Gunmen, Bandits and Ransom Demanders: A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Study of the Construction of Abduction in the Nigerian Press

Abduction has recently become a security threat bedevilling Nigeria. This corpus-assisted critical discourse study examines news reports published by selected English-medium Nigerian newspapers from 2020 to 2022 on abduction, to understand how abduction is constructed within the Nigerian socio-political context. Taking a corpus-based approach to critical discourse analysis, I identify a series of discourses through which abduction and related issues are represented using keywords as pointers. Data revealed that the news reports are characterised by five constructions on abduction in Nigeria: construction of abduction perpetrators; construction of the state; construction of abduction setting/context; construction of abduction act as a means to an end; and construction of abduction victims. Abductors tend to be negatively evaluated in all the papers, portrayed as gunmen, bandits, ransom demanders and terrorists. Findings further revealed that the newspapers deployed different discourse strategies, especially referential/nomination and predication to negatively evaluate abductors. The range of these focuses indicates that the newspapers converge to negatively portray abduction and the perpetrators of same, thus negatively accentuating the general perception of abductors and abduction.