This study investigates how selected Nigerian newspapers reported the Chibok school girls’ abduction in Government Secondary School, Chibok Borno State on April 14 2014. The research focuses on how the abduction is framed in the news stories of two Southern and Northern Nigerian based newspapers (The Guardian, The Sun, The Trust and Leadership Newspapers) and how such frames influenced the audience. In conducting this study, two research methods- content analysis and survey methods, were used to generate quantitative data for analysis. Content analytical method was used to study seven news frames as used in the selected dailies while survey was used to establish the influence such frames have on the news audience. After a thorough analysis, it was found that the selected papers used rescue efforts frame, hopelessness frame, political frame, religious frame, ethnic frame, conspiracy frame and economic frame. It was equally found that hopelessness frame was used more in news report more than others. Finally, it was established that mass media audience believed that the way the abduction was framed in the media has made them to think less of any rescue put by the government.
Keywords: Content analysis, Frames, News, Nigerian Newspapers
