Boko Haram, a Nigerian terrorist group, has been responsible for a number of attacks and suicide bombings during the past decade. This study compares, on a small scale, how Boko Haram's female militants are portrayed in Western versus local media. The study discovered variations in the portrayal of female terrorists through a content analysis of reports from local and Western news sites. Female terrorists were more often presented locally as active participants in the group's crimes, whilst Western media more frequently characterized them as victims who were persuaded or indoctrinated into joining Boko Haram. Local media focused on the underlying factors resulting in female participation, and Boko Haram as an organization, whilst Western media focused more on personal lives, such as their family histories and motivations for joining the group. The study also discovered variations in how the issue was portrayed, with local media emphasizing poverty and lack of education and job opportunities as major reasons while Western media concentrated on Boko Haram's radical ideology. The results of this study indicate that cultural and ideological variations between the two regions have an impact on how Boko Haram's female terrorists are portrayed in the media. This study deepens our understanding of how the media shapes public perceptions of terrorism and emphasizes the value of taking into account a variety of viewpoints when examining media material.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-509077 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Linnér, Julia |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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