Framing of the Postponement of 2015 Presidential Election by Selected Nigerian Newspapers

This study investigated how Nigerian newspapers reported the postponement of the 2015 presidential elections. The objective of the study is to determine the kind of news frames used by Nigerian newspapers in their reportage of the postponement of the election, determine the prominence accorded to news stories that dominated the coverage of the postponement as well as the direction or tone the newspapers adopted in reporting the postponement of the election. Four national dailies were chosen for the study namely- Daily Trust, The Nation, Guardian and Vanguard newspapers. The study employed content analysis to analyze the research data while framing theory serves as the theoretical framework for the study. The research reveals that the selected newspapers use different kinds of frames to report the postponement of the election. The news frames includes rescue frame, political frame, ethnic frame, economic frame among several others. However, the study show that rescue frame is the most predominant frame adopted by the selected newspapers in their coverage of the postponement of the election. Findings further show that in terms of story types, most of the stories were reported in straight news, feature articles, opinion articles and editorials. In regards to the direction or tone given to the postponement of the election, the newspapers differ in their tone of coverage of the election. Some tilted their coverage towards negative issues while some newspapers were positive on the election. Based on these findings, the study concludes that Nigerian press is still projecting ethnic, political, and religious sentiment in the coverage of political parties‘ activities. Hence, we recommend the press to ensure that they detach themselves from partisan politics in order to provide objective coverage of political activities.