Solution Approach to Newspaper Framing and Ethnic Groups’ Conflict Behaviours

Abstract

The effects of what media frame as news on public behaviours to politics have been discussed extensively in scholarly works, however, the possible solutions in relation to how newspapers framing stimulate conflict frame (behaviours) in ethnic leaders who rheostat the hearts and minds of ethnic groups, are still underexplored. Therefore, series of in-depth interviews on 26 ethnic group leaders were conducted and data were analyzed thematically using NVivo 10 software, to probe into the ethnic group leaders’ conflict frames in other to discover the possible solutions to the incessant ethnic conflicts in Nigeria and similar multiethnic and developing societies. The study found that the since the media and ethnic groups attitudes play part in the emergence and escalation of these conflicts, solutions rest mostly in the handling these two helixes. Specifically, the need for government to be proactive in the areas of amenities, empowerment and monitoring is expedient, while newspaper framing along with the ethnic groups’ actions need to be ethnic sensitive.

Keywords: newspaper framing, ethnic groups, conflict behaviours, media regulation, audience frames