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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Sexuality
Vol. 11:1 (2022) ► pp.80–100

The discursive construction of gay people in news reports of selected Nigerian newspapers

| University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Same-sex relationships have, over time, stirred serious debates worldwide. Studies on same-sex sexualities in the Nigerian context have focused on its representation in Nollywood movies and other arguments centred on ethics, culture and religion, with little attention paid to how queer people are framed by the Nigerian media. This study, therefore, explores agency and processes in the representation of gay people in news reports of selected Nigerian newspapers, in order to unearth how this social group is discursively constructed in the Nigerian context. Drawing on insights from Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis and Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics, this study considers three popular Nigerian newspapers (Vanguard, Nigerian Tribune and The Punch) within three years (2013–2015, being the period of intense debate on the legalisation of the anti-gay bill in Nigeria). Results reveal that gay people are negatively evaluated as actors of negative material processes such as ‘murder’ and other violent actions, and goals of the actions of ‘arrests’ and ‘remands’, ideologically portraying them as criminals and dangerous. The study provides insight into the biased posturing of the Nigerian media on important social/national issues such as same-sex relationships.

Keywords: representation of gay persons, heteronormativity, ideologies, discourses on same-sex sexualities, homophobia in the Nigerian press
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies
  • 3.Theoretical framework
    • 3.1Fairclough’s model of CDA (Socio-semiotic approach)
    • 3.2Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.Data analysis and discussion
    • 5.1Gay people as actors/violent criminals
    • 5.2Government/law enforcement agents as actors – gay people as goals/victims
    • 5.3Government/law enforcement agents as actors – Act of homosexuality as circumstance
    • 5.4Collective nouns as actors of violent acts against gay people
    • 5.5Passivisation: Gay people as victims (goals) in agentless material clauses
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
Published online: 11 February 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.19009.ade
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