Terrorism is a global threat, and combating it has equally become a global concern. The phenomenon has become a weapon of religious extremists, who use it to draw attention to themselves and to promote their beliefs and propaganda through the media, just as the media give their activities prominence. Significantly, the Nigerian media, like those of other countries, have inadvertently become allies of terrorists, who rely on the media to increase their popularity. This study sees this as a dysfunction that the Nigerian media must reposition against in their daily reports in order to change the narrative. Through a content analysis, the study qualitatively analyzed three Nigerian newspapers that were purposively sampled and unraveled how the media accorded Boko Haram importance in their daily reports. This is done against the backdrop of Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT). The result shows Vanguard newspaper leading by an unassailable number with 14 (66.7%) out of 21 dysfunctional reports in the period under study. The study concluded by discussing ways of obviating the trend in Nigeria.
Imiti et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: