News Media Propaganda and Intricate Conflict Outcomes: A Case Study of 2023 General Elections of Oyo State, Nigeria

Nigeria, as a nascent democracy, is yet to be fully entrenched in standard election. Contestation for media space contributes to the escalation of political conflicts. Scholarly works on propaganda as a political campaign tool lack contextual analysis of episodic electioneering and elections in Nigeria. This study examined the nexus between conflict and propaganda in the news media during the general elections of 2023. The study utilizedtriangulation methods; such as questionnaire, in-depth interviews and content analysis for data collection. Questionnaire was administered to randomly selected 400 respondents, while in-depth interviews werepurposively conducted with state publicity representative of All Progressive Congress and Peoples Democratic Party in Oyo State. Forty-eight propaganda media messages of the two political parties were content analysed. The discussion of findings is anchored in the Value Change Theory of mass communication and Verbal Aggressiveness Theory of conflict. The findings revealed that hate-speech, fake news, repudiation, labelling and other tactics heated the political scenario during the 2023 general elections and contributed to violent attacks. Social media was used without traces of professionalism. It is recommended that media literacy be taught in schools and out of school settings to ensure mediation and moderation in the media usage patterns, particularly for political purposes.