NJOMACS

This study examined newspaper coverage of irregular migration in Nigeria from January 2020 to May 2023, employing a mixed-method systematic content analysis as its research design. A sample of 362 articles was drawn from three national daily newspapers — The Punch, The Guardian, and The Sun — using stratified random sampling across 41 monthly strata. Quantitative data were coded along four primary variable categories: frequency and prominence, dominant frames, source hierarchies, and tonal orientation. Qualitative analysis examined latent framing patterns and ideological orientations through NVivo-assisted thematic analysis. Findings reveal that coverage was characterised by systematic editorial marginalisation, with 79.8 per cent of articles placed on inside pages. Episodic framing dominated (74.0%), with security (27.1%), humanitarian (23.5%), and criminal justice (21.0%) frames most prevalent. Institutional sources constituted 70.8 per cent of all citations, whilst migrants and returnees accounted for only 7.8 per cent. Negative tone prevailed in 48.6 per cent of articles, and stigmatising terminology appeared in 39.5 per cent of coverage. The study concludes that Nigerian newspaper coverage of irregular migration is a structured product of commercial pressures, gatekeeping logics, and institutional source dominance, and advances normative propositions for rights-based, structurally contextualised migration reporting consistent with the social responsibility obligations of the press.