The Politics of Newspaper Framing of the 2015 Presidential Election Results in Nigeria

Keyword : Print media .Framing .Presidential election .Results

Author(s) : Moses Chukwubuikem Ani, Endwell Onyinye Nyekwere, Uchechi Queen Nwanguma & John Ugwuanyi

Abstract :

The 2015 presidential election results in Nigeria is one that was speculated and predicted by different groups and members of the society as well as the media. These speculations came against the backdrop of seeming believe and expectation that the ruling political party will carry the day. But this usual trend was broken and that made the year’s election unique, being the first of its kind
where an opposition party (APC) will unseat a ruling party (PDP). The election was characterized by many political tussles and strife between the two major contending political parties. Media research however, have examined media framings on certain issues such as politics and elections but there is less research dealing with media framing of election results. In view of this, this paper examines print media framing of the 2015 presidential election results from March 28 to April 1, 2015 among five randomly selected national newspapers in Nigeria. The study employed the Agenda-setting theory as well as the Framing theory to explain the phenomenon under investigation. Using the quantitative content analysis method, the findings reveal that victory frame (i.e. who is winning) as well as Contestation frames (i.e. reactions/protests over results) and doubtful frames (i.e. fake results) were predominantly used alongside frequency (as a frame) to set the tone of readers’ view of the outcome of the election. We therefore conclude that patterns of newspaper frames of the 2015 presidential election results in Nigeria were influenced by the political culture and the characteristics of the political values that shape our polity. Based on this, we recommend among others that media frames of issues of public interest should develop constructive discourse on electioneering in Nigeria to shape our framework for policy development.

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