Nigerians’ perception of newspaper framing of COVID-19 stories and adherence to government’s containment policy (2020–2021)

Abstract

There is a known fact that the public depends largely on the media for information. However, such information might not have been perceived rightly as sent by the media. Hence, the objective of this study is to examine the extent to which information on the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic containment policy flows from the government to the public through the pages of newspapers. Aside from examining how these policies were framed, it seeks to also find out if Nigerians perceived the coverage by newspapers as relevant for them to comply with them. Adopting a descriptive methodological approach which systematically differs from most previous studies because substantial studies on the subject matter use qualitative methods. Findings reveal that Newspapers’ framing of COVID-19 stories does not correlate with public adherence to the government’s containment policy and the volume of newspaper coverage of COVID-19 stories does not correlate with public perception of the importance of the government containment policy on the disease. The study concluded that even though advancement in technology has given rise to the use of other media such as social media, the efficacy/potency and relevance of the newspaper cannot be brushed aside despite this advancement. It is, however, recommended that further studies should be conducted to examine the challenges faced by press through Key Informant Interview (KII) in the carrying coverage on the COVID-19 pandemic in other to strike balance.