Newspaper Coverage of Rape Cases in Nigeria
Do Newspaper Report Set Agenda on the Issue?
Abstract
This study investigates newspaper coverage of rape cases with specific attention to sources of stories, frequency of follow-up stories and the prominence accorded such stories. Content analysis was used for the study while two newspaper-the Daily Sun and the Vanguard- were selected for the study. A self developed coding sheet was used to collect data for the study. With the use of Kappa statistical method, the Inter-coder reliability was determined with the aid of SPSS version 16.0 which yielded 0.85 which was considered very high reliability level. Result revealed that most of the stories on rape cases cited non-official sources. It was found that the newspapers studied had very few stories on follow-cases regarding rape. Also, the newspapers studied paid less prominence to rape cases as most of the studies were on the inside page. Based on the result of this study, the researcher recommends, among others that newspapers should improve on the prominence accorded rape cases so as to properly set agenda on the issue.