Media Coverage Of HivAids 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 HIVAIDS in Nigerian yet the spread had keep on scaling up. Therefore the study tried to ascertain the frequency of coverage of the HIVAIDS 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 HIVAIDS 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 HIVAIDS 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 HIVAIDS 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.