Behaviour change, complexity thinking and CoPs

Influence of ownership and location on pattern of coverage

There was a wider coverage by Northern based newspapers but they differ significantly on issues such as the party to blame on the crisis.

While Trust blames the Plateau State Government and Governor Jonah Jang, National Standard blamed the Hausa/Fulani “settlers” and commented positively on all actions taken by the Plateau State Government and Governor Jang in managing the crisis in Jos. The two southern based newspapers, The Guardian and The Punch, provided a more balanced account of the crisis.

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On whether there should be declaration of emergency, Trust supported the idea while National Standard opposed it and called those supporting the idea as unpatriotic and enemies of Plateau and anarchists. The declaration of state of emergency would have helped the Hausa/Fulani to dislodge the Jang administration and probably gain upper hand since as at the time a Hausa/Fulani was the president of Nigeria and their interest would assumedly be taken into consideration by their son, the president. Even the House of Assembly in neighbouring Bauchi state considered and recommended a declaration of State of emergency and was given generous and positive coverage by the Trust while the Standard condemned the call and the Bauchi legislators.

The rivalry between the two media houses in the North sometimes degenerated into an ad hominiem argument towards the person and not the issue being debated. Writers are singled out for attack and the organisation derided. For example, Mr. Adamu Adamu (columnist for Trust) was described by Standard as peddling a mis-informed position and denying holocaust against Jews an issue outside the debate on the Jos crisis. Clearly therefore, their geographical location and ownership influenced significantly their framing of issues involved in Jos crisis. This is against the requirement of the social responsibility theory of the press and an indication of hegemonic forces influencing media content as against professional standards expected of the media. Such reports cannot pass of conflict-sensitivity.

General direction of the language use in the coverage of the crisis

The study discovered that inflammatory and sensational language dominated media discourse on the Jos crisis as against moderate and temperate stories. The use of language by the media is believed to have, along with other socio-political variables like the impunity that seem to be rampant from previous offenders, contributed to the cycle of reprisals characteristics of the Jos protracted crisis. Thus the performance of the media can be said to be below expected professional standards (use of sensational and inflammatory languages discussed above) and could contribute to the conflagration of the crisis.

Focus on peace initiatives.

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One of the core requirements of peace and conflict sensitive journalism is the call on the media to also focus on peace initiatives while covering conflict situations (Galtung 1969 ), (Jake Iynch and McGoldrick,2005)

More than 70% of the stories on the Jos crisis focused on the conflict – skirmishes, gory accounts, guilty parties – to the detriment of peace initiatives and appeals. The media were transfixed on the scenes of the crisis with scant attention on other possibilities for conflict transformation. Only 29.6% of stories focused on peace initiatives and most of the stories were obtained at press conferences and venues of the several peace panels set up by the governments and not from investigative actions of the media. This is not surprising as there was no evidence of the use of conflict analysis tools by any of the media outlets reporting the Jos crisis. This follows the much criticized trend in the media of reporting negative and sensational aspects of crisis and not the “patient, long term work of thousands, millions of citizens.” (Galtung 1993: xi)

Gender Sensitivity

Issues affecting women include gender discrimination which consigns them to roles ascribed to them by the male and exclusion from certain benefits as equal partners in project humanity. Consistent with other findings is the silencing of the female voices in the coverage of the Jos crisis. Even though studies have shown that women bear the brunt of crisis, the systemic muting of their voices in the coverage is wide-spread. Only 32% of the voices represented by the media are female while 88% are of the male gender. This gives the impression of a male dominated world both in peace and conflict situations in spite of the fact that society is replete with “brainy, bold and daring trailblazers, unlimited by the mere fact of being women, nor restricted as in old days when a woman‟s place was considered to be in the kitchen.” (Iroh 2011:3).

The media‟s social responsibility of reflecting “all sides” of a story is not served by the exclusion of female voices in conflict situations. It is a reflection of gender insensivity by the selected newspapers in the coverage of Jos crisis. The major implication is the loss of alternative voices in the search for peace on the Plateau.

Use of Investigative approaches in the coverage

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This study also showed the dearth of investigative stories in the coverage of the Jos crisis.

Most stories are mere handouts from partisan sources. Only 3.3% of the total stories on the crisis emanated from investigative works of the journalists, 64.1% are from speeches and statements obtained from press conferences and press releases. With such a situation dominant voices of parties to the crisis and their spin doctors dominate the media with their hegemonic tendencies. An investigate story, when well carried out, will provide more angles and voices in understanding the crisis and hence point the way to an enduring management and mitigation of the crisis.

Constraints of the journalists in the coverage

Journalists covering the Jos crisis overwhelmingly mentioned personal insecurity as the major constraint they encounter on the field. In a situation where journalists dodge bullets and face hostile parties to the conflicts, the absence of insurance for the journalist jeopardies their ability to go the extra mile. Poor remuneration was also mentioned by the respondents.

The multiplier effects of insecurity, lack of insurance and poor remuneration might have helped in accounting for the poor performance of the media in conflict situations. Poor remuneration is known to pre-dispose journalists to receive bribes euphemistically known as

“brown envelopes” from conflict parties who want a particular narrative of the conflict situation.

Awareness of the concept of CSJ

Results from the interview of journalists showed that nine out of the 10 journalists interviewed claim to be aware of the concept and requirements of CSJ. They pointed to the need for balance, fairness and objectivity as principles of CSJ. However, there appears to be a big gap between awareness and praxis as demonstrated by the analysis of the stories produced by these reporters. Results from the content analysis showed the use of emotive and sensational language, focus on the negative, gender insensitivity and lack of conflict analysis and investigative reporting which are essential requirements for conflict sensitivity.

An explanation for this scenario is the structural environment from which the journalists perform their duties: a hegemonic dominance of entrenched voices of state and socio-political potentates, physical and psycho-social insecurity of journalists, among others.

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Contrary to the assumption by the mainstream media that they merely report conflict and do not contribute to conflict, this study presents evidence from a particular conflict theatre to debunk this claim. The study shows that through the use of sensational language, focus on episodic eruptions, lack of investigative approaches and failure to use conflict analysis tools, among other weaknesses, the media working with other variables and dispositions, do indeed create a fertile ground for conflict to fester. The study upholds the suspicions and allegations leveled by scholars, institutions and individuals on the predilection of the media to contribute to conflict through unprofessional conducts. This is consistent with earlier findings by Sobowale (1986) Goretti (2007), Obijiofor (2008 ), Bratic and Kang-Graham (2008), Galadima and Olaniyi (2009) and others.

Explanations for media performance in conflict situations can be explained by conditions both conditions inherent within the media operations and the general environment of operations. Internal conditions include insecurity, lack of insurance cover, the profit motive, incompetence and corruption while external factors include manipulation by conflict parties and governments, societal biases on gender and the general primordial crisis of citizenship nationhood in a developing country like Nigeria.