Paper short abstract:

This study mainly aims to shed light on media representations related to causes and conflict resolution initiatives in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon. It examines reporting in five Cameroonian major newspapers – The Post, The Star, Le Messager, The Sun and Cameroon Tribune.

Paper long abstract:

Representations in the media are important sources of information especially about contexts that people have limited access to, such as the Anglophone Conflict in Cameroon. This study mainly aims to shed light on media representations related to causes and conflict resolution initiatives in the North West and South West Regions. It examines reporting in five Cameroonian major newspapers – The Post, The Star, Le Messager, The Sun and Cameroon Tribune. The study uses quantitative and qualitative content analysis to categorise, record, interpret and overall analyse articles on the Anglophone conflict published between 2016 and 2020. The quantitative and qualitative methods are both complementary as they allow a wide-ranging analysis on stories in the newspapers. While the quantitative method is adopted to quantify categorised concepts and record the frequency of crisis stories on headline cover and content pages of newspapers, the qualitative method is mainly used to interpret meaning of statements. The study reveals that, despite differing in reporting on the basis of their different editorial lines, the five newspapers have nonetheless projected dialogue as the most suitable pathway to resolve the conflict.