Peace journalism strategy for covering online political discourses in a multipolar society and the new public sphere

Abstract

The relationship between political competition and social polarization has been studied extensively while overlooking the divisive rhetoric in online political discourses and how media’s coverage creates the social-psychological barriers to peace and a unified sense of national identity/unity. Adapting Galtung’s peace-journalism model through the qualitative content and news frame analyses of contenders’ tweeting activities and news coverage during Nigeria’s 2019 presidential contests, this study reveals the prevalence of othering discourses in contenders’ tweets and the attributes of conflict-escalatory coverage by Nigerian newspapers. Implementing peace-journalism strategy become essential to create shared values for improving political communication amidst the new public sphere in multipolar Nigeria.