Veritatis Gaudium: Multidisciplinary Journal of Postgraduate Studies

Newspaper coverage constitutes a structurally strategic variable in the social construction of migration. Despite Nigeria's centrality to trans-Saharan irregular migration flows, systematic empirical analysis of how its national press represents this phenomenon remains scarce. This paper develops a multi-theoretical analytical framework, integrating agenda-setting theory, agenda-building theory, framing theory, gatekeeping theory, and the social responsibility theory of the press to interrogate the frequency, prominence, dominant frames, source hierarchies, and tonal orientations characterising coverage of irregular migration in three leading Nigerian dailies (The Punch, The Guardian, and The Sun) between January 2020 and May 2023. Drawing on a stratified random sample of 362 articles extracted from a population of 3,741 newspaper editions, and employing a mixed quantitative-qualitative content analysis, the framework anticipates that: (1) irregular migration is likely to remain systematically marginalised in national newspaper agendas, with limited front-page visibility; (2) episodic, humanitarian, and criminal justice frames are expected to predominate while thematic, structural coverage remains peripheral; (3) government agencies and international organisations are expected to constitute the dominant source hierarchy, marginalising migrant voices; and (4) negative tonal orientations are likely to reproduce reductive binaries of victimhood and criminality. These anticipated patterns are theorised as structured outcomes of institutional logics, commercial pressures, resource constraints, and source hierarchies, rather than neutral journalistic choices. The analytical framework carries implications for journalism practice, migration governance, and ethical reporting standards.

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