News framing of the ‘Detroit Bomber’ in the Nigerian press

Abstract

the world was greeted by the story of a young Nigerian who, according to the reports, attempted to destroy a US airliner to Detroit, Michigan. His name is Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. This story was shocking not only to the outside world but also to Nigerians because of the background of the alleged perpetrator: he had received a sound education right from childhood, and had attended some of the best schools including University College London.A point of interest here is that Nigeria is a country that is regionally divided between the north and the south. The ownership of the media is predominantly southern (Oyovbaire, 2001;Yusha'u, 2010aYusha'u, , 2010b but with a handful of newspapers in the northern part of the country. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is from the northern city of Katsina. This raised a number of questions: how would the predominantly southern press, with predominantly Christian ownership, frame the story involving a Muslim terror suspect? How would a northern newspaper with a Muslim ownership frame the story? What are the implications of this story within the context of the 'global war on terrorism'? These are the questions that this paper would like to explore. Global media and the war on terrorAfter the attack on the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001, the Bush administration introduced the so-called 'war on terror' which 'has been offered by neoconservatives as a kind of long-term replacement for the Cold War' (Hammond, 2007: 59). Several scholars have conducted studies on the ways the global media have covered the war on terror. This includes Calebrese (2007), Pieterse (2009), El-Nawawy and Powers (2010) and Jayyusi (2007).At the local level within Nigeria the media (the press in particular) has developed similar modes of categorizing others as the global media. This is particularly so when it comes to the reporting of Islam and Muslims. There are numerous examples to illustrate

Influence of Newspaper Framing of Covid-19 Pandemic on Readers' Perception of the Virus

“…From research question three, the finding showed that majority of the respondents accede to have positive perception on how news stories on COVID-19 pandemic are framed. This finding is in tandem with result of an earlier study carried out by Yusha'u (2011), who held that framing, which describes the way the media see a thing or the way they want the audience to see a story, event of happening is achieved by making the news angles salient, based on selection of words, language among other features, often to protect editorial interests or ownership philosophy. This process according to him has significant relevance to the way people interpret and react to the entire story.…”

“…In journalism practice, framing means the way the media see a thing or the way they want the audience to see a story, event of happening. This, the mass media achieve by making the news angles salient, based on selection of words, language among other features, often to protect editorial interests or ownership philosophy (Yusha'u, 2011). This process also has significant relevance to the way people interpret and react to the entire story.…”

Framing of the H1N1 Flu in an Indian Newspaper

“…How media shape and present such health crises have been studied through agenda-setting and framing theories of the media. Framing refers to the exclusion or inclusion of categories, concepts and contexts in the news (Yusha’u 2011). Research points out that the media’s framing of a general issue affects people’s understanding of that issue (Shehata 2010).…”