Echendu Sonia 23BE032990 Question 2 Assignment

 

Framing Protest: A Stuart Hall Reading of CNN’s End SARS Coverage

Introduction:

 October 20, 2020, Nigerian youth assembled at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos in silent protest police violence, especially the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). What ensued was a bloody night of violence that became the center of both country wide lament and international uproar. CNN’s investigative report, "How a Bloody Night of Bullets put down a Young Protest Movement," reconstructs that night using eyewitness accounts, verified video evidence, and crime scene analysis. Applying Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Model to this media allows us to see the ideological intentions fixed in CNN’s coverage (encoding), and the various ways audiences—local protesters, the Nigerian government, and international viewers (decoding).

Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Theory

Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Model challenges the one-dimensional perspective of communication by challenging that media messages are not passively received by audiences. Instead, they are encoded with meaning by the producers and decoded in different ways depending on the viewer’s cultural background, political ideology, and lived experience. Hall identifies three main positions from which messages may be decoded:

1. Dominant Reading: where the viewer fully accepts the encoded message.
2. Negotiated Reading: where the viewer partially agrees with the message but challenges certain aspects.
3. Oppositional Reading: where the viewer rejects the encoded meaning and interprets it contrary to the producer’s intent.

Encoding: CNN’s Intended Meaning

CNN’s investigative report presents the leading narrative in the story around violence in the state and government denial. The video opens with series of events supported by mapped footage and audio record, verifying that Nigerian security personnel shot at defenceless civilians. This intention of verification techniques encodes the report with journalistic objectivity.

Moreover, the emotional tone is established through survivor testimonies, echoing of gunfire, and visuals of Nigerian flags soaked in blood shows compassion for the protesters and frames the Nigerian government as the aggressor. CNN positions the protesters as victims of state-sponsored brutality thus aligning itself with worldwide human rights communication. This framing is intentional, and it functions to hold power to account, particularly in the face of the Nigerian government’s initial denials and conflicting claims.

Decoding: Dominant Reading (International Audiences):

For many international viewers, those in support of democratic values and global justice movements. Such audiences are most likely to accept CNN’s, shaping the narrative without push back, interpreting the report as a valid, verified account of a government violating its citizens’ rights.

This response is boosted by the global resurgence of protest culture in 2020, mainly the Black Lives Matter movement, which repeated similar grievances against institutional violence. International audiences may see the End SARS protests as part of a global pattern of youth resistance against undemocratic leadership and state repression.

Decoding: Negotiated Reading (Local Protesters and Nigerian Public):

Among Nigerian youth and End SARS protesters, reactions to CNN’s report are seen as negotiated reading. While many applaud CNN for boosting their cause and providing global validation of their experiences, there may also be caution due to historical tensions between Nigerian and foreign media.

For some viewers, especially those who were present at Lekki, the report confirms their trauma and the reality they lived. The precision with which CNN cross-checks videos and identifies bullet from Nigerian military suppliers resonates as deeply affirming. However, others may question why it took a foreign outlet to uncover the truth.

Although, while agreeing with CNN’s portrayal of state violence, some Nigerians may feel that the report reduced nuanced issue to simple terms, such as the historical roots of police violence and the nature of the protests.

Decoding: Oppositional Reading (Nigerian Government and Allies)

In contrast, the oppositional reading is most to emerge from the Nigerian government and those aligned with state power. From this standpoint, CNN’s report is interpreted not as investigative journalism but as foreign propaganda that undermines national sovereignty.

In the weeks following the report’s release, Nigerian government officials publicly challenged CNN’s findings, accusing of misinformation and attempting to destabilize the country. The government’s response included summoning CNN to appear before investigative panels and even threatening sanctions.

This resistance is not just about narrative control but also about protecting political legitimacy. Acknowledging CNN’s framework would mean admitting to human rights violations with possible international legal consequences. Therefore, from this position, the report is decoded as an attack on Nigeria’s image, driven and biased by Western interest’s assumptions.

Conclusion:

CNN’s How a Bloody Night of Bullets put down a Young Protest Movement is not just a documentary, but a powerful cultural artifact shaped by ideology. Through the lens of Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Model, we see how the same media text can be accepted, negotiated, or rejected depending on the viewer’s experience or background.

CNN encodes a message of government authenticity, youth suppression, and journalist integrity. For international viewers, this message connotes with dominant democratic ideals. For Nigerian protesters, it reminds their struggle while also unveiling the limit of local media. For the government, it is a narrative to be resisted.

Hall’s model allows us to understand the surface, changing, and reminding us that what we watch is never just what we see, but what we understand through the lens of culture and power.