Print Media Coverage of Climate Change News in Southern Nigeria

Abstract:

Scientists predict that Nigeria is likely to be one of the regions most affected by climate change. Though the effects on Nigeria’s floral kingdom are a huge concern in terms of biodiversity, the effects of climate change are predicted to be far broader than the natural environment. Agriculture, industry, the health sector, politics and the socio-economics sectors among others are all likely to be significantly impacted by climate change. Good information, including economic data, about the impacts of climate change in agricultural sector is still lacking in most of the national daily newspapers in Nigeria, and climate change information is seen as an important factor in understanding the implication of climate change on the society and the economy. This study investigates print media coverage of climate change news in southern Nigeria using 4 purposively selected national dailies: Guardian Newspaper, ThisDay Newspaper, Daily Sun Newspaper and Vanguard Newspaper. The findings revealed that majority (73.1%) of the respondents were not trained in reporting climate change issues/events. The study, also, revealed that majority (89.4%) of the journalists sourced information from internet and have high knowledge about climate change. On the assessment of the number of climate change articles published in each of the newspapers, the study showed that majority (185 out of 332) of the articles about climate change were published in the Guardian, while Thisday published the second largest (95 of 332articles) amount of climate change related articles. Result of the study, also, shows that majority (275 of 332 articles) of the climate change issues were not agriculture-related. The study shows that conferences, report and research, alternate energy source, the effect of climate, new technologies, Copenhagen 2009, and climate action aid, were the major themes discussed in the newspaper articles analyzed. The overall dominant frames used in all the articles, shows that majority (71 articles) framed climate change in terms of “blame”, and the “action” frames occupied 69 articles. The study, therefore, recommends that agricultural and media organizations should allocate some of their time and energy towards explaining more of the specifics behind the mitigation and adaptive solutions that would help deal with global climate change and, specifically, as it relates to agriculture.