Promoting Peace, Security and Development through Language Use in the Nigerian Media (Published)
This paper investigated the utilization of language by the Nigerian media to propagate peace, security and national development. Radio news has the ability to influence public opinion in diverse ways. The study adopted a critical discourse analysis of some selected messages which were relayed at the middle of the radio news texts of Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, Nigeria. Twenty mid-news messages were purposively selected for analysis based on the information conveyed in them in order to reveal the inherent and embedded messages in them. The data were grouped and analysed using four major headings – Government and politics; Education, health and religion; Socioeconomic and cultural issues; and National peace, crime and security. For our analysis, the theoretical frameworks adopted are Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) which emphasizes the form/function relationship in language. The linguistic features embedded in the messages and the contributory ideological effects on the listeners were analysed. The study revealed that the mid-news messages were useful for public enlightenment, social mobilization and they also served as facilitators for development and growth by enhancing the public orientation towards national integration, economic empowerment, educational awareness, political discourse, sociocultural issues and poverty alleviation. The paper, therefore, brings to the fore the significance of radio mid-news messages in sensitizing members of the audience towards actions needed to be taken as the situation demands.
Keywords: Language, Media Discourse, Mid-News Messages, Radio News, critical discourse analysis