Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Vol. 11:1 (2023) ► pp.25–47

Verbal horror and slaughterhouse imagery in media representation of herdsmen violence

ORCID logo | Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, Germany | Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Nigeria
Nigerian media reports on herdsmen’s violence present dehumanised images of a slaughterhouse in which farmers are represented as animals being slaughtered by herders. Using a critical discourse analysis and appraisal framework, with a focus on the systems of attitude and graduation, this paper critically examines media representation of herdsmen’s violence as “butchering” in the form of carnism. Analysis reveals that carnist representation is reinforced through death-dealing socio-cognitive labelling, attitudinal lexicalisation and strands of carnism. Also, using attitude and graduation resources, a one-directional and horrific image is painted. The study concludes that the creation as well as consumption of such scary news cultivates cognitive prejudices and stereotypes.
Keywords: critical discourse analysis, appraisal framework, herdsmen violence socio-cognitive labelling, media reports
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Representation of violence and ideology in the media
  • 3.Herdsmen violence and the media representation
  • 4.The corpus and methodology
  • 5.Theoretical background: Critical discourse analysis and appraisal framework
  • 6.Analysis and discussion
    • 6.1Death-dealing socio-cognitive labelling
    • 6.2Attitudinal lexicalisation
    • 6.3Strands of carnism
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • References
Published online: 26 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00070.igw
References (57)
References
Abdulai, Abubakari, and Felix Yakubu. 2014. “Pastoralism and Violence in Northern Ghana: Socialization and Professional Requirement.” International Journal of Research in Social Science 4(5): 102–111.Google Scholar
Abdulbaqi, Saudat, and Ogaga Ariemu. 2017. “Newspapers Framing of Herdsmen-Farmers’ Conflicts in Nigeria and Its Implication on Peace-Oriented Journalism Creative Artist.” Journal of Theatre and Media Studies 11(2): 77–105.Google Scholar
Agyemang, Emmanuel. 2017. “Farmer-Herder Conflict in Africa: An Assessment of the Causes and Effects of the Sedentary Farmers-Fulani Herdsmen Conflict. A Case Study of the Agogo Traditional Area, Ashanti Region of Ghana.” Master’s Thesis, University of Agder.
Akerjiir, Anastasia. 2018. “Increasing Farmer-Herder Conflict in Nigeria: An Assessment of the Clashes between the Fulani Herdsmen and Indigenous Farmers in Ukpabi-Nimbo Community Enugu State.” Master’s Thesis, Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
Akinyetun, Tope. 2016. “Staff to Gun: Fulani Herdsmen in Nigeria.” Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies 4(8): 38–44.Google Scholar
Alfred, Bukola, and Folajimi Oyebola. 2019. “Media Perspectives on Boko Haram Insurgency and Herdsmen-Farmers’ Crises in Nigeria.” Linguistik Online 95(2): 3–16. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aliyu, Kolawole, Hope Ikedinma, and Adeyoola Akinwande. 2018. “Assessment of the Effect of Farmers-Herdsmen Conflicts on National Integration in Nigeria.” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 8(10): 118–128.Google Scholar
Amer, Mohammedwesam. 2015. “War Reporting in the International Press: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Gaza War of 2008–2009.” PhD Thesis, University of Hamburg.
Anthony, Laurence. 2019. AntConc (Version 3.5.8) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. Retrieved from [URL]
Bignell, Jonathan. 1997. Media Semiotics: An Introduction. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Bukari, Kaderi, and Nicholaus Schareika. 2015. “Stereotypes, Prejudices and Exclusion of Fulani Pastoralists in Ghana.” Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice 5(20): 1–12.Google Scholar
Chiluwa, Innocent, and Isioma Chiluwa. 2020. “Deadlier than Boko Haram: Representations of the Nigerian Herder-Farmer Conflict in the Local and Foreign Press.” Media, War and Conflict (Published online first). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chinwokwu, Eke. 2015. “Community-Based Early Warning in Conflict Management and Peace Building in Nigeria: An Analysis of Internal Security Issues.” Journal of Culture, Society and Development 91: 3–17.Google Scholar
. 2017. “Glamorization of Fulani Herdsmen’s Criminality and its Implications on National Security in Nigeria.” Online Journal of Arts, Management and Social Sciences 2(2): 29–51.Google Scholar
Ciboh, Rodney. 2017. “Framing the Herdsmen-Farmers’ Conflicts and Peace Building in Nigeria.” Mkar Journal of Media and Culture 2(2): 1–16.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 2002. Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Croteau, David, and William Hoynes. 2003. Media/Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences. 3rd edition. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press.Google Scholar
Dary, Stanley, Harvey James, and Asaah Mohammed. 2017. “Triggers of Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Ghana: A Non Parametric Analysis of Stakeholders’ Perspectives.” Sustainable Agriculture Research 6(2): 141–151. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Bruijn, Mirjam, and Han van Dijk. 2003. “Changing Population Mobility in West Africa: Fulbe Pastoralists in Central and South Mali.” African Affairs 102(407): 285–307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eraye, Christopher Michael, Eke Chinwokwu, and Martins Inyang. 2016. “Resident’s Vulnerability to Criminal Victimization in Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria.” Online Journal of Arts, Management and Social Science 2(1): 127–139.Google Scholar
Eraye, Christopher Michael, Martins Inyang, and Mercy Ukpong. 2017. “Non-vulnerable against the Vulnerable: A Socio-criminological Analysis of Herdsmen Attack on Vulnerable Population in Nigeria.” Online Journal of Arts, Management and Social Sciences 2(1): 89–102.Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. London: Polity Press.Google Scholar
. 1995. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
. 2001. Language and Power. 2nd edition, London: Longman.Google Scholar
Fowler, Roger. 1991. Language in the News: Language and Ideology in the Press. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gilliam, Franklin, Shanto Iyengar, Adam Simon, and Oliver Wright. 1996. “Crime in Black and White: The Violent, Scary World of Local News.” Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 11: 6–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gilliam, Franklin, and Shanto Iyengar. 2000. “Prime Suspects: The Influence of Local Television News on the Viewing Public.” American Journal of Political Science 44(3): 560–573. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Global Terrorism Index. 2015. Measuring and Understanding the Impact of Terrorism. New York: Institute of Economics and Peace.Google Scholar
Hall, Stuart. 1982. “The Rediscovery of ‘Ideology’: Return of the Repressed in Media Studies.” In Culture, Society and the Media, edited by Tony Bennett, James Curran, Michael Gurevitch, and Janet Wollacott, 56–90. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Igwebuike, Ebuka. 2018. “Discursive Strategies and Ideologies in Selected Newspaper Reports on the Nigerian-Cameroonian Bakassi Peninsula Border Conflict.” Communication and the Public 31: 151–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2021. “Metaphorical Constructions of Herding in News Reports on Fulani Herdsmen”. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 35(1): 85–98. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Imoro, Muhammed. 2018. “The Fulani Herdsmen Crisis in West Africa: The Case of Agogo Area in the Asante-Akim North District, Ashanti Region of Ghana.” Master’s Thesis, University of Ghana.
International Crisis Group. 2018. Stopping Nigeria’s Spiraling Farmer-Herder Violence, Africa Report No. 262, July 26.Google Scholar
Joy, Melanie. 2001. “From Carnivore to Carnist: Liberating the Language of Meat. Satya 8(2): 26–27.Google Scholar
Machin, David, and Andrea Mayr. 2012. How to Do Critical Discourse Analysis: A Multimodal Introduction. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Martin, James, and David Rose. 2003. Working with Discourse: Meaning beyond the Clause. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Martin, James, and Peter White. 2005. The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matheson, Donald. 2005. Media Discourses: Analysing Media Texts. Berkshire: Open University Press.Google Scholar
McQuail, Denis. 1992. Media Performance: Mass Communication and the Public Interest. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Mikailu, Naziru. 2016. “Making Sense of Nigeria’s Fulani-Farmer Conflict.” BBC News, May 5 May, [URL]
Monteiro, Christopher, Tamara Pfeiler, Marcus Patterson, and Michael Milburn. 2017. “The Carnism Inventory: Measuring the Ideology of Eating Animals.” Appetite 1131: 51–62. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Naylor, Bronwyn. 2001. “Reporting Violence in the British Print Media: Gendered Stories.” The Howard Journal 40(2): 180–194. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Obi, Deborah, Uzochukwu Chinweze, and Dominic Onyejebu. 2018. “Politics of Herdsmen Attack and its Socio-Economic Implication in Nigeria.” European Journal of Political Science Studies 1(2): 65–73.Google Scholar
Olomojobi, Oluwafemi. 2017. “National Newspapers’ Coverage of the Conflict between Herders and Farmers in Nigeria.” Master’s Thesis, Babcock University, Nigeria.
Omilusi, Mike. 2016. “Roving Terrorists or Innocuous Cattle Grazers? Between Herdsmen’s Economic Survival and Community Annihilation in Nigeria.” Cultural Relations Quarterly Review 48–76.Google Scholar
Omitola, Bolaji. 2014. “Between Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen: Organised Crime and Insecurity in Nigeria.” Paper Presented at the 5th Institute of Security Studies Conference on Crime and Crime Reduction, 14 and 15 August, 2014, Sandton, South Africa. Accessed on 24/06/2019 from [URL]
Ononye, Chuka, and Gabriel Osoba. 2020. “Humans or Animals?’ Herdsmen Attack as Game Hunting in Media Reports of Herder-Farmer Conflicts in Nigeria.” Research in Pragmatics 2(1): 11–36.Google Scholar
Simeon, Uchenna. 2017. “Incidence of Herdsmen Militancy in Southern Nigeria: A Threat- import Analysis.” Asian International Journal of Social Sciences 171: 53–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Talbot, Mary, Karen Atkinson, and David Atkinson. 2003. Language and Power in the Modern World. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tirocchi, Simona. 2014. “Media Representations of the ‘New’ Childhoods: From Mass Media to Digital Environment.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Family Studies 19(1): 60–76.Google Scholar
Tonah, Steve. 2005. Fulani in Ghana: Migration History, Integration and Resistance. Legon- Accra: Research and Publication Unit, Department of Sociology, University of Ghana.Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun. 1995. “Opinions and Ideologies in the Press.” In Approach to Media Discourse, edited by Bell, Allan and Peter Garrett, 21–63. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
. 2006. Ideology and Discourse: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. Barcelona: Pompeu Fabra University.Google Scholar
Uvin, Peter. 2001. “Reading the Rwandan Genocide.” International Studies Review 3(3): 75–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weiss, Gilbert, and Ruth Wodak. 2007. “Introduction – Models of Interdisciplinarity”. In CDA, Theory and Interdisciplinarity, edited by Weiss, Gilbert and Ruth Wodak, 1–37. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Michael Meyer. 2009. “Critical Discourse Analysis: History, Agenda, Theory, and Methodology”. In Methods of CDA, edited by Wodak, Ruth and Michael Meyer, 1–33. London: Sage.Google Scholar
White, Peter. 2006. “Evaluative Semantics and Ideological Positioning in Journalistic Discourse– A New Framework for Analysis.” In Mediating Ideology in Text and Image: Ten Critical Studies, edited by Lassen, Inger, Jeanne Strunck and Torben Vestergaard, 37–69. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar