Abstract:

his study assessed how Twitter ban in Nigeria by the President Muhammadu Buhari
administration was framed in selected Nigerian newspaper
s from June 2021 to December 2021. The objectives of the study were to ascertain: the frequency
of coverage of the Twitter ban; the level of prominence given to twitter ban; the news frames used
and the dominant new frame adopted by the newspapers in their coverage of twitter ban. The
framing theory was used as the theoretical foundation of the study. The study adopted the content
analysis research design, with code sheet as the instrument for data collection. Four national
newspapers namely: The Sun, The Punch, The Vanguard and The Guardian were purposively
selected and studied. Using the continuous week format, 49 editions of the four newspapers were
randomly selected from the seven months and studied. A total of 649 stories were gathered from
the 49 editions of the four newspapers content-analyzed. Findings revealed that: the selected
newspapers reported stories on Twitter ban in Nigeria within the period under study; the
newspapers accorded much prominence to the stories, as a greater percentage (41%) of the stories
on Twitter ban in Nigeria appeared on the front pages. Although the newspapers frequently
reported Twitter ban in Nigeria within the period, the stories were mostly reported as straight news
stories. Nine types of news frame were identified from the stories while the dominant news frame
adopted by the sampled newspapers was violation of human rights, followed by war threat, and
show of power. The study recommended that more stories on similar issues of public concern
should be reported in the newspapers’ editorials.