Peace and Conflict Management in Nigeria: Mapping the Historical Role of Language in Peace Journalism in the 21st Century

Abstract

This paper examines the roles of language usage in peace and conflict management in Nigeria. It exposes the influence of language in mass media reporting by journalism in the 21st century. It traces the past and interprets the present based on the experience of the past to forecast the likely trend of event in future. Relevance instances of language communication bypass were among those factors examined by this paper to understand the effect of such on the peace and conflict restoration in the environment. Stages of conflict in Nigeria and how media portray conflict stories through language selection and usage in their reporting were identified. A chronicle of recent conflicts in Nigeria was explored to drive home every point made in this paper. Suggestions were also made on how best conflict could be covered to sustain peace and prevent conflict in Nigeria. It is therefore hoped that this paper would contribute immensely to peace and conflict management in this millennium and beyond.

Keywords: Peace, Language, Journalism, Conflict and Management.