The media’s capacity to manipulate information and create stereotypes can negatively affect young audiences who emulate its aggressive behavioral models. The rate of violence and aggression among Niger Delta youths, who form the core of the militant resistance in the area, can be attributed to the influence of socio-cultural factors of corruption, cultural ideologies and narrative myths created by the media. This essay examines the manner certain plays written by Southern Nigerian playwrights serve as media extensions by acting as if they are creative depictions of the marginalized Delta youth’s social reality while in actuality these works mediate personal objectives that further engender youth violence. The work analyzes the generative ability of the narrative as an action creating new identities and stereotypes. Youth violence, while being anti-social in nature, appears justified in the reference plays which have psychotic young heroes that glamorize violent agitation as an existentialist strategy. The essay surmises that propagandist literature can become operational when the author deliberately gives prominence to certain details while relegating other necessary facts that shape perception and identity
Keywords: Militancy, Niger-Delta, Priming, Propaganda, Violence, Youth
