Visual Framing of the Boko Haram Conflict in the Nigerian Press:A Content Analysis of Leadership and This Day Newspapers

Maude Rabiu GwadabeDepartment of Mass Communication, Bayero University Kano

mrgwadabe@gmail.com

Most research on Media Framing of conflicts has concentrated on textual analysis. Little

research has investigated how pictures are used to visually frame conflicts especially by

African media. Thus, this research examines the use of pictures in reporting the Boko

Haram conflict by two leading Nigerian newspapers, Leadership and This Day. A

content analysis of 401 pictures published between August and November 2014 was

carried out. Findings show a disparity in the amount of pictures used by the

newspapers. Most of the pictures were long shots of victims and protesters as well as

close-ups of politicians and military leaders. Majority of the pictures were not published

on the cover pages but dominated the pages in which they are published. However,

most of the pictures were used in a way that based on past scholarship, would fail to

emotionally connect readers with the ongoing conflict.

Key words; Media and Conflict, War Reporting, Visual Framing, Boko Haram,

Nigeria

Introduction

1

During times of crises or conflicts such as wars, the audience

receives most of its information from the media. Research

suggests that the pictures accompanying conflict stories have the

capacity to emotionally engage the audience and even sway public

perception of the conflict (Parry, 2011; Neumann & Fahmy, 2012;

Huang & Fahmy, 2013; Bleiker, et al., 2013; Dahmen, 2012;

Brantner, et al., 2011). Therefore news photographs deserve more

than a cursory attention when studying the reporting of war.

However, with the notable exception of Zeng & Akinro (2013),

little empirical evidence exists about how the media in Africa

employs visual framing. Their research focused on the visual

framing of the Jos crisis in the online editions of three leading

Nigerian newspapers. This study examines the visual presentation

of the ongoing Boko Haram conflict by the Nigerian press. It

intends to provide insight into how the print editions of

Nigerian newspapers use photographs in the reporting of an

insurgency from August to October 2014.

The Boko Haram conflict has led to the death of more than 13,000

persons from 2009 to 2014 and displaced more than three million

people. Starting from Maiduguri and spreading domestically to

2

various parts of Northern Nigeria including the capital city

Abuja, and internationally to Cameroon, Chad and Niger, the

conflict has attracted a lot of press attention over the years.

Visual Framing

The two most cited definitions of media framing are those

provided by Entman and Gitlin (Parry, 2010). Entman (1993)

defines frames as giving salience to some selected aspects of

reality in such a way as to “promote a particular problem

definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or

treatment recommendation” (p. 52). However Gitlin (1980) defines

frames as “persistent patterns of cognition, interpretation, and

presentation, of selection, emphasis, and exclusion, by which

symbol-handlers routinely organize discourse, whether verbal or

visual” ( p. 7). Gitlin’s definition therefore considers visual

framing at least on a par with textual framing.Visual Framing is

both contingent on and quite different from framing with text

(Fahmy, 2010).

While many researchers have studied media framing through textual

narration of news stories not much attention has been devoted to

the study of visual frames. A research on media framing studies

3

in leading academic journals from 1990 to 2005 found that only 5%

directly coded visuals with 3% as the main discourse unit. 83%

completely neglected visuals while 12% referred to visuals in

their interpretation of frames. Even in studies that analyzed TV

framing 72% ignored visuals (Matthes, 2009). However, the gulf

war led to a plethora of studies on visual framing. See for

example (Fahmy, 2007; Schwalbe, Silcock, & Keith 2008; Silcock,

2008; Parry 2011).

Nevertheless, visual framing should not be underestimated as it

has advantages in influencing public opinion and perception.

Visual information captures more attention than text, is easily

recalled and has more credibility (Brantner, et al., 2011;

Greenwood & Jenkins, 2013).

Framing is more effective when readers are not aware of it. This

makes visual framing more critical than textual framing as people

usually realize that journalists select words and angles when

reporting news stories but fail to realize that pictures could

also be framed (Greenwood & Jenkins, 2013).

Visual Framing Analysis

4

Several researches have employed different means in the analysis

of picture framing. Visual framing is achieved through the form

and content of the pictures i.e. frequency, selection or

exclusion of subjects/objects, the way persons are presented and

accompanying texts (Huang & Fahmy, 2013). The most frequently

studied aspects of visual framing are picture subjects or

objects, picture salience, amount of emotion evoked and shot

types.

Picture subjects or objects are probably the first things that

readers notice in a photograph. Different researches have studied

various categories of picture subjects/objects depending on the

dictates of their research design.

Picture salience is noted by its placement and position as well

as its repetition. The human brain tends to identify with

repeated images.

The use of graphic pictures is one of the longest running debates

in visual journalism (Dahmen, 2014). Social responsibility theory

suggests that media has to run graphic images in order to fulfill

its watchdog functions and inform citizens. On the other side,

ethics of journalism practice caution against exploitation of

5

other people’s tragedy. Visual framing literature suggests that

Graphic pictures elicit stronger emotional responses (Brantner,

et al., 2011; Potter & Smith, 2000). However McKinley & Fahmy

(2011) found no significant differences in regard to level of

graphicness on perceived graveness of an issue or support for

engagement to resolve the given conflict.

Another important aspect of visual framing is the type of shot

used in taking the picture. Experimental analyses by Petersen

(2005) show that variations in picture shots, angle or cropping

can change audience interpretation of news reports.

Despite several studies about the visual framing of conflicts,

war and terror attacks in the US, Europe, Middle East and China,

there has been a shortage of researches of visual framing of

African conflicts by African media. This research therefore

intends to study the visual framing of the Boko Haram conflict in

the Nigerian Press.

Boko Haram Conflict

Boko Haram (Trans. Western education is forbidden) is the popular

name of a group calling itself Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah lid Da’awati wal Jihad

(People committed to the propagation of the Prophet’s teachings

6

and jihad). Founded in 2002 by an Islamic scholar in Maiduguri,

Borno state as group advocating the total implementation of

Shari’ah in Nigeria, it turned violent in 2009 after its members

were killed by the police over resistance to a motorcycle helmet

law (Sergie & Johnson, 2014).

The group has attacked police and military, politicians,

religious institutions, schools, public institutions, media

organizations as well as civilians with increasing regularity

since 2009 after the Nigerian Police killed its founder, Muhammad

Yusuf. The Nigerian government estimates that by September 2014

the group has killed more than 13,000 people (Wakili, 2014) and

displaced over three million others (iDMC, 2014).

In 2013, the US Department of State declared Boko Haram a foreign

terrorist organization and the Nigerian government has declared a

state of Emergency in three north-eastern states of Borno, Yobe

and Adamawa that are regarded as the center of Boko Haram

activities.

So far, the Nigerian army has claimed to have killed its putative

leader Abubakar Shekau at least three times, yet videos of the

leader threatening his enemies, congratulating his Jihadi friends

7

in Iraq and Syria, and declaring an Islamic state continue to

emerge.

The conflict has attracted the attention of both the

international and Nigerian media. In their study of the framing

of the Boko Haram Conflict in Nigeria Okoro & Odoemelam (2013)

found that Nigerian newspapers predominantly used a policy

response frame in their reportage of the conflict and to a lesser

extent the ethnic and religious frames. However, Alao & Uwom

(2012) and Yusha'u, (2013) suggest that Nigerian newspapers show

regional bias in the framing of Boko Haram conflict.

This study focused on a three month period between August to

October 2014 and analyzed two leading national papers; Leadership

from the North and This Day from the South.

The newspapers

Leadership is considered as one of the leading national

newspapers based in Northern Nigeria. It was established in 2004

by Sam Nda-Isaiah and based in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria

(Leadership Newspaper, 2014). It is perceived as an opposition

paper as its owner a presidential aspirant under the platform of

the opposition All Progressives Congress (Gbadebo, 2014).

8

This Day is one of the leading newspapers based in Lagos,

southwest Nigeria. It was established in 1995 by Nduka Obaigbena.

In 1997 it became the first Nigerian newspaper to print in full

color. It has won several awards including newspaper of the year

for three consecutive years (This Day Newspaper, 2014).

Politically, it is considered a pro-government newspaper as its

publisher is a close ally of the ruling People’s Democratic Party

(Gambrell, 2013).

Research Questions

This research aims to find out how Leadership and This Day

newspapers use pictures in reporting the Boko Haram conflict.

RQ1: What are the dominant picture subjects used by both

newspapers?

RQ2: What Salience is given to the pictures?

RQ3: How graphic are the picture subjects?

RQ4: What type of shots were used by the newspapers?

Methodology

Sampling

This research investigates the visual framing of the Boko Haram

conflict in two leading Nigerian newspapers. Abuja based

9

Leadership from the northern part of the country and Lagos based

This Day from the southern part of the country. A census of 91

editions of each paper from August to October 2014 yielded 401

photographs about the Boko Haram conflict. This purposive

sampling method was adopted because of the meagre amount of

photos generated by a random sample of the newspapers over a

three year period.

Coding

The research adopted the coding frame of Zeng & Akinro (2013)

with certain modifications for the measurement of picture

placement and relative size. This is because their work studied

online versions of newspapers while this work studies print

versions.

The pictures are therefore coded in five aspects; picture

subjects, prominence, dominance, graphic portrayal and type of

shots. The unit of analysis is the individual picture.

Picture Subjects; These include Boko Haram leader, Boko Haram

fighters, politicians, military/police/militia on duty, victims,

religious/traditional rulers, military leaders, sympathizers,

10

suspects, protesters, weaponry and material destruction. Images

that do not fall under these categories are coded as ‘Other’.

Prominence; Pictures that appear on the cover pages either front

page or back page are coded as prominent while pictures that

appear on the inside pages are coded as not prominent.

Dominance; A picture is coded as dominant when it is the largest

or the only picture on the page. A picture is coded not dominant

when it is not the largest picture on the page.

Graphic Portrayal; Pictures are coded as graphic when they show

images of death, blood or human suffering. Bomb blast scenes

showing material destruction are also coded as graphic. Pictures

that do not show any of these are coded as not graphic.

Shot Type; Shots were categorized into close-up, medium-shot and

long-shot. A close-up shot focuses on a particular part of a

subject (e.g. face and shoulders). A medium shot is wider than a

close-up (e.g. from below the waist to above the head). A long-

shot has a wider focus and shows the background of a subject

(e.g. a person standing in front of an armored vehicle).

Inter-coder Reliability

11

Though the researcher was the sole coder, a graduate student

independently coded 10% of the selected sample and the result was

computed using the Recal2 web service. The picture subject

variable has 97.5% agreement, and a score of 0.969 in Scott’s Pi,

Cohen’s Kappa and Krippendorff’s alpha. Picture prominence showed

100% agreement, and a score of 1 in Scott’s Pi, Cohen’s Kappa and

Krippendorff’s alpha. Picture dominance produced 97.5% agreement,

a sore of 0.948 in Sott’s Pi and Cohen’s Kappa, and 0.949 in

Krippendorff’s alpha. Graphic portrayal showed 97.5% agreement,

and scored 0.654 in Scott’s Pi, 0.655 in Cohen’s Kappa and 0.658

in Krippendorff’s alpha. Type of Shots produced 92.5% agreement

and 0.881 in Scott’s Pi, 0.882 in Cohen’s Kappa and 0.883 in

Krippendorff’s alpha. A score of 0.61 to 0.80 in Cohen’s Kappa is

considered substantial while 0.81 to 1.00 is almost perfect

(Stemler, 2001). Therefore the inter-coder reliability for this

study ranges from substantial to almost perfect.

Findings

This study analyzed how two Nigerian newspapers Leadership and

This Day used pictures in their reportage of the Boko Haram

conflict for a period of three months from August to October

12

2014. 91 issues of both papers were analyzed resulting in 401

pictures. Leadership yielded 330 pictures while This Day

published 71 Boko Haram related pictures within the period under

study.

Picture Subjects

Research Question I asked about the most dominant subjects used

by both newspapers. As shown in Table 1, victims make up the

highest category of subjects (30.2%) followed by Protesters

(28.4%). Politicians and Military Leaders make up 16.0% each.

An analysis of the two papers separately shows that the most

dominant subjects in Leadership are protesters (34.6%), victims

(33.6%), military leaders (17.27%) and politicians (10.91%). This

Day in contrast leads with politicians (39.4%), victims (14.1%)

and protesters as well as military leaders at 9.9% each.

Table 1: Picture Subject

Count

13

Name of Newspaper Total

This Day LeadershipBoko Haram Leader 5 1 6Boko Haram Fighters 2 0 2Politicians 28 36 64Military/Security/Militia on duty

6 7 13

Victims 10 111 121Religious/TraditionalLeaders

0 2 2

Military Leaders 7 57 64Sympathizers 0 1 1Suspects 2 3 5Protesters 7 107 114Weaponry 0 3 3Material Destruction 1 1 2Others 3 1 4

Total 71 330 401

However, both newspapers used repeatedly published similar

pictures to accompany different stories. Leadership for instance

has a daily column on its front page counting days since the

abduction of over 200 Chibok school girls, which is accompanied

by either a close-up of one of the abducted girls or a long shot

of a group of the girls. Similarly, its second page throughout

the period was dedicated to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. It

features at least a picture of protesters daily. Also, two

pictures of Nigeria’s Chief of Defense Staff and Chief of Army

14

Staff were published interchangeably in 57 articles. On the other

hand, This Day published a picture of president Goodluck Jonathan

19 times and a picture of Borno state governor 8 times.

Salience

Research Question II asked about the salience given to the

pictures by both newspapers. This has been analyzed in terms of

Prominence and Dominance. Only 28.4% of pictures used by both

newspapers appear on the front pages while 51.1% of the pictures

were found to be dominant in the pages they were published.

Analysis of the individual newspapers suggested a difference in

the prominence given to pictures. While 43.5% of the pictures in

Leadership are prominent only 19.7% of the pictures in This Day

are prominent. Leadership displays pictures of the abducted

Chibok girls on the front page daily while This Day does not.

However, there is similarity in the dominance giving to pictures

accompanying Boko Haram stories in both newspapers.

Graphic Portrayal

Research Question III asked about the graphic portrayal of the

picture images in both newspapers. As shown in Table 2, most of

15

the photographs (96.5%) used by both papers were not graphic.

Only 3.5% of the pictures were graphic.

16

Table 2: Graphic Portrayal

Picture Subject: 

This Day LeadershipGraphic

NotGraphic

Graphic

NotGraphic

Boko Haram Leader 2 3 0 1Boko Haram Fighters 0 2 0 0Politicians 0 28 0 36Military/Security/Militiaon Duty 0 6 0 7Victims 4 6 5 106Religious/Traditional Leaders 0 0 0 2Military Leaders 0 7 0 57Sympathizers 0 0 0 1Suspects 0 2 0 3Protestors 0 7 1 106Weaponry 0 0 0 3Material Destruction 0 1 0 1Others 0 3 0 1

The graphic pictures include victims of a bomb attack in Kano,

parents of abducted Chibok girls, the purported corpse of Boko

Haram leader Abubakar Shekau as well as material destruction by

the Boko Haram.

Shot Types

Research Question IV asked about the type of shots used by the

newspapers. As shown in Table 3, almost half of the pictures

(48.4%) were long shot. Close-ups make up 39.7%. Only 12.0% were

medium shot.

17

Table 3: Shot Type

Name of Newspaper Total

This Day LeadershipClose-Up 15 144 159Medium Shot 12 36 48Long Shot 44 150 194

Total 71 330 401

Analysis of the individual newspapers suggest a similarity in the

pattern of shots used. Most of the long shot pictures show images

of protesters or victims while majority of the close-ups show

images of politicians such as President Jonathan and Governor

Shettima of Borno as well as military leaders such as Chief of

Defense Staff and Chief of Army Staff.

Discussion

The findings suggest that the two newspapers are not heavy users

of photographs. In a three month period that witnessed the

killings of more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 50,000

photographs of the ongoing conflict would have been a strong

addition to the reporting of the crisis. Unlike what was

suggested in previous literature in the West and the Middle East

(Entman, 1991; Fahmy & Kim, 2008) news photographs did not play

an important role in the coverage of the Boko Haram conflict by

18

these two newspapers. One has to read the text to understand the

intensity of the conflict. In a nation with an illiteracy rate of

around 40%, this suggests that the newspapers do not provide

enough information to a considerable number of the population.

This discrepancy may be due to the challenges of securing

pictures related to the Boko Haram conflict. Both newspapers have

offices far away from the main are of Boko Haram operations.

Whereas news reports could be generated through long distance

interviews, somebody has to be at the conflict location to snap

photographs. As the Boko Haram group is known to target civilians

indiscriminately, perhaps fear of the safety of photo journalists

may have resulted in over reliance on stock photographs.

However, as Dahmen (2014) noted, the mere absence or presence of

pictures is an important aspect of visual framing. Consistent

with Alao & Uwom (2012) and Yusha'u (2013) the difference in the

amount of pictures published by Leadership and This Day with a

ratio of 3.5:1 suggests a regional bias in the coverage of the

conflict.

In terms of picture subjects, majority of the news photographs

did not depict the ongoing conflict. Leadership newspaper placed

19

a special emphasis on the abduction of over 200 school girls in

Chibok and the ongoing #BringBackOurGirls campaign in a manner

that shows the failure of the Nigerian government to protect its

citizens. As Entman (1993) explains, repetitions of particular

images express salience. The paper however failed to show

pictures of the individual girls or their parents and relatives.

Apart from the Chibok abduction both newspapers use pictures of

politicians and military leaders in settings that are far removed

from the location of conflict. This is consistent with the

findings of Zeng & Akinro (2013) where politicians were found to

be the dominant pictures accompanying the coverage of Jos crisis.

Additionally, in terms of placement of the photographs both

papers published a tiny percentage of the pictures on their front

pages except for the daily picture of abducted Chibok girls

published by Leadership. This suggests a lack of salience given

to the pictures by both papers.

Furthermore, consistent with Zeng & Akinro (2013) and Fahmy

(2010) majority of the pictures used by both papers were not

graphic. Additionally majority of the pictures where long shot.

Unlike Fahmy (2010) who found that close-up photographs tend to

20

show facial expressions and feelings, and therefore evoke more

empathy among the readers, the close-ups in this study serve to

detach the readers from the crisis.

Although the two papers in this study showed a marked difference

in the amount of pictures they used, they exhibit similar

tendencies in the use of non-graphic pictures. Therefore, both

papers failed to emotionally connect with their readers most of

the time.

Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research

This study is one of the first attempts at investigating the

visual framing of conflicts in an African country. It provides

some insight into how the print editions of Nigerian newspapers

use pictures in the reporting of conflict. The results suggest

that visual framing is an area that needs more research attention

especially in African media systems.

Several limitations however, should be considered when

interpreting the findings of this comparative analysis. First,

this study looked only at the print editions of two Nigerian

newspapers. Findings cannot be generalized to the overall press

in Nigeria, as a growing number of readers get their news from

21

online versions of newspapers. The use of pictures in the

websites of these papers may differ from the print editions due

to page limitations. Therefore, future studies may profit by

making comparative analysis of the print and online editions of

the papers.

Another limitation is that the sample size is small. Future

research should use a larger and more representative sample to

have a more comprehensive view of the visual framing trend in

Nigerian newspapers. Furthermore, additional research may look at

more visual intensive media such as news magazines and

television.

Moreover, future research may therefore benefit by incorporating

interviews with picture editors of Nigerian newspapers to shed

more light on the reasons behind the choice of visual frames in

the papers.

References

22

Alao, D. & Uwom, O., 2012. Terrorism in Nigeria: An Analysis of North/South Media Coverage of Boko Haram (November 2011 to March 2012). International Review of Business and Social Sciences, 1(8), pp. 50-62.

Bleiker, R., Campbell, D., Hutchison, E. & Nicholson, X., 2013. The visual dehumanisation of refugees. Australian Journal of Political Science, 48(4), pp. 398-416.

Brantner, C., Lobinger, K. & Wetzstein, I., 2011. Effects of Visual Framing on Emotional Responses and Evaluations of News Stories about the Gaza Conflict 2009. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 88(3), pp. 523-540.

Dahmen, N. S., 2012. Photographic Framing in the Stem Cell Debate: Integrating Eye-Tracking Data for a New Dimension of Media Effects Research. American Behavioural Scientist, 56(2), pp. 189-203.

Dahmen, N. S., 2014. Watchdog, voyeur or censure?. Journalism Practice, pp. 1-15.

Entman, R., 1991. Framing US Coverage of International News: Contrastsin Narratives of the KAL and Iran Air Accidents. Journal of Communication, 41(4), pp. 6-27.

Entman, R., 1993. Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), pp. 51-58.

Fahmy, S., 2007. "They Took It Down"" : Exploring Determinants of Visual Reporting in the Toppling of the Saddam Statue in National and International Newspapers. Mass Communication & Sociey, 10(2), pp. 143-170.

Fahmy, S., 2010. Contrasting visual frames of our times: A framing analysis of English and Arabic language press coverage of war and terrorism. International Communication Gazette, 72(8), pp. 695-717.

Fahmy, S. & Kim, D., 2008. Picturing the Iraq War: Construcing the Image of War in the British and US Press. International Communication Gazette,70(6), pp. 443-462.

Fahmy, S. & Roedl, S., 2010. Lessons from Virginia Tech: Exploring Disparities & Commonalities Between Visual Coverage in US Newspapers &Victims' Families' Perceptions. Visual Communication Quarterly, 17(2), pp. 91-107.

23

Gambrell, J., 2013. Newspaper Strike Hits Flamboyant Nigeria Publisher. [Online] Available at: http://news.yahoo.com/newspaper-strike-hits-flamboyant-nigeria-publisher-142703325.html[Accessed 19 December 2014].

Gbadebo, B., 2014. Sam Nda-Isaiah Resumes at Leadership. Leadership Newspaper, 18 December.

Gitilin, T., 1980. The Whole World is Watching. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Greenwood, K. & Jenkins, J., 2013. Visual Framing of the Syrian Conflict in News and Public Affairs Magazines. Journalism Studies.

Huang, Y. & Fahmy, S., 2013. Picturing a journey of protest or a journey of harmony? Comparing the visual framing of the 2008 Olympic torch relay in the US versus the Chinese press. Media, war and conflict, pp. 191-206.

iDMC, 2014. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. [Online] Available at: http://www.internal-displacement.org/sub-saharan-africa/nigeria/[Accessed 15 December 2014].

Leadership Newspaper, 2014. Home/About Us. [Online] Available at: http://leadership.ng/about/[Accessed 19 December 2014].

Matthes, J., 2009. What's in a Frame? A Content Analysis of Media Framing Studies in the World's Leading Communication Journals, 1990-2005. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 86(2), pp. 349-367.

McKinley, C. & Fahmy, S., 2011. Passing the 'Breakfast Test': Exploring the Effects of Varying Degrees of Graphicness of War Photography in the New Media Environment. Visual Communication Quarterly, 18(2), pp. 70-83.

Neumann, R. & Fahmy, S., 2012. Analyzing the spell of war: A war/peaceframing analysis of the 2009 visual coverage of the Sri Lankan civil war in western newswires. Mass Communication and Society, pp. 169-200.

Okoro, N. & Odoemelam, C., 2013. Print Media Framing of Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria: A Content-Analytical Study of the Guardian, Daily Sun, Vanguard and This Day Newspapers. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(11), pp. 86-94.

24

Parry, K., 2010. A Visual Framing Analysis of British Press Photography During the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon Conflict. Media, War & Conflict,3(1), pp. 67-85.

Parry, K., 2010. A visual framing analysis of British press photography during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. Media, War and Conflict, 3(1), pp. 67-85.

Parry, K., 2011. Images of liberation? Visual framing, humanitarianismand British press photography during the 2003 Iraq invasion. Media, Culture & Society, 33(8), pp. 1185-1201.

Petersen, T., 2005. Testing Visual Signals in Representative Surveys. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, pp. 456-72.

Potter, J. & Smith, S., 2000. The Context of Graphic Portrayal of Television Violence. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44(2), pp. 301-323.

Schwalbe, C., Silcock, W. & Keith, S., 2008. Visual Framing of the Early Weeks of the US-led Invasion of Iraq: Applying the Master War Narrative to Electronic and Print Images. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52(3), pp. 448-465.

Sergie, M. A. & Johnson, T., 2014. Boko Haram. [Online] Available at: http://www.cfr.org/nigeria/boko-haram/p25739[Accessed 26 November 2014].

Silcock, B. W., 2008. The battle of ideological images: CNN vs FOX in visual framing of the invasion of Iraq. Electronic News, 2(3), pp. 153-177.

Stemler, S., 2001. An Overview of Content Analysis. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(17).

This Day Newspaper, 2014. About Us. [Online] Available at: http://www.thisdaylive.com/about[Accessed 19 December 2014].

Wakili, I., 2014. Over 13,000 Killed in Boko Haram Crisis - Jonathan. Daily Trust, 25 September.

Yusha'u, M. J., 2013. Regionalism and Ethnicity in the Nigerian Press:An Analysis of the Coverage of Boko Haram and Niger Delta Conflicts inthe Guardian and Daily Trust. In: Racism, Ethnicity and the Media in Africa. London: IB Taurus.

25

Zeng, L. & Akinro, N. A., 2013. Picturing the Jos crisis online in three leading newspapers in Nigeria: A visual framing perspective. Visual Communication Quarterly, pp. 196-204.

Supplementary materials can be accessed from the author via

email: mrgwadabe@gmail.com

26