Do online newspapers promote or undermine nation‐building in divided societies? Evidence from Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID6306191
AuthorsEva Lieberman (0000-0001-9242-5687, Total Professor of Political Science and Contemporary Africa and Director of the Global Diversity Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Massachusetts USA), Amy Chasteen Miller (0000-0001-5634-9699, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the United States Naval Academy Annapolis Maryland USA)
Year2021
Volume27
Issue1
Pages238-259
Publication date2021-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNations and Nationalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1345-5078 • E-ISSN: 1469-8129
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/nana.12661
OpenAlexW3092365430
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited51

Seminal contributions to the study of nation‐building emphasized the role of newspapers in the development of national consciousness. But do such theories apply in the modern context of online news sites, especially in diverse, postcolonial societies? Because online news sites contain forums for reader comments, this provides an opportunity to assess the relationship between exposure to media content and citizen sentiments. We investigate the extent to which a major online news site makes ethnic categories salient in sub‐Saharan Africa's largest country, Nigeria. Analysing more than 35,000 news articles and 300,000 comments, we find that commenters frequently broadcast strong expressions of subnational ethnic animus in response to a wide variety of stories. In particular, the use of some ethnic categories in headlines is associated with more than 40 percentage point increase in the probability of at least one reader making an ethnic‐based comment. Extending the analysis to South Africa, we show that these patterns generalize beyond Nigeria. By amplifying ethnic animus, ‘national’ newspapers may impede nation‐building efforts

Advertising · Consciousness · Context (archaeology · Ethnic group · Geography · Media studies · News media · Newspaper · Political science · Salient · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics · Gender Politics and Representation · Law · Media Influence and Politics · Psychology · Social Media and Politics

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