CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Terrorism is the exercise of violence or the threat of violence against an unarmed and/or unsuspecting population to coerce it to meet the demands of the aggressor.
In this context, terrorists usually have as its target a civilian population not a military force, unless the latter has had little or no reason to anticipate hostile action against it. For example, suicide bombers exploding their bombs in a crowded market place would be terrorists, but small boys throwing stones or even gasoline bombs at tanks in a riot would not be, while the tanks, themselves, could easily become instruments of state terrorism. Alade, W. F (2010)
Schmid and De Graaf, (2000) cited in Alade, W. F (2010) define terrorism as “the deliberate and systematic use or threat of violence against instrumental (human) targets in a conflict between two or more parties, whereby the immediate victims who might not even be part of the conflicting parties.
The United Nations General Assembly quoted in (Koh; 2002). defines terrorism as a criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes… whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that may be invoked to justify them.
According to U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as quoted by The Terrorism Research Center 2002). Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.
Similarly, Nigeria as a nation-state is under a severe internal socio-economic and security threat. As a more general level, the threat has social, economic, political and environmental dimensions. Each of these dimensions has greatly affected the nation‘s stability, and can be traced to the ethnic militia armies, ethnic and religious conflicts, poverty, terrorism, armed robbery, corruption, economic sabotage, and environmental degradation (Ilufoye, 2009).
1.2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
History has shown that the media can incite people towards violence. It is on record that Adolf Hitler used the media to create hatred for Jews during the Second World War (Jimoh and Danladi, 2012). However, with the information dissemination role of the media, Terrorism became a known sect in Nigeria after the killing of their leader during the tenure of the then president of Nigeria, late Umaru Musa Yaradua in 2009. This has made it significant to some writers in Nigeria and abroad to come up with literature explaining the events in their judgments and proffering solutions to the problem. Notwithstanding the literature on insurgency, attempt has not been made to investigate newspapers’ framing of the identity, motive, perceived risks and recommended solutions of Terrorism from the view point of conflict-sensitive journalism which the reseacher is set out to examine. Ozohu-Suleiman (2013) has noted that the concerns follow media’s antisocial record of inciting and encouraging conflicts i.e. the discontent of war journalism did not end with only suppositional prescription of a shift to peace journalism. Researchers and experienced journalists have spent time suggesting how the media might shift from war to peace in covering conflicts. Key contributors in this regard include Galtung (1998), McGoldrick and Lynch (2000), Howard (2003), Kempt (2003) and El-Nawawy and Powers (2008). Similarly, a one time president of America (Thomas Jefferson) briefly shows the power of the newspapers on people’s perception about issues “Were it left for me to decide whether we should have a government without newspaper or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.” The above classical statement by Jefferson situates the print media in the society as a leading vehicle to give light in perceiving issues. Being the oldest in the mass media category, newspapers exert some influence in the society that people look on to them not only for the news of the day, but informed opinions on topical issues (Aneato, 2009). Also, Ibrahim (2012) has noted that Nigeria as a country has suffered a lot from numerous ethnoreligious crisis since independence. Most times the coverage of such crises by the Nigerian press has been described as partisan and further promotes the polarization of the country along regional lines as well as unethical reporting. However, the framing of Terrorism is not free from this allegation that the southern newspapers may give weight to war journalism while the northern papers may prioritize peace journalism depending on their clients’ vulnerability to the current Terrorism insurgency.
Surveillance has been one of the core responsibilities of the media. This onerous task is expecting the media to take into cognizance the reports capable of inflaming the current violence and putting the tranquility of the state at stake. This is achievable by framing with a tilt to peace related approaches. Studies have shown that the Nigerian media have not done well in this regard. Okpara (2010) unveils in his study that the Nigeria media are yet to effectively play the surveillance function in their reportage of conflicts. He contended that this has led to the emergence of unabated conflicts in Nigeria. Okali (2011) lends support to the above finding when he unveils in his study that the Nigerian media have not done well in discharging their surveillance role which has an adverse effect on the security of the Nation. However, the forces that contribute to conflicts in Nigeria, media are one of thousands, as poverty is the first factor to be addressed by the government. This has been corroborated by Amienyi (1989) who critically evaluated the specifics of media performance in Nigeria and reported that certain socio-cultural factors were serving as obstacles to broadcasting for national integration.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study is to assess Newspaper coverage and the coverage of terrorism in Nigeria. The specific objectives are:
1. To examine the consistency of newspapers’ coverage of Terrorism insurgency with conflictsensitive journalism.
2. To determine the newspapers’ framing of the identity and motive of Terrorism.
3. To find out the areas of salient emphasis on perceived risks of Terrorism insurgency in the newspapers’ reportage.
4. To identify the predominant solutions offered in the newspapers’ reportage of Terrorism.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
For the purpose of achieving the set objectives, four research questions were raised for the study as:
1. How consistent is the reportage of the Terrorism insurgency by the Nigerian newspapers with conflict-sensitive journalism?
2. How is the identity and motive of the Terrorism portrayed in the newspapers’ reportage?
3. What are the areas of risk emphasis in the newspapers’ reportage of Terrorism insurgency?
4. What are the predominant solutions offered in the newspapers’ reportage of the Terrorism insurgency?
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study can be justified by the growing challenges and threats posed by the insurgents in the national and international scene and the interest of the vulnerable and the insurgents to read newspapers for their information. In the words of Yusha’u (2010:1) commenting on the importance of the newspapers in resolving issues of public concern, “it is imperative to note that some of the key players in the first republic like DrNnamdiAzikwe and Chief ObefemiAwolowo were newspaper publishers”. This according to Agbaje (1993:459) “meant that the press had become inextricably linked with the emerging pattern of political rivalries often couched in geo-ethnic terms.” Cognizant of the above fact, studying newspapers in the context of rivalries which Terrorism movement is one of, will help in proffering solutions to the problem. Similarly, Mbazie and Nnah (2012) cited in Ibrahim (2012) have noted that with the advent of bomb blast insurgency in Nigeria, the journalists must come out of their shell to show genuine concern and play defining role for the quick resolution of the matter. The media, according to them, should rise up, employing journalistic activism and advocacy to stem this ugly trend, while urging the media not to be cowed from discharging their surveillance function no matter the state of insecurity, Idiong (2012) adds that the media must ensure that they play their surveillance functions well with a view to complementing the effort of security agents. Thus, there is need in the side of the media to strategise plans of rescuing the country by distancing them from the current uprising, and this can be achieved by adopting the conflict-sensitive journalism. The mass media constitute a unique social institution. This is in the sense of its dual character. It is both a business, increasingly being subjected to the fundamental logic of commerce and the market, and an ideological institution providing the dominant symbolic and discourse environment through which we make sense of the world we live in, the mass media are at the heart of social and political power (Blumler, 1990 cited in Oso, 2011). In this sense those who are interested and involved in the struggle for power; hidden persuaders; other advocates and interest-claimants see the mass media as a strategic resource. The framing and agenda-setting power of the media is of concern to them because “control over the definition of a problem is a major stake in the policy process” (Cobb and Elder, 1981: 400 cited in Oso, 2011). Government and the media organizations can use the data generated from the study to plan for the containment of the spread of the insurgency. In addition, the study will serve as a guide to future researchers in the area of insurgency and its results can supply vital information to the policy makers in Nigeria and Diaspora to strategize their mission of peace-making in African countries and the globe. On investigating the perception of adults in relations to the integrative contribution of mass media in Nigeria on security challenges, Amienyi (1990) asks the adults to indicate how helpful they thought radio, television; newspapers and magazines were to the creation and sustenance of national integration in Nigeria. He finds a high percentage of respondents (80%) perceiving radio and television as being very helpful to national unity and integration. However, newspapers being the pioneer of information dissemination from the inception of Nigeria before the electronic media, its help to the sustenance of Nigeria cannot be underestimated. National integration can be achieved when the media contribute to the attainment of peace through the framing of peace-driven reports on the Terrorism insurgency and other national challenges.
1.6. SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This study is restricted to Nigerian newspaper and the coverage of terrorism in Nigeria using Daily tryst newspaper in Lagos state as a case study.
1.7. LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.
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