| Abstract: |
This study analysed the online newspaper readers’ comments on the Facebook page of three select newspapers on ?EndSARS/SWAT protests in Nigeria. In conducting this study, the Convergent Mixed Design was adopted. Quantitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis were used to generate quantitative and qualitative data for the study. Three hundred and ninety (396) comments were proportionately drawn for an equal distribution across the three select Facebook pages: Premium
Times, Daily Trust and Punch. The findings revealed that the highest likes (81.1%) on stories of the?EndSARS/SWAT protests were from Sahara Reporters because they had a more interactive audience. The result equally showed that the tone of comments used by the online newspaper readers were the acclaim, attack, disapproval, defense, ethnic, religious, political and neutral tones. It was further identified that the dominant tone of comments used was the attack tone (34.3%) followed by the disapproval tone (26%). The least used tone was the political tone
(2%). Based on these findings, it was recommended that the Nigerian government should carry out a total reorientation of every unit under the Nigerian Police Force and media messages should be disseminated to enhance oneness and not fuel conflicts in the Nigerian society. |
