ABSTRACT
This study was a Content Analysis of Online Mainstream Media Framing of Lekki Toll Gate shooting of 20th October, 2020 in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study became necessary because online mainstream media have become the main sources of information to many Nigerians in relation to any conflict; therefore it is imperative to analyze the format, language tone, frequency of the EndSARS/Lekki Toll gate shooting posts online. Four Nigerian online national daily Newspapers posts of EndSARS protest/Lekki toll gate shooting in the Lagos state were sampled. The online national dailies, which included Leadershiponline, Vanguardonline, The Guardianonline, and The Sunonline were published between October 21, 2020 to November 30, 2020. The population size was 164 issues from where samples of 122 EndSARS/Lekki Toll gate shooting related posts were purposively selected. The study was anchored on Democratic Participant media theory, Agenda setting theory, framing theory and Frustration-Aggression theory. The findings showed that Nigerian online newspapers gave adequate coverage to October 2020 EndSARS protest in a fair, balanced and responsible manner even though there were a few instances when confrontational languages slipped into reports. Accordingly, it was recommended, among others, that to get to the roots of the causes of conflicts, reporters and editors should include more of feature articles, editorials, and interviews with conflict experts, victims and local residents in their coverage.
