Media Coverage of Ethno-Religious Conflict: An Analysis of the Jos Crisis in Nigerian Newspapers

This paper discussed generally how media report ethno-religious conflicts knowing fully of the fact that conflict anywhere is one of the elements that attract media attention due to the dictum that says ‘it sells when it bleeds’. The paper specifically narrowed its focus on how the Nigerian Press report ethno-religion conflict or crises in Jos, Plateau state of North Central Nigeria. The famous city of Jos and its surroundings have experienced a series of crises that are doubtless linked to ethnoreligious conflicts. Several contents of the press were analysed, many studies were synthesized and a lot of opinions by community and religious leaders were consulted. Therefore, this paper found out significantly that the Nigerian press instead of contributing to facilitate peace resolution, reconciliation, and peacebuilding process was found pants down in inflaming the conflicts due to commercial drive and other political/religious motives of the owners. They did this without any consideration for the template of conflict-sensitive reporting.