NEWSPAPERS COVERAGE OF ENDSARS PROTEST IN NIGERIA. A STUDY OF SELECTED NEWSPAPERS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The capacity of the mass media to create awareness on any issue in modern society has come to be recognized. Society, therefore, depends mostly on the mass media for its information and communication needs. The functions of the media in the society have been identified as surveillance of the environment, correlation of parts of society in responding to the environment, transmission of social heritage from one generation to the next and providing entertainment (Wright 1959:9). According to Wright, “surveillance refers to the collection and distribution of information concerning events in the environment both outside and within any particular society”. This  is the news function of the mass media. Correlation includes “interpretation of information about the environment and prescription for conduct in reaction to these events. This is the editorial or opinion function of the media. Transmission of social heritage according to Wright “focuses on the communicating of knowledge, values, and social norms from one generation to another or from members of a group to newcomers”. This is the education function. Entertainment includes “communicative acts primarily intended for amusement, irrespective of any instrumental effect they might have” (Wright 1959:9). An understanding of these functions and their discrete nature is needed by advocacy practitioners and academics to understand how the media functions. Thus, a newspaper, for example, might report a conflict news story (surveillance) and follow it with an editorial or opinion on how to stem the conflict (correlation) and feature stories on educating the public on the ultimate futility of conflicts (education) and a cartoon or illustration on the need for peace (entertainment). McQuail quoted by Watson (2003:104-105) further explains these functions under five headings- information, correlation, continuity, entertainment and mobilisation. However, the activities of the media are carried out within certain constraints which may be socio-economic, psychological or political which affect how these activities are viewed by the society. Factors like ownership, location, orientation and the economics of media production among others may colour the role of the media in society. These conflicts of role perception have been manifested in comments on the role of the media in conflict situations. All stakeholders seem to have divergent views on the role of the media. The position of people at the helm of affairs in government was poignantly brought to the fore in 1985 by then Prime Minister of Britain, Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher told a gathering of attorneys that democracy “must find a way to starve the terrorists and hijackers of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend” (Picard 1990:314). The oxygen of publicity referred to above is a summation of the role of the media in airing the views of “terrorists” and hijackers. In Nigeria, government officials at the highest levels consistently find the media as the culprit in the many violent conflicts that have bedevilled the nation. About a month into his appointment as National Security Adviser (NSA) to the Nigerian President, Sambo Dasuki had already accused the Nigerian media of contributing to the security challenges of the country, “My experience with the media has so far not been a good one… In most of the places I visit, the media have been one of the problems and it is all these idea of sensational journalism that everybody wants to publish a story that is not necessarily a story, to make good headlines.” (The Punch, July 6, 2012:1-2)

Background to the study

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was created in Lagos State in 1992, a time when Notorious armed robbers such as Shina Rambo were in control of the state (Midenda, 2017).  It was created as a faceless police unit that performs undercover  operations  against  armed  robbers.  Within almost  two  decades  of  its  creation,  the  unit  has  spread  across the various states of the country. The spread of the unit across the nation without a proper structure, accounts for some of it lawless characteristics. The current report of police brutality using the #Endsars on Twitter has brought public attention to it. The online campaign about the police brutality is new, however, Nigerian pop stars has over the years expressed their worries, fears and incidents of police brutality. The  Nigerian  movie  industry,  Nollywood  has  also portrayed cases of brutality and corruption within the Nigerian police force in their productions .Nigerians   having   been   subjected   to   wanton   arrests,   extortion  and  extra  judiciary  killings,  lunched  a  social  media  campaign  using  the  has tag  #Endsars  on  Twitter  to put an end to police brutality. The #Endsars campaign started  with  the  publication  of  a  petition  by  convener  Segun  Awosanya.  It  was  signed  by  10,195  Nigerians and submitted to the Nigerian National Assembly to scrap the  police  unit.    The  Twitter  campaign  started  on  the  2nd of  December  2017,  when  a  footage  of  police  officers attached to the unit shot and killed a man surfaced online. The  campaign  became  a  trending  topic  on  Twitter  with  over  400,000  Tweets8  within  twelve  hours. In October 2020, Nigerians turned the online campaign to protest. Nigerians  using 280 characters detailing their horrible and harrowing experiences  with  SARS,  the  dreaded  unit  of  the  police  created to fight banditry. Before the campaign, there have been isolated cases of police brutality all over the country. However,  it  was  during  the  campaign  that  the  damage  caused  by  such  brutality  was  discovered. The  campaign  also exposed the level of rot within the police unit according to  the  convener  of  the  campaign.  The  campaign  further  revealed that the police has no recognizable structure with no organized system of operation, officers of the unit act based on self-will with little or no regards for fundamental human right for citizens especially vulnerable youth. The sudden rise of protest movements during the recent economic crisis has brought to the fore once more the question of whether grievance theories may play a role in explaining collective action.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Information: Providing information about events and conditions in society and the world; indicating relations of power; facilitating innovation, adaptation and progress;

Correlation: Explaining, interpreting and commenting on the meaning of events and information; providing support for established authority and norms; socialising; co- ordinating separate activities; consensus building; setting orders of priority and signalling relative status;

Continuity: Expressing the dominant culture and recognising sub-cultures and new cultural developments; forging and maintaining commonality of values;

Entertainment: Providing amusement, diversion, and the means of relaxation; reducing social tension;

Mobilisation: Campaigning for social objectives in the sphere of politics, war, economic development, work, and sometimes religion.

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