THE GUARDIAN AND VANGUARD COVERAGE OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN NIGERIA: AN EVALUATION

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to examine the coverage of the Nigerian newspaper on mental illness in Nigeria. This study is guided by five objectives which were also formulated as five research questions. The agenda setting theory and the development media theory anchored this study. The research design used for this study was content analysis. The study population for this project research was the issues of The Guardian and Vanguard newspapers on mental illness between January 2018 and December,2018. The total number of publications in the period is 730 publications which is 365 dailies per Newspaper. The researcher utilized the systematic sampling technique. The instruments were tested for reliability and validity. Newspapers were sourced from the archives of the national union of journalists, Benin Chapter. The findings of the study are as follows; only 11.1% of all the issue coverage was in the front pages of the newspaper reviewed. Most of the issues on mental health are inside page coverage which accounts for 80% of the type of prominence given to mental health issues. The source of coverage on mental health is largely from Newspaper reports as 53.3% are from the newspaper correspondents. The larger share of the issue coverage is on the scale of the problem. Reports on the scale of the problem accounts 34 out of 45 issues covered. In line with the findings of the research, the researcher recommends that there is the need for newspaper editors to engage with issues of public health as a major development agenda.