THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA COVERAGE OF FEMALES IN THE BOKO HARAM TERRORISM BETWEEN 2009 AND 2019

Over the decades, irrefutable events had proven the existence of female violent nonstate actors who perpetrated violent extremism with agency. Yet, in the electronic media coverage of Boko Haram terrorism from 2009 to 2019, female perpetrators were provided spaces of invincibility by the electronic media. Stereotypical mainstream narrative portrayed women predominantly as victims of the terrorism, thereby overlooking women who committed acts of violent extremism. Using the history method of research, this study interrogated how electronic media like the British Broadcasting Corporation, Cable News Network, Nigeria Television Authority, Al Jazeera and the Channels TV covered the violence. Primary data were gathered from official documents and oral interviews from journalists from the five media organisations, aid workers, repentant male and female Boko Haram combatants, government and military personnels who worked in the theatres of the conflict within the period under study. Secondary data were drawn from related academic literature and news reports. The study found that the news frames employed by these in the coverage of women were predominantly the humanitarian crises, and the women as victim’s frames, which blindsided female perpetrators, providing them spaces of invincibility. The study further argued that socio-cultural restrictions, the interference of charity organisations in media narratives, international and domestic laws, and information restriction by the military were militating factors that enforced media stereotypes. It concluded that gender-centric profiling of perpetrators must be eliminated, gender expertise of frontline journalists must be enhanced, and gender-inclusive definitions of war crimes were necessary in international and domestic laws.