Kaduna State University

Faculty of Social Sciences

Department of Mass communication

JINAIDU HABIBA SALMAN

KASU/MSCMCM/MCM/19/0004

Course title and code:

Communication and Media Studies (MCM 804)

Topic: Contemporary Media Narratives

Lecturer: Dr. Binta Kasim Mohammed

March, 2021.
INTRODUCTION

With the advent of technology in the mass media, so also the evolvement of the narratives and

contents in the media. Media plays several roles on our day to day activities, among such roles

are dissemination of information and entertainment. Our contemporary society is dominated and

shaped mostly on the narratives given or associated with the media. Media plays an integral role

in influencing how people view the world. As the media grows, media narratives now have

significant power to change and influence the way people act, think and most importantly the

way they reason as with the aid of technology. Thus, media narrative works hand in hand with

the existing technology and happenings. The evolution of media from being only accessible

through wires to its omnipresence in the world has brought a massive transition in the way

people interact, build narratives, and share stories. Contemporary media includes visual, written,

and audio content that has a presence in the realm of the digital world. The distinctive feature of

contemporary media being accessible to a wide audience, and a prime tool for narrative building

makes it an extremely important platform which impact and influence the minds and shape the

opinion of the masses. Media now talks about the happenings in our society. However, there are

some issues that are being made silent which are uncovered only by people with deep thought

and wide knowledge. This is where framing and agenda setting come into play.

CONTEMPORARY MEDIA NARRATIVES

Media narrative refers to contents created/provided by the media. Thus, contemporary media

narratives are the present contents the media is providing or focusing attention on. In the world

today, media narratives seem to dominate the mind of larger population because the media has
increasingly become the source of information and entertainment. Stories on politics, state of the

nation, world news, sports and crime can only be obtained through media. There are other

numerous programs which include rap music, violence, pornography, role of the media in

elections, staging the news, new telecommunications laws and deregulation and about new

technologies. The media bring the world to us and help to shape that world, but there is still a

reality outside the media. It is becoming harder all the time to tell the real world from the media

world, but it is essential to know the difference if diverse peoples and nations are to live together

in peace.

Unlike in the past with just newspaper, radio and television station with little outreach, stories

emerge and spread more quickly in the contemporary media hence influencing the information

that reaches people. It is not questionable that today, information spreads more rapidly

considering the development and advancements that modern media systems have acquired in

recent years. The modern narratives that the media chooses to present have a specific role that

they are supposed to serve among the members of the public. As such, a story relayed through

the media has to be chosen appropriately, packaged systematically and presented to the

consumers in a way that evokes a specific reaction that will serve and support a particular cause.

It should be understood that every story and news coming from the media can be analyze and

interpret differently by individuals and shape the individual views on issues. The media outlets,

which are the most critical players in the modern communication niche choose to receive,

package and present specific information as per the cause and trend they may be supporting.

Narrowing down the issue of contemporary media narrative to Nigeria, there are alot of issues in

which the media gives importance to such as politics, health, insecurity, crime, economy, inter-

tribal crisis etc.

Talking about insecurity, Nigeria especially the northern part of the country has been faced with

the problem of armed banditry/kidnapping for a long time. The media reports armed banditry

cases almost every day which makes that to be the topic of discussion for people. This is because

the media give people what to think about in other to take people’s attention away from the

underground motives behind all this action. Although the media talks about it but they only give

the people what they want them to know or hear except for the critical thinkers in the society that

will understand deeper. One of the assumed motives behind this act was the discovery of gold in

Zamfara and petroleum in Bauchi State. The criminal act all started after the discovery just to

divert people’s attention away from what will help them to that of armed banditry. These are

things media will not talk about but rather they just give out little information on the happenings

and set agenda on it. Also, the Niger Delta Militant happens to be one of the contemporary thing

discussed in the media. The unrest caused by Niger delta militant has been one of the topical

issues in the media today. So also, Boko Haram issue that has been ongoing for a very long time.

When talking of health, the case of corona virus and corona virus vaccine has been on too.

When the cases where high, the media diverted it attention to only Corona virus thereby setting

serious agenda on it because as at that time Corona Virus was the only thing people were talking

about to the extent even small children knew what corona was. This corona virus spread was not

only in Nigeria, media worldwide set agenda on Corona Virus which turned to be the topic of

discussion worldwide. Now with the coming of corona virus vaccine, the media now directs it

content to corona virus vaccine just to get people talk about it which will strongly influence

people to take the vaccine.

More so, media content in Nigeria now is centered on criminal act. Criminal act such as raping is

one the contemporary discussion in the media. Southern part of Nigeria is faced with the rape
cases. Minors are being raped on a daily basis which the media reports. Discussions on this rape

cases has been ongoing with specialists on the media. People get informed and enlightened on

this rape cases as well as given some preventive measures. The likes of #cozagate that happen

with Pastor Sulaiman who is said to be engage in raping his church members.

During the #EndSars protest in Lagos, the media really set agenda on the protest which turns out

to be the topic of discussion for everyone. Almost all the media stations in Nigeria keep

reporting the #EndSars protest with the exception of NTA. People’s attention was completely

diverted and the only discussion people were having was #EndSars protest. Without the framing

part of the media, the protest won’t be known by anyone.

Coming to the issue of Inter-tribal crisis, the media made that a topic of discussion some month

ago which is still ongoing in the media. The media reports what they want people to see with

regards to the inter-tribal crisis. This however, may portray one tribe as bad depending on the

angle the media wants people to see it from. The motives behind all these are hidden to people.

Looking at the crisis between Yoruba and Hausa people that happened in Ibadan, report going

around in Southwest was totally different from reports around North. Each zone was reporting

base on how it will suit the habitant of that location by framing the stories in such a way that

everyone will have nothing to talk about except what they are being given by the media.

Politics cannot be left out when talking about contemporary media narratives. Politics has been

the most talked about in the Nigerian media and worldwide. This is because politics is the

bedrock of every society and everything happening in the society is as a result of politics.

However, the media only give out what they want people to talk about as regard politics.

Depending on who owns the media, media contents are written in such a way it suits a political
party who owns it or a party who is associated to the owner. Politization of media content is now

order of the day.

Economy is said to be one of the contemporary issues discussed in the media. Some couple of

months ago the country was said be in recession. A lot of complain were going around on the

media and even the social media regarding the economy and the rise of price of things in the

market. The media revolves around that gist and for that everyone talks about it. Media stations

went to the extent of creating programmes that covers people’s opinion on the hike of things in

the market. The raise in petroleum price also took a week or two as the topic of discussion in

Nigeria. These are made possible with the use of media to frame the stories.

In addition, the media have successfully put the hatred of this government in the minds of the

general public. This is as a result of the media contents created by the media. The contemporary

media contents have never show the achievements of this present government instead they report

their flaws which portray the government and those handling it as bad. Typical example is the

government of Kaduna State. The Governor works day and night just to ensure good living in the

state but when the media comes to report they take negative aspects which are mostly lies to

report. Continuous report on that makes it a topic for people to discuss around the state.

CONTEMPORARY ROLE OF THE MEDIA

The role of media in the society can not be overemphasized. Media provides the information to

the general populate in various forms and approach. Media deigns programs and share lots of

information and educates the general populace. For instance, news on the state of the nation are

provided by the media, educative programs, sport news, entertainment and many more services
are rendered by media. This has given media a very important role in the day to day activities of

the populace as a day without any of the services provided by the media could be described as a

day out of this world. The environment in which the modern media operates has also turned in a

significant manner. The fact that the press is helping a primarily educated population, unlike in

the past when most consumers of information were described as mostly uneducated or semi-

literate has led to the need to adjust some of the strategies being used in processing and offering

news and information to the public. The current news and information consumer needs are far

more complicated procedures to convince them regarding the information and message contained

in a news item (Borden, 2007). The media has to ensure that it owns the narrative that it seeks to

push to the consumers that it serves. It is in this context that the concepts of left, neutral and right

media outlets have emerged. It is unarguable that the information that reaches various consumers

today has tinges of bias whose aim is to influence a specific position relating to the prevailing

political and socio-economic trends.

FRAMING AND AGENDA SETTING THEORY

Framing, as a theory of mass communication suggests how something is presented to the

audience influences the choices people make about how to process that information. It refers to

how the media packages and presents information to the public. According to the theory, the

media highlights certain events and then places them within a particular context to encourage or

discourage certain interpretations. In that way, the media exercises a selective influence over

how people view reality. Framing occurs in the media mostly because of time and resource

constraints on what can be reported. Framing is related to the agenda setting theory tradition but
it expands the research by focusing on the essence of the issues at hand rather than on a

particular topic. The basis of framing theory is that the media focuses attention on certain events

and then places them within a field of meaning which is seen with how the contemporary media

operates.

Agenda setting theory on the other hand says that the media set agenda for our general

discussion. That the media does not just give us what to talk about but also what to think about.

Although we have the right to think what we want to think but we tend to think most of those

things the media highlight as important. With these features, it shows that media have the power

to influence and make some issues important even when they are not. The media have the power

to engage and entertain, to create and destroy, to open spaces and to close them. Media provide

cues which tell them where they should focus their attention. This way political reality is set by

the media.

Agenda setting occurs through a cognitive process known as accessibility. Accessibility implies

that the more frequently and prominently the news media cover an issue, the more instances of

that issue become accessible in audience’s memories. With that, when respondents are asked

what the most important problem facing the country is, they answer with the most accessible

news issue in memory which is typically the issue the news media focused on the most.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the contemporary media narratives influence the minds and shape the opinion of

the masses with the help of framing and agenda setting. The media contents entail the current
happenings even though there are some of the agendas hidden to the public by the media. They

only report what they want people to see, hear and talk about.
References

Gul, H. (2020). Contemporary Media and Narrative Building. Voice of Balonchistan Eight

Quarterly Newletter.

Komova, M. (2013). Contemporary Strategic Context in Mass Media Activity. Global Journal of

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Scolari, C.A. (2013). Media Evolution: Emergence, Dominance, Survival and Extinction in the

Media Economy. International Journal of Communication.

Turow, J. (2009). Media Today: An Introduction to Mass communication: New York. 3rd Ed.

https://voiceofbalonchistan.pk/opinions-and-articles/global-arena/contemporary-media-and-

narrative-building/

https://www.grin.com/document/430204

https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/1-3-the-evolution-of-media/

https://www.communicationstudies.com/communication-theories/framing-theory

https://www.businesstopis.net/mass-communication/agenda-setting-theory