| Abstract: |
From the social responsibility theoretical perspective, this study investigated how two Nigerian national daily newspaper covered domestic violence against women in Ebonyi State from March 2020 – January, 2021 which was the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown. Content analysis method was adopted. Coding sheets were used to generate the data for the analysis. The population of the study were all issues of the Daily Sun and ThisDay newspapers from March 2020 – January, 2021, which was the period of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Ebonyi state. Three sampling techniques were employed: simple random sampling gave the needed samples equal chance of selection. Purposive technique ensured that only samples with the needed attributes were chosen. Selection of copies of the editions was systematic. A total of 600 editions of the two newspapers were published within the ten months period of 40 week; 3 editions of each newspaper were systematically selected per week at the sampling frame of two days interval, after determining the starting point (nth element) which was Thursday, March 26, 2020. Four content categories were identified and applied: news, features, opinion articles, and editorial comments, while the units of analysis were: prominence, frequency, depth or magnitude of coverage, and slant or direction. Findings indicate that the issue was not given the prominence it deserved in the papers as they were mainly reported in the centre spread pages. There was also limited depth of coverage, and majority of the reports were straight news stories, thereby, denying the needed interpretations. The tone was however, unanimously unsupportive of domestic violence in the society. The study recommends more media attention to gender issues and gender violence in particular through greater interpretations of the menace. It further recommends possible integration of gender reporting into journalism curriculum to better acquaint future reporters with the requisite skills and technicalities involved in reporting gender issues including violence against women. |
