News framing of ethno-political issues and conflict behaviours: Etnic conflict pathways model

News framing study impacts on public opinions and behaviours formation have been severally established. However, its influence on ethnic conflicts which have remained a challenge have not received adequate attention. Despite that the erstwhile causes identified and solutions offered have not really helped in the containment mostly in
multiethnic societies. Based on this, the need for a new approach to investigate news framing and conflict behaviours has become imperative. This therefore was the impetus for this study’s exploration and examination of the ethnic conflict motives and stimulants for conflict behaviours which is the main helix. The study explored the
waves of news frames on ethnic conflict through a mixed methods design. The indepth interview with 26 informants residents in Kwara State, North Central Nigeria was used, while content analysis of three major newspapers in Nigeria was applied to
complement the collection of data. The interview data was analyzed thematically while the content analysis was analysed descriptively. The results showed that ethnic group leaders are the main protagonists in the pathway to ethnic conflict while newspaper framing stimulates ethnic differences through conflict oriented framing.
The study has significantly contributed fresh and up-to-date angles to the overall perspectives of how newspapers frames have been directly and indirectly influencing ethnic conflict. In addition the possible solutions have been proposed. The study concludes that structural factors (political and economic exclusion, injustice, poverty, and inequality) and how newspapers frame ethnic issues are the reasons for the intractable conflict behaviours and ethnic conflicts in Nigeria.This study proposed a model to guide the ethnic conflict pathways understanding and solution strategies for
multiethnic societies to manage ethnic conflict.