News Media Propaganda and Intricate Conflict Outcomes: A Case Study of 2023 General Elections of Oyo State, Nigeria
Keywords:
conflict, electioneering, news media, propaganda, hate-speech
Abstract
Abstract Views: 0
Nigeria, as a nascent democracy, is yet to be fully entrenched in standard election. Contestation for media space contributes to the escalation of political conflicts. Scholarly works on propaganda as a political campaign tool lack contextual analysis of episodic electioneering and elections in Nigeria. This study examined the nexus between conflict and propaganda in the news media during the general elections of 2023. The study utilized
triangulation methods; such as questionnaire, in-depth interviews and content analysis for data collection. Questionnaire was administered to randomly selected 400 respondents, while in-depth interviews were
purposively conducted with state publicity representative of All Progressive Congress and Peoples Democratic Party in Oyo State. Forty-eight propaganda media messages of the two political parties were content analysed. The discussion of findings is anchored in the Value Change Theory of mass communication and Verbal Aggressiveness Theory of conflict. The findings revealed that hate-speech, fake news, repudiation, labelling and other tactics heated the political scenario during the 2023 general elections and contributed to violent attacks. Social media was used without traces of professionalism. It is recommended that media literacy be taught in schools and out of school settings to ensure mediation and moderation in the media usage patterns, particularly for political purposes.
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References
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Oyebode, M O. & Adelakun, L. A. (2020). Interrogating Nigerian media handling of
insurgency in the Northeast of Nigeria between 2009 and 2018. Arts and Social Science Research, 10, 266- 290.
Oyebode, M. O.& Okonye, A. H. (2019). Use and misuse of the social media for political
communication in Nigeria’s fourth republic. Ilorin Journal of Sociology, 11(1), 107-
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Salvin P. & Rai, M. (2021). Role of the media DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-74336-
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local news surrounding post-election threats in Nigeria. Journal of Global Research
in Education and Social Science, 18(1), 17–32.
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The Research Advisors (2006). Sample size, http://researcadvisors.com/tools/SampleSize.htm
Thompson, A. (2007). The media and the Rwanda genocide. London: Pluto Press
Tilly, C., & Tarrow, S. (2015). Contentious politics (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Tuchman, G. (1978). Making news: A study in the construction of reality. New York: The
Free Press.
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Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/election-political-science
Withers, A. J. (2024). Disability politics and theory. Fernwood Publishing.
Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. A. (2019). The narrow corridor: States, societies, and the fate of liberty. Penguin Press.
Adelakun, L. A. (2017). Nigerian media and the challenge of yellow journalism: A theoretical
appraisal of newspaper contents, Journal of Social Sciences (JSS) 1(2), 223- 249.
Adelakun, L. A. & Oyebode, M. O. (2020). Digital Information without Digitally-Informed
Recipients: The paradox of digital Information Literacy in #EndSARS Protest. Social & Digital Media Discourse 2(1), 1-12.
Adelman, C. (2024). The politics and ethics of evaluation. Taylor & Francis.
Albert, I. O. (2007). A review of the campaign strategies”, Journal of African Elections (Special
edition on the 2007 General elections in Nigeria), 6(2), 55-78.
Ameh, E U. (2023). Social media violence, media propaganda and political witch-hunt: threat to democracy in Nigeria. ESCAE Journal of Management and Security Studies 3(1), 48–59.
Amenaghawon, F. (2018). Print media framing of the Niger Delta conflict in two selected
Nigerian newspapers, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Francis-Amenaghawon
Anderson, C. W. (2021). Propaganda, misinformation, and histories of media techniques,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368021675_Propaganda_misinformation_and_histories_of_media_techniques#fullTextFileContent, DOI: 10.37016/mr-2020-64
Asp, K. (1986) Mäktiga massmedier: Studier i politisk opinionsbildning [Powerful mass
media: studies in political opinion-formation]. Stockholm: Akademilitteratur.
Bello, T. Y. (2023). Election campaigns and the politics of urban space in ibadan, nigeria
Since 2011, in Insights and Explorations in Democracy, Political Unrest, and Propaganda in Elections. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-8629-0.ch018
Davis, A. (2018). Introduction the end of old certainties and paradigms in Political
Communication, in Political Communication: A New Introduction for Crisis Times by Aeron Davis (ed.). https://www.perlego.com/book/1536473/political-communication-a-new-introduction-for-crisis-times-pdf
Devyatkin, et al. (2014). Intelligent analysis of manifestations of verbal aggressiveness
in network community texts. Sci. Tech.Inf. Proc. 41, 377–389. https://doi.org/10.3103/S0147688214060021
Ekman, M., & Widholm, A. (2023). Media criticism as a propaganda strategy in political
communication. Nordic Journal of Media Studies 5(1), 115–133.
https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2023-0007
Esser, F. and Barbara, P. (2023). Comparing political communication: A 2023 Update.
353–377. https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/pq4yf
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2022). Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette, Electoral
Act, 2022, No. 61, vol.109. Lagos: Federal Government Printer
Folarin, B. (2002). Theories of mass communication: An introduction. Ibadan: Stirling-
Horden Publishers (Nigeria Limited).
Fuchs. C. (2014). Social media and the public sphere, Christian Fuchs’ inaugural lecture for
his professorship of social media at the University of Westminster that he took up on
February 1st, 2013. He gave the lecture on February 19th, 2014, at the University of
Westminster. https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/552/668
Hamilton, M. A. (2012). Verbal aggression: Understanding the psychological antecedents
and social consequences, Journal of Language and Social Psychology 31(1):5-12.
DOI: 10.1177/0261927X11425032
Infante, D.A. & Wigley, C. J. (1986). Verbal aggressiveness: An international model and
measure. Communication Monographs
Inglehart, R. (1990). Culture shift in advanced industrial society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Inobemhe, K., Ojo, F. U. & Santas, T. (2020). New media and the proliferation of fake
news in Nigeria, Nasarawa Journal of Multimedia and Communication Studies 2(2), 154- 168. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352863583_New_Media_and_the_Proliferation_of_Fake_News_in_Nigeria
Karekwaivanane, G. and Msonza, N. (2021) ‘Zimbabwe digital rights landscape report’, in
T. Roberts (ed.), Digital Rights in Closing Civic Space: Lessons from Ten African
Countries, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, DOI: 10.19088/IDS.2021.006
Kperogi, F. (2015). Marxist theory of the media or theory of the media by Marxists?
Reconciling Adorno with other Marxist media theorists, Journal of Communications Media Studies 7, 61- 77.
Lasswell, H. D. (1927). The theory of political propaganda, The American Political Science Review 21(3), 627-631
Lindgren, S. (2017). Digital media and society. London: Sage
Malhan, M., & Dewani, P. P. (2020). Propaganda as communication strategy: Historic and
contemporary perspective. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 24(4), 1–15.
Muswede, T. (2022). Impact of digital media on political campaigns towards
disintermediated political communication in Africa, African Journal of Political Science (AJPS)10(1), 41- 50.
National Bureau of Statistics (2020). Demographic statistics bulletin, file:///C:/Users/ooyeb/Downloads/DEMOGRAPHIC%20BULLETIN%202020.pdf
Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2019). Cultural backlash: Trump, brexit, and authoritarian populism. Cambridge University Press.
Norris, P., Frank, R. W., & Martínez, Coma, F. (2015). Contentious elections: From ballots to barricades. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781315723068/contentious-elections-pippa-norris-richard-frank-ferran-mart%C3%ADnez-coma
Ojekwe, G. I. (2016). Political advert campaigns and voting behaviour: A study of
Akinwunmi Ambode’s election ad campaigns in Lagos State.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314109443_Political_advert_campaigns_and_voting_behaviour_Akinwunmi_Ambode's_2015_Election_Campaign_in_Lagos_State http://www.jstor.org/s. The American Political Science Review, 21(3), 627–631.
Ojo T. O., Ayoboluis, Y. O. & Onaopepo, I. B. (2021). Mass media, political propaganda and
political campaign messages in Nigerian societies: Assessment of Political Stakeholders Perceptions in Selected Local Government Areas of Oyo State, Southwest Zone, Nigeria. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354548049_Mass_media_Political_propaganda_and_political_campaign_messages_in_Nigerian_societies_assessment_of_Political_Stakeholders_Perceptions_in_Selected_Local_Government_Areas_of_Oyo_State_Southwest_Zone_Ni
Omotayo, O. O. & Folorunso, M. B. (2020). Use of social media for political participation by
youths in Oyo State, Nigeria, eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government (JeDEM) 12(1), 132-157.
Ott, B. L. (2017). The age of twitter: Donald J. Trump and the politics of debasement.
Critical Studies in Media Communication, 34(1), 59-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2016.1266686
Oyebode, M O. & Adelakun, L. A. (2020). Interrogating Nigerian media handling of
insurgency in the Northeast of Nigeria between 2009 and 2018. Arts and Social Science Research, 10, 266- 290.
Oyebode, M. O.& Okonye, A. H. (2019). Use and misuse of the social media for political
communication in Nigeria’s fourth republic. Ilorin Journal of Sociology, 11(1), 107-
122.
Salvin P. & Rai, M. (2021). Role of the media DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-74336-
3_277-1
Skjerdal T. S. (2010). Research on brown envelope journalism in the African media. African
Communication Research 3 (3),92-118.
Sobowale, S. (1985). Journalism as a career. Ikeja: John West
Suemo, J. S., Eneh, O. G., & Kusugh, T. (2024). Textual analysis of media propaganda in
local news surrounding post-election threats in Nigeria. Journal of Global Research
in Education and Social Science, 18(1), 17–32.
https://doi.org/10.56557/jogress/2024/v18i18563
The Research Advisors (2006). Sample size, http://researcadvisors.com/tools/SampleSize.htm
Thompson, A. (2007). The media and the Rwanda genocide. London: Pluto Press
Tilly, C., & Tarrow, S. (2015). Contentious politics (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Tuchman, G. (1978). Making news: A study in the construction of reality. New York: The
Free Press.
Wallensteen, P. (2015). Understanding conflict resolution (4th ed.). SAGE Publications
Webb, P. D., Eulau, H. & Gibbins, R. (2024, June 2). Election. Encyclopedia
Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/election-political-science
Withers, A. J. (2024). Disability politics and theory. Fernwood Publishing.
Published
2025-05-20
How to Cite
Oyebode, M., Adelakun, L. A., Egenti, G., & Johson, H. (2025). News Media Propaganda and Intricate Conflict Outcomes: A Case Study of 2023 General Elections of Oyo State, Nigeria. Sociological Research And Innovation, 3(1), 46-75. https://doi.org/10.32350/sri.31.03
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Articles
Copyright (c) 2025 Musibau Oyebode, Lateef Adekunle Adelakun, Grace Egenti, Heman Johson
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
