Covering the Boko Haram crisis beyond the nation: Analysis of shifting time and space frames in news reporting

Abstract

Through framing analysis, this article considers how two prominent Nigerian daily newspapers and two prominent United States daily newspapers have reported on the activities of Boko Haram during the period February 2014 to May 2015. The article finds that all four of these newspapers shifted how they framed the Boko Haram activities over the 16-month period, although with some differences. At first, the coverage focused on how the Boko Haram acts affected individuals directly caught up in singular attacks indicating an episodic coverage. This focus on individuals and the present events bolster great emotional support. Further reporting over the 16-month period suggested a shift to the society and then international level which was more contextual (thematic) indicating the wider social impact of terrorism. This therefore shows that the shift in framing of the crisis can be understood in three ways: from the episodic to the thematic, from the individual (through the societal) to the international level, and from the present (immediate) to the future implications of terrorism. The significance of identifying these shifts is to draw attention to framing as a lens to understand terrorism news expansion salience.

Keywords

Boko Haram crisis content analysis crisis framing frame change frame expansion Nigeria quantitative space terrorism time

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