Public Perception of Newspaper Coverage of Ebola Pandemic in Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are as follows:
- To determine the extent of the coverage of the Ebolavirus disease by the Nigerian press.
- To examine the direction/slant of news presentation on the Ebola virus disease by the Nigerian press.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is a deadly disease which medical science have confirmed is a very deadly disease with capacity to kill the host body in a matter of weeks depending on the individual’s immune system. It spread so fast especially through contact with an effected body and resulting in the death of so many people including health workers. There are a lot of speculations and assumptions about Ebola with so much ignorance making the rounds. It is the lack of knowledge and information that resulted in the death of more people than should have been as friends and relatives of the infected had contact with those who have contacted the virus and died as a result of this. Those who died from the virus were also improperly disposed or buried further leading to wide spread of the virus as World Health Organization reports on Ebola confirmed that the virus does not die in the host after the death of the host hence contact with the corpse by others could lead to their infection as well. All these are pointers to how much the lack of information or the availability of information and proper sensitization could have helped to remedy the situation and result in the salvaging of more people and families from the scourge of the deadly Ebola Virus. And this is where the media becomes imperative. Okunna (1999) identifies that, “the mass media performs a number of functions, which benefits the individual as a member of a society. These function range from serious informational and educational functions to other lighter functions.
Role of Media in Health Promotion
“Media is an important ally in any public health situation. It serves the role of being a source of correct information as well as an advocate for correct health behaviors. But before the media can take on that role, it needs to understand the virus, the issues surrounding it, policy and practices, and finally, recommended correct behaviour” (USAID, 2009). The local and international media play a vital role as the link between health workers and the larger public. Health authorities educate and entrust the media with essential health information, which is then relayed to the public in readily accessible formats through a variety of media channels. For instance, in order to disseminate information about the avian influenza to the wider public, the U.S. Government tasked the Academy for Educational Development with the responsibility of developing a training program to help the local media understand the complexity of this disease so that they would be able to report about it effectively. The mass media helps health workers expand their audience reach, which is crucial considering the fact that face-to-face channels of communication often require too many human resources and reach only a small number of people in large, underserved rural areas.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to public perception of newspaper coverage of Ebola pandemic in Nigeria
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information public perception of newspaper coverage of Ebola pandemic in Nigeria. 200 staff of selected health centers in Bauchi state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
DATA ANALYSIS
The data collected from the respondents were analyzed in tabular form with simple percentage for easy understanding.
A total of 133(one hundred and thirty three) questionnaires were distributed and 133 questionnaires were returned.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain Public perception of newspaper coverage of Ebola pandemic in Nigeria
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of Public perception of newspaper coverage of Ebola pandemic in Nigeria
Summary
This study was on Public perception of newspaper coverage of Ebola pandemic in Nigeria. Two objectives were raised which included: To determine the extent of the coverage of the Ebola virus disease by the Nigerian press and to examine the direction/slant of news presentation on the Ebola virus disease by the Nigerian press. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staffs of selected health centres in Bauchi state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up directors, doctors, nurses and junior staffs were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
That the mass media, particularly of the Guardian and The Punch newspapers could be said to have given adequate attention to the issues of the Ebola Virus Disease owing to its covering of the EVD on its cover page as well as lead stories more than The Punch.
That the Guardian and The Punch newspapers provided varied forms of information from both straight news, to editorials, to feature reports as well as opinion pages thereby giving the audience more access to news on the development and spread of Ebola.
Based on findings, The Guardian newspaper is seen to have dedicated more front page story than The Punch newspapers when reporting the Ebola Virus Disease.
Similar to the aforementioned, The Guardian newspaper is seen to have also dedicated more of its lead or cover story to the news on the spread and management of the Ebola Virus Disease
Recommendation
The media are said to set the agenda for public discuss as well as being expected to be socially responsible enough to promote societal development. Therefore, first and foremost, the researcher suggests that the media should be more proactive in handling societal issues by not always adopting only the watchdog method but should also act a whistle blower, pre-empting and responding prompt enough in averting disasters of this nature. This is informed by two premise; first is that the EVD had long been existing in other west African country before it came to Nigeria hence they could have championed public discourse on the EVD as well as other important public issues. Again, the researcher recommends that the media, the government at all levels as well as all stakeholders must invest so much in research as well as the development of Nigeria’s capacity to respond promptly when the need to tackle health issues as the wealth of the nation lies in the health and life expectancy indices of its citizenry
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