Abstract
This study examined Television news coverage of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria from February 2020 to July 2020. The focus was on African Independent Television (AIT), a privately owned TV, and Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), a government-owned TV. We also interviewed ( n = 30) participants to understand their view on media coverage of the pandemic. We found that the TV stations paid adequate attention to the issues of COVID-19. However, the private media allocated more prominence to the coverage of COVID-19. By implication, the private media had more COVID-19 stories telecasted on its headline which also appeared as the first headline in many cases. Furthermore, they had more stories that were aired 61 seconds and above. The findings also showed that the government media outlet cited more of government officials while the private media dueled more on the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The private media had more negative tone stories, and most of its stories used visual and motion footages. Overall, our findings suggest that media ownership and politics play a large role in the coverage of COVID-19 in Nigeria. This has affected the attitude of the public as many of them no longer see the pandemic as something serious, but rather politically motivated virus to highlight the failings of the political party in power.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundThe severity of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has driven the World Health Organization to brand it as a global pandemic which has claimed many lives, raising widespread panic and adding to the anxiety of people (Zhou et al, 2020)
Hart et al (2020) likewise found that newspaper coverage of COVID-19 is highly politicized in the United States. Drawing from these pieces of literature, we proposed the following research question and hypotheses: Research Question 6: What do people think about the coverage of COVID-19 in Nigeria? Hypothesis 6 (H6): Media coverage COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria will have a positive link with public behavior/attitude toward the pandemic
We found that a total of 422 stories of COVID-19 were covered by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and African Independent Television (AIT) between February 2020 and July 2020
Summary
Introduction and BackgroundThe severity of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has driven the World Health Organization to brand it as a global pandemic which has claimed many lives, raising widespread panic and adding to the anxiety of people (Zhou et al, 2020). As the effort to create COVID-19 vaccine continues, there is a need for the public to get adequate health literacy and information that would help in curtailing the spread of the virus. The media are mandated with the fundamental role of educating, creating awareness, and informing the public during pandemic (Gever & Ezeah, 2020). According to Gever and Ezeah (2020), the most suitable way the media contribute to creating awareness and educating the masses during a pandemic is through coverage. This is implemented via regular reporting public health issues, suggesting appropriate health behavior, and recommending policies that will help in curtailing the spread of a pandemic
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