Media and protection of human rights: Newspaper frames of Armed Forces human rights abuse of civilians in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest cases of human rights abuse. There are many instances of human rights abuse of innocent civilians by the Nigerian military.

Objective: The  aim of this study was to determine   media framing of armed forces human rights abuses.

Methods: A total of four newspapers were examined for 18 years, and 358 stories on armed forces human rights abuses were identified and analysed.

Results: The result showed that most of the newspapers used the human interest frames to report armed forces human rights abuses. It was also found that the tone of framing was critical to such human rights abuses while the relationship between the armed forces and civilians was framed as hostile. The result of the Chi-square analysis showed a significant relationship between the newspapers and frames used and the construction of the relationship between civilians and the armed forces. No significant relationship was discovered between the newspapers and the tone of framing. It was also found that newspapers, frames and relationship construction significantly correlate at 0.05.

Conclusion: Nigerian media framing of military abuse of human rights is not impressive and not satisfactory.

Unique contribution: This study has provided evidence regarding the contribution of the media in promoting human rights in Nigeria.

Key recommendation: The media in Nigeria should improve in their framing of human rights abuse civilians by the military.