A comparative content analysis of television and blog coverage of internally displaced persons in Nigeria

Most prior studies that have researched internally displaced persons coverage in developing countries have primarily focused on the print media representation, in addition to general information. This paper analyses television and blog coverage of internally displaced persons in Nigeria from October 2016 to October 2017. In order to determine how internally displaced persons news was covered on television and alternative media, quantitative content analysis was conducted. Approximately 87 stories of internally displaced persons were covered by the Nigerian Television Authority, African Independent Television and Naija.com from October 2016 to October 2017. Specifically, African Independent Television and Naija.com gave more attention to the coverage of internally displaced per- sons than the Nigerian Television Authority. More internally displaced persons news stories were used as headlines by the former in comparison to the Nigerian Television Authority, and the majority of the stories appeared in the first two headlines. It was also observed that the African Independent Television and Nigerian Television Authority described and reported the issues of internally displaced persons in various camps through the use of a more positive and neutral tone. Conversely, the tone used by Naija.com was more negative. (C) 2019 Western Social Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.