediatization : concept, changes, consequences (pp. 159-177). New York: Peter Lang.
Hong, S. C. (2013). Scare sells? A framing analysis of news coverage of recalled Chinese products. Asian Journal of Communication, 23(1), 86-106. doi:10.1080/01292986.2012.717090
Hornik, R. C. (1977). Mass media use and the "revolution of rising frustrations": A reconsideration of the theory. Communication Research, 4(4), 387-414. doi:10.1177/009365027700400402
Hoskins, A., & O'Loughlin, B. (2015). Arrested war: the third phase of mediatization. Information, Communication & Society, 18(11), 1320-1338. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2015.1068350
Houston, J. B., Pfefferbaum, B., & Rosenholtz, C. E. (2012). Disaster news: Framing and frame changing in coverage of major US natural disasters, 2000–2010. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 89(4), 606-623. doi:10.1177/1077699012456022
Hummel, R. (2013). Limitations of journalism in war situations: a case study from Georgia. In J. Seethaler, M. Karmasin, G. Melischek, & R. Wohlert (Eds.), Selling war : the role of the mass media in hostile conflicts from World War I to the 'War on Terror' (pp. 315-329). Bristol: Intellect.
Knoblauch, H. (2013). Communicative Constructivism and Mediatization. Communication Theory, 23(3), 297-315. doi:10.1111/comt.12018
Krause, J. (2011). A deadly cycle: ethno-religious conflict in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria: A Working Paper on Small Arms Survey. Geneva: Geneva Declaration Secretariat.
Krotz, F. (2014). Mediatization as a mover in modernity: social and cultural change in the context of media change. In K. Lundby (Ed.), Mediatization of Communication (pp. 131-161). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Kuypers, J. (2010). Framing analysis from rhetorical perspective. In P. D'Angelo & J. A. Kuypers (Eds.), Doing news framing analysis : empirical and theoretical perspectives (pp. 286-311). New York: Routledge.
Landerer, N. (2013). Rethinking the Logics: A Conceptual Framework for the Mediatization of Politics. Communication Theory, 23(3), 239-258. doi:10.1111/comt.12013
Lerner, D. (1958). The passing of traditional society. Modernizing the Middle East. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press.
Livingstone, S. (2009). On the mediation of everything: ICA presidential address 2008. Journal of Communication, 59(1), 1-18. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.01401.x
Livingstone, S., & Lunt, P. (2014). Mediatization: an emerging paradigm for media and communication research. In K. Lundby (Ed.), Mediatization of Communication (pp. 703-723). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Lundby, K. (Ed.) (2014). Mediatization of Communication. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
May, T. (2011). Social research : issues, methods and process (4th ed.). Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Musa, A. O., & Ferguson, N. (2013). Enemy framing and the politics of reporting religious conflicts in the Nigerian press. Media, War & Conflict, 6(1), 7-20. doi:10.1177/1750635212469909
Nie, K. S., Kee, C. P., & Ahmad, A. L. (2014). Mediatization: A grand concept or contemporary approach? Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 155, 362-367. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.306
Norman, M., & Ryan, L. J. (2008). The Rosenzweig picture-frustration study "extra-aggression" score as an indicator in cognitive restructuring therapy for male perpetrators of domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. doi:10.1177/0886260507312948
Novak, R. J., & Davidson, S. (2013). Journalists reporting on hazardous events: Constructing protective factors within the professional role. Traumatology, 19(4), 313.
Nyam, A. D., & Ayuba, L. T. (2016). The growth of urban slums and conflicts in Nigeria: A case study of Jos and environs 1980-2010. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 6(5), 364-369. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7763/IJSSH.2016.V6.673
Pan, Z., & Kosicki, G. M. (1993). Framing analysis: An approach to news discourse. Political communication, 10(1), 55-75.
Pathirage, C., Amaratunga, R., & Haigh, R. (2008). The role of philosophical context in the development of research methodology and theory. The Built and Human Environment Review, 1(1), 1-10.
Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (4 ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Phillips, A. (2015). Journalism in context: Practice and theory for the digital age. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Rodgers, J. (2013). The air raids that never were and the war that nobody won: Government propaganda in conflict reporting and how journalists should respond to it. Global Media and Communication, 9(1), 5-18. doi:10.1177/1742766512463037
Saldana, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (3 ed.). London: Sage.
Scheufele, D. A. (1999). Framing as a theory of media effects. Journal of Communication, 49(1), 103-122.
Schudson, M. (2011). The sociology of news (2nd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.
Seib, P. (2013). Introduction: delivering war to the public: sharing the public sphere. In J. Seethaler, M. Karmasin, G. Melischek, & R. Wohlert (Eds.), Selling war: the role of the mass media in hostile conflicts from World War 1 to the ‘war on terror’ (pp. 1-14). Bristol: Intellect Publishers.
Shahin, S. (2015). Framing “Bad News”. Journalism Practice, 1-18. doi:10.1080/17512786.2015.1044556
Shorkey, C. T., & Crocker, S. B. (1981). Frustration theory: a source of unifying concepts for generalist practice. Social Work, 26(5), 374-379. doi:10.1093/sw/26.5.374
Stromback, J. (2011). Mediatization of politics. In E. P. Bucy & R. L. Holbert (Eds.), Sourcebook for political communication research : methods, measures, and analytical techniques (pp. 367-382). London: Routledge.
Stromback, J., & Esser, F. (2014). The mediatisation of politics: towards a theoretical framework. In F. Esser & J. Stromback (Eds.), Mediatization of politics : understanding the transformation of Western democracies. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Taft, P., & Haken, N. (2015). Violence in Nigeria: Patterns and trends. New York: Springer.
Vincze, H. O. (2014). ‘The Crisis’ as a journalistic frame in Romanian news media. European Journal of Communication, 29(5), 567-582. doi:10.1177/0267323114541610
Wallensteen, P., & Sollenberg, M. (1996). The end of international war? Armed conflict 1989-95. Journal of Peace Research, 33(3), 353-370. doi:10.1177/0022343396033003008
Wallensteen, P., & Sollenberg, M. (1997). Armed conflicts, conflict termination and peace agreements, 1989-96. Journal of Peace Research, 34(3), 339-358. doi:10.1177/0022343397034003011
Yoon, Y. C., & Gwangho, E. (2002). Framing international conflicts in Asia: a comparative analysis of news coverage of Tokdo. In E. Gilboa (Ed.), Media and conflict: Framing issues, making policy, shaping opinions (pp. 89-115). Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers.
Young, A. M. (2009). Frustration-instigated career decisions: A theoretical exploration of the role of frustration in career decisions. Human Resource Development Review.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
