A content analysis of port harcourt-based radio stations’ news frames on rivers state government's urban renewal programme

Abstract

The power of narratives to shape public policy is supported in a variety of academic literature. In the mass media, the angles to these narratives are called frames. By framing issues in specific ways, an entity can identify underlying patterns and shape public opinion in a certain direction. Using four research objectives as a template, this study analysed Port Harcourt radio news frames (Nigeria Info 92.3 FM and Rhythm 93.7 FM) on the Rivers State government's Urban Renewal Programme. While the theoretical foundation of the study hinged on agenda setting, gatekeeping, and framing theories, the study relied on secondary data from the news bulletins of the selected radio stations. The population of the study consisted of 255 news items, which also served as the sample size, following the census sampling technique. The findings of the study revealed that though Nigeria Info 92.3FM covered the programme more than Rhythm 93.7 FM, a significant percentage of the time (114 times, or 52.5%), the programme was framed positively in the bulletins of the two radio stations, using two major frames, “development” and “politics”, and given prominence (49.8% of headlines and 80% of story length, measuring 16 seconds and above). In addition to the above, the quality of coverage was significantly high (72.1%), ranging from the mode of coverage to varying aspects of the programme reported. The study recommended that privately owned radio stations should do more coverage of government policies and programmes beyond the news platform and, at the same time, frame their stories in such a way to offer interpretation and context to the citizenry while holding the government and policy actors accountable.