Media Coverage Of Hiv/Aids: A Content Analysis Of Two Nigerian Newspapers (The Guardian And Daily Sun)

ABSTRACT: A lot of educational campaign, with different strategies has been employed to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS in Nigerian, yet the spread had keep on scaling up. Therefore, the study tried to ascertain the frequency of coverage of the HIV/AIDS in Guardian and Daily Sun newspapers, because as a mass media channel, has the potential for easy reach. Both Primary and Secondary methods were used to collect data for the study. Data generated analyzed with the use of simple descriptive statistical tools such as frequency distribution and percentages. The result of the study indicated that HIV/AIDS information was under published in the two newspapers especially in Daily Sun newspaper; the study also shows that the Guardian carried the highest number of stories (77.6%) and the Daily Sun (22.4%). The low number of news report on HIV/AIDS is surprising given that the period of study covered the month of December when the world celebrated the worlds AIDS day. In December Guardian had (9) and Daily Sun (3) porblication respectively. The study based on these findings recommends that journalists should be trained on health issues in order to have adequate knowledge of the epidemic. The coverage of the HIV/AIDS should be positioned in strategic pages of newspaper, for easy access by the public, and government should also subsidize the expenses to enable their increase coverage. The study further investigated the determinants of news coverage of news items, the result shows that (64%) of the respondents said that organizational ownership, (58%) cited interest of the editor, (70%) said audience demand of the particular newspaper, (56%) said competition among the publishing media can spur action while 78% said if government made it compulsory for a very media house to carry it regularly.

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[4]. Odoemelam and Nwachukwu (2010) Effectiveness of Mass Media and Interpersonal Communication in Disseminating HIV/AIDS Information to Rural Communities in Abia State Nigeria. Unpublished PhD Thesis submitted to the Dept. of RSE, MOUAU Abia, Nigeria.