Abstract:

Herdsmen and farmers conflict in various parts of Nigeria presents challenges especially for the present administration and Nigerian citizens in general, in respect of media representations and commentaries which Duan & Takahashi (2016) said could engender mixed impressions in people’s minds (either positive or negative). Skorup (2017) and McQuail (2010) also observed that in spite of regulations and controls of the media, there exist instances of distorted messages and emotion-laden content most of which are mostly profit-driven - to sell the newspaper content. In his study of the press coverage of political crises and conflicts in Nigeria, Ekeanyanwu (2007) posited that the Nigerian press operate more as active players in political crises and conflicts than as impartial judge. Odunlami (2017) also observed that in spite of the volatility and the tragedies that ethnic violence has had and continues to evoke in the country, stories of the ethnic clashes do not enjoy sufficient prominence as a national crisis in the newspapers, suggesting that the media do not give adequate coverage to the crises. Again, in their study of television news perspective of conflict reporting, Akpoghiran and Otite (2012) found that audience views on the perspective of NTA news on conflict reporting were not significant as far as national unity is concerned.