Framing of environmental stories in two Nigerian daily newspapers

Abstract

The environment has major impact on the economic, social, cultural and ecological activities of man. Through framing analysis (Inter-coder Reliability Coefficient=.95), this study examined 36 stories each from the Punch and Nigerian Tribune daily newspapers from January 1 through December 31, 2008, to uncover how environmental issues were framed. This was done by investigating what these newspapers emphasized, information sources relied upon, and the slant and frames used in reporting environmental stories. Results indicated that majority (52.8%) of the. headlines were presented from the negative perspective. Victims/eye-witness (Nigerian Tribune=59.5%, Punch=40.5%) were relied upon more than government officials (Punch=60%, Nigerian Tribune=40%) as information sources. The disaster frame (33%) was the most frequently used frame in reported environmental stories as posing high risk to agriculture and humans among the five frames (awareness/campaign = 27.7%, assistance =18.0%, warning/blame = 13.9%, responsibility = 9.7%) that emerged from this study. Overall, environmental issues were presented from the negative perspective, and capable of causing uncertainty and fear among lay public and farmers. The reading audience will continue to lack accurate knowledge and understanding of environment as it relates to agriculture and other economic activities, if journalists continue to cover environmental news that is problematic or associated with risk factors.