Newspaper Framing of Nigeria’s Eight National Assembly

Abstract

The manner of newspaper framing of the National Assembly is essential in shaping public discourse and opinion. This study, thus, examined this issue with an emphasis on sources of stories cited, framing and frames used. A total of four newspapers namely the punch, Daily Sun, Nation and Leadership newspapers were used for this study. A self-developed code sheet was used to collect data for the study. The inter-coder reliability was determined with the use of Holstis Formula, and this yielded 092 which was considered high. The result showed the dominance of legislative sources. It was also found that the newspapers largely framed the National Assembly negatively. The result of the multiple regression analysis showed that both sources of stories and debate at the National Assembly significantly predict newspaper framing. The researcher recommends, among others, the need for newspapers to go beyond selfish frames and engage in advocacy journalism against selfish thinking among Nigerian legislatures.