A Comparative Analysis of The Nation, Daily Sun, Thisday and Daily Trust Newspapers Framing of 2023 Presidential Election

AbstractThe study was carried out to examine how four Nigerian national newspapers (The Nation, Daily Sun, This Day and Daily Trust) framed the 2023 presidential election. Using the content analysis, data were sourced from 235 editorial contents of the fournewspapers published between August 2022 and July 2023, which yielded a population of 365 editions. The systematic sampling procedure guided the determination of the sample size, while the defined skip interval was applied in the actual selection of thesample size at 25% of the population, which yielded 91.2 editions. A quantitative and qualitative descriptive analysis was adopted while data were reported as the mean and simple percentage of the group total. Findings revealed the use of dominant frames such as issue-based, personality-based, conflict, news and strategic as well as ethnic/religious frames. It was also discovered that ownership and political affiliations obviously influenced the framing of the 2023 presidential election to the extent that The Nation and Daily Sun newspapers published 95% and 92% stories in favour of the All Progressive Congress (APC) respectively, while This Day and Daily Trust demonstrated moderate objectivity through the even spread of stories across the political parties. The study calls for more responsible journalism, urging media outlets to prioritize issue based reporting and factual analysis over partisan and sensational coverage.