Framing of the 2020 #Endsars Protest in Selected Nigerian Newspapers

This study assessed Nigerian newspaper framing of the October, 2020 #EndSARS protest by The Guardian, Daily Trust, Leadership, and Thisday. This study investigated the extent to which the Nigerian newspapers covered the October, 2020 #EndSARS protest, the prominence given to the coverage, and the themes used in framing the protest. Anchored in the framing theory and the agenda setting theory, a total of 1, 956 newspaper editions were analysed for content in this study. Data was collected using a coding sheet and analysed. Findings from the study have demonstrated that the extent of coverage was on average across the newspapers as Daily Trust had 21.5% coverage, Guardian 27.5%, Leadership 22.8%, and Thisday however with the highest represented by 28.2%. It is also shown that that most of the stories on the protest represented by 74.3% were published on theinside pages of the newspapers. Findings have also revealed the most predominant theme in the framing of the protest to be police brutality represented by 45%. The study concluded that newspapers did not give prominence to the framing of the #EndSARS protest.