Discourse Constructions of Gender-Based Crimes in Newspaper Reports (original) (raw)
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2015
The study examines the thematic foci of selected online crime-related news stories in Nairal and Nigerian Forum. It identifies and analyses the lexico-semantic and discourse features of the news stories. The study relates the identified lexico-semantic and discourse features to the situational context of the news stories. This is done with a view to examining the conundrum of crime as an impediment to national development in the post independence Nigerian nation. Data are analysed using the principles of Opara’s model of Discourse Stylistics (2005). Four online news stories which were published in October, 2015 are purposively sampled for analysis. The paper reveals that lexico-semantic and syntactic features such as synonyms, antonyms and hyponyms are devices that account for meanings (i.e. interpersonal, affective, expressive attitudinal and ideational meaning, among others) in the data. The study further shows that discourse features for achieving cohesion and coherence such as r...
Lexico-Grammatical Analysis of Media Representation of Men in Rape Coverage
Journal of Creative Communications , 2023
This study seeks to examine the representation of men in rape coverage produced by Thai media. The analysis is theoretically triangulated between Biber et al's markers of stance and Mellado's journalistic role performance. Methodologically, corpus-assisted discourse analysis is adopted. The corpus consists of 167 news articles published in English with the total number of 126,150 words. The period of publication ranges from 2007 to 2022. Findings indicate that male perpetrators are discursively vilified through discourse structures which signify augmented agency to inflict harm upon victims. To illustrate, the lexical item rape is made to occur simultaneously with other material verb processes which intensify an act of violence such as bludgeon and kill. In contrast, male victims are deprived of agency and their voice, instead of emanating from the victims themselves, is expressed through other parties such as witnesses and NGO officers. Moreover, notwithstanding the fact that the data collection covers a long period of time, no diachronic development of the issue emerges. Possible ways to humanise the representation are discussed.
NEWSPAPER COVERAGE ON RAPE CASES: CHARACTERIZING AGENT FOR SOCIETAL CHANGE IN NIGERIA
Saving The Soul of Education In Nigeria: A Festschrift In Honour Of Professor Jessica Ezekiel-Hart, 2021
Rape is one of the reoccurring social vices that have bedeviled African societies in the recent time. The media, through crime communication have responsibilities to regularly report and portray the cases of the moral decadence like rape to avert future occurrences. The study investigates Newspaper coverage of rape cases and they contribute to societal change in Nigeria. The study was anchored on framing, Social Responsibility and Cultural Feminist theories. It employs content analysis research method with Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sample size determination. The study adopts simple random sampling technique and used code and sheet as the instrument of data collection. The study found that newspapers under study did not pay adequate attention to rape cases as prominence were not given to stories on rape cases by the select newspapers within the period of study. Reports on rape cases were mostly reported by non-governmental organizations. The study recommends that Newspapers should have frequent reports on rape cases and such reports should be placed on front and full pages of National Newspapers.
Nigerian Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 2018
Rape of females in Nigeria has reached a disturbing trend with very few captured by the media. Yet, newspapers' constructions and representations of rape are crucial in determining post-rape responses. This study investigates newspaper reportage and representations of rape in two select newspapers in Nigeria (2012-2016). It utilizes two national dailies (The Punch and The Sun) with dedicated crime pages to understand the frequency of reportage, factors underlying low or non-reportage of rape by victims, and the dominant frame used in reporting rape. Findings show that 331 cases of rape were reported within the period with southwestern part of the country enjoying the larger coverage. The low or non-reporting behavior of rape by victims was affected by fear of stigma, fear of the rapist owing to threats, religious sentiments, family interventions, and inability to access news correspondents. The dominant frame utilized in reporting rape was human interest frame. The paper recommends diagnostic and prognostic frames to attract informed policies and give justice to the raped.
Framing of Sexual Crimes by Select Nigerian Newspapers
The Nigerian Journal of Communication , 2021
The research was undertaken to investigate framing of sexual crimes by select Nigerian newspapers. The objectives of the study were to find out the pattern of sex crime stories as reported in Nigerian newspapers, find out the prominence given to sex crimes issues and ascertain dominant frames used by Nigerian newspapers in the reportage of sex crimes. The researcher employed content analysis research method. Four national newspapers; namely: The Punch, Vanguard, Daily Sun and Daily Trust were purposively selected and analysed. The study period was from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021. The results revealed that most (67%) of the newspapers' reportage of sex crimes were presented as news stories. Further finding indicated that sex crime-related stories under the period of study were not given much prominence by the select newspapers, sixty four per cent (64%) of the items were published in the inside pages of the select newspapers. The findings further showed that the select newspapers (The Punch, Vanguard, Daily Sun and Daily Trust) used sensational frame more dominantly than any other frames. Thus, it was concluded that sexual crime issues were reported mainly as straight news items and it was not given prominence in the select newspapers. It was recommended that Nigerian journalists should do more of interpretative feature stories on sex crime cases than straight news stories since most of the straight news stories are spot news and skeletal.
The Nigerian Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 2018
Rape of females in Nigeria has reached a disturbing proportion. While the media has played a major role in creating awareness about rape, their representations of rape are crucial in determining post-rape responses. This study, therefore investigates newspaper coverage and representations of rape in two select newspapers in Nigeria (2012-2016). It utilizes two national dailies (The Punch and The Sun) with dedicated crime pages to understand the frequency of reportage, factors underlying low or non-reportage of rape by victims, and the dominant frame used in reporting rape. Findings show that 331 cases of rape were reported within the period with southwestern part of the country recording largest occurrence. Low or non-reporting behavior of rape by victims was affected by fear of stigma, fear of the rapist due to threats, religious sentiments, family interventions, and inability to access the media. The dominant frame utilized in reporting rape was human interest frame. The paper recommends diagnostic and prognostic frames to attract informed policies and give justice to the raped.
The Representation Of The Victim As A Social Construction In Court News
The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology (IETC 2017), 2017
There has been an increase in rape and abuse cases in the northern part of Cyprus. Consequently, these cases have begun to be reported by sections of the media in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Unlike the traditional media, the characteristics of Internet journalism mean that it can be continually updated and it has the potential to reach the target audience, which has not only increased a common sensitivity, but also unethical acts in journalism. This research examines how Internet media reported on two cases that occurred in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. These cases are the rape and murder of 7-year-old Mustafa Diker by his father in 2012. This case created a sense of indignation throughout Cyprus. The other case is that of 15 year old İ.E who raped a 5-year-old female child. Furthermore, based on the fact that the concept of victim is shaped by personal and social values, it will be assessed how this concept is actually used by power holders in creating social construction as a means of social control. From this point of view, the perception created by the society based on the nationalities of the suspects will be taken into consideration.
Creating a Spiral of Silence? Print Media Reportage and Audience Perception of Rape in Nigeria
International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Review, 2017
Some past studies on rape coverage not only signposted the media reinforcement of negative female stereotypes but also construction of rape myths among receivers, especially the male gender. With few of such studies domesticated in Nigeria and given that media coverage of issues have great potential to shape public opinion, this work employs a mix of survey and content analysis to interrogate the extent the print media rape coverage in Nigeria is laden with myths that reinforce rape culture; And how this representation influence the audience reception. The survey population consists of all male and female citizens from 18 years and above residing in the urban cities of the three south eastern states of Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu. The population for the content analysis also consists of all Nigerian (nationally circulated) daily newspapers published during the period of the study (January – August 2014). The study found that 62% of the respondents accept that media rape reports are la...
Gendered News Reportage?: A Study of The Guardian and The Sun Newspapers, Nigeria
Gender is central to identity since humans are socially positioned as gendered subjects, and or choose to identify with certain genders. This positioning, then, is evident in discourse choices and patterns, as well as attitudes and orientations towards social phenomena. Premised on the gendered differentiation and framing theories, this study examines women reporters’ construction of news stories in two broadsheet mainstream newspapers in Nigeria, The Guardian and The Sun. Data comprise sampled news stories published between 2015 and 2017. Through textual and thematic analysis, the study reveals that it is social issues and institutional ideology or practice norms that predominantly drive female news constructions and reportage. The study concludes that women’s news reporting is, fundamentally, driven by a number of linguistic and structural values that are not very much different from those that characterize news stories written by their male counterpart, except in the areas of the use of hard logical arguments and coverage of news beats. What counts most in female news reportage is fidelity to the professional code of practice.
Representing Victim of Violence in News: Female Victim of Ugm’s Case in the Jakarta Post’s Articles
2020
This study investigates the existence of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in one of Indonesia English language newspaper The Jakarta Post. This research aims to reveal the existence of this GBV practice in five selected articles under the case of sexual assault happened to Agni, one of UGM students. This research uses qualitative research where there are 131 clauses selected to be analyzed. The analysis uses the Critical Discourse Analysis Fairclough’s model (1989) as a framework, involving Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) (2004), Wood’s gendered media (1994), and mass media discourse. The result shows that gender-based violence practice does exist on those selected articles through the use of linguistic tools applied by the journalists. This indication related to three things. They are a misrepresentation of women, rape narrative, and objectivity, where women are depicted to be submissive and passive in media. The result also finds that patriarchal culture also influence...