Abstract:
Domestic violence has become a trendy discourse in the Nigerian society. It is so prevalent that one gets to read about it on social and print media more often. This menace has claimed the lives of many promising Nigerians and has destroyed countless marriages. Globally, the victims of domestic violence are predominantly women, but this does not dispute the fact that men are also victims of domestic violence. For the purpose of this study the term domestic violence was strictly used to refer to violence between couples/partners in relationships such as cohabitation or marriage. The study employed quantitative analysis to examine the framing of domestic violence in selected newspapers in Nigeria. The study purposively selected three newspapers for the study, they include; Daily Sun, The Guardian and Vanguard newspapers. The composite week sampling technique was utilized to select stories from the selected newspapers from 1st January to 31st December, 2017. A total of 252 editions were analyzed from the sampled newspapers. The findings of the study clearly suggest that domestic violence is indeed an underreported crime in Nigeria; because the frequency of coverage of the selected newspapers was relatively poor, and these newspapers failed to give priority, in-depth analysis and prominence to the available stories. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that the media should stop playing neutral and indifferent in their reports on domestic violence; they should vehemently condemn the act through their content and language. It is also recommended that prominence and in-depth analysis should be given to these stories because of their importance to the society.
