Examines Nigerian journalists' understanding and challenges of peace journalism, implying a need for training and structural changes.
Media’s coverage of conflicts globally has increasingly been criticised for its war-oriented approach. Peace journalism presents a potential for enhancing journalism practice. Besieged by conflict in the Global South and in Nigeria in particular, journalists seem not to be harnessing the potential of peace journalism in conflict transformation. This raises concern about Nigerian journalists’ understanding of peace journalism. This study, therefore, sets out to examine Nigerian journalists’ understanding of peace journalism and constraints to peace journalism. Sixty-eight journalists purposively selected from the Southern and Northern hubs of Nigerian media constituted the sample of this study. Focus group discussions and online interviews were used as methods of data collection. Data collected were transcribed, analysed and presented thematically. Findings reveal some understanding of peace journalism, and misgivings about its practicability due to its value-laden assumption. Also, findings reveal media ownership, censorship, editorial policy, polarisation and lack of newsroom diversification as obstacles to peace journalism in Nigeria. This study, therefore, recommends a combined simultaneous training of reporters and editors, establishment of a feedback mechanism such as an annual conference on peace journalism, and structural diversification of Nigerian newsrooms.
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Adam et al. (2026) studied this question.
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