Analyzing Trends in Press Coverage of Hypertension in Nigeria

Introduction: Health communication has relevance on virtually every aspect of health and well-being including disease prevention, health pro­motion and quality of life. The Newspaper may not tell people what to think but can tell its readers what to think about thereby influencing how audience perceive and understand issues. This study assesses Newspaper coverage of hypertension in Nigeria.

Methods: Coverage of hypertension in three Nigerian newspapers between 2011 and 2013 was done using article counts, space, location, story type and source. This study was done in year 2013. The study was studied to evaluate the trend and level of improvement on Hypertension coverage. Three papers (Guardian, This Day, and Vanguard) were selected using simple random sampling from a list of twelve renowned national journals with widest circulation. Month of May was purposively selected for the study as the world marks hypertension day on the 17th of May every year.

Results: There were 48 (47.5%) opinion/ feature stories, 39 (38.6%) straight news stories and no editorial on Hypertension. Most, 86 (85.1%) stories on Hypertension were covered by staff. The newspapers carried no stories on the front and back pages. However, 88(87.1%) were illustrated. Majority, 32 (31.7%) of the stories were 16-30 inches in length. Messages on Hypertension carried by the newspapers increased from 27 (26.7%) stories in 2011 to 41 (40.6%) stories in 2013. Out of 28992 stories the newspapers had in the period studied, 101 (0.34%) stories were on hypertension.

Conclusion: The Newspapers have made some committed effort in the coverage of hypertension but they did not give much prominence or frequent coverage to stories on issues on hypertension.