Matters Arising in Mass Media Coverage of Crime and Violence in Nigeria

Abstract

This study is a rising factor on Nigeria's socio-political and economic landscape that has been blighted by the endemic twin
evil of crime and violence. The paper centered on social responsibility, media framing, and attribution theories. The study
finds that Nigerian consumers of media products, like their counterparts in other cultures, are insatiably interested in, and are
at times shocked and fascinated by crime and violence, as covered in the media. The findings postulate that Nigerian mass
media, acting both as mirrors of society and business enterprises, provide a daily diet of these crimes, howbeit deficiently. The
study states that this deficiency is traceable to their episodic rather than thematic approach, their individual instead of
societal blame, and cause rather than solution. Nigerian media, in many instances, fail to turn their searchlight on the
undercurrents of crime and violence: the Nigerian system of justice and the issues and grievances that gave rise to crime and
violence in the society. This paper, as matters arising, critically examines the often ignored, and at best-perfunctorily handled,
aspects of coverage of crime and violence in Nigerian media.