Abstract

Ethno-Religious and Communal conflict is one of the serious challenges facing African nations and other parts of the world. This has sucked the blood of the innocent members of the communities and nations involved and the members of international peace keeping forces and moreover, has placed an enormous burden on the economy of the nations involved as well as the United Nations as a global body concerned over the affairs of the entire globe. Of great importance here is the threat of this form of violence to the right and lives of women and children who are usually the most vulnerable in this situation. Many factors are suspected as the culprits and accomplices to this phenomenon, however, beyond the socio-economic analysis, this study focused on the youth exposure to media violence and attitude towards the phenomenon focusing on the University of Nigeria Undergraduates as the study population. The study involved 150 students from various faculties and departments (From first year to fifth year) between the ages of 17-35. The hypotheses that guided the study were tested using Pearson-r and Spearman Rank correlation co efficiency. According to the findings, there is a positive correlation between exposure to media violence and positive attitude towards ethno-religious and communal conflict (rho=0.14, p<0.001), there a positive correlation between exposure to media violence and negative attitude towards peaceful conflict resolution (rho=0.12, p<0.001), there is a negative correlation between age and regular exposure to media violence (r=0.002, p<0.001) and, there is a positive correlation between age and positive attitude towards ethno-religious and communal conflict (r=0.042, p<0.001).

Keywords: Africa; Communal conflict; Ethno-religious conflict; Media violence; Nigeria