ABSTRACT

This study examined the content analysis of COVID – 19 related nutrition and health information in a print media. This study aimed to analyze the reporting/transmission of COVID – 19 related nutrition and health information by Nigerian Newspapers during the COVID – 19 outbreak. Content analysis was used based on simple random sampling for newspaper coverage on coronavirus in Nigeria by The Punch and The Nation newspapers for the period of one month i.e. April, 2020. The findings revealed that Results from table 4.1: Covid-19 and nutrition related information in News Article revealed the covid-19 and nutrition related information in the news articles of selected newspapers. Results revealed that most of the information on the news article column on these papers were focused on COVID-19/statistics and related updates (41.8%) and information on palliative distribution across the country (44.5%). In table 4.2: Covid-19 and nutrition related information on the feature articles, Results from table 4.2 revealed that information/articles on enforcement of COVID-19 protocol (26.8%), COVID-19 and international relationship (7.3%), new wave/stain of COVID-19 (7.3%), covid-19 impact on finance (4.9%), media/communication (4.9%), health sector (4.9%) electricity (4.9%) dominated the features column. Enforcement of COVID – 19 agencies did their work well by ensuring that the protocols needed for the safety of people were implemented. Table 4.3: Covid-19 and nutrition related information in Editorials; Results on the Covid-19 and nutrition related information in Editorials. Most of the editorials were focused on COVID-19 and the health sector (22.2%) because of the need for everyone to be aware and that COVID – 19 is real. So much emphasise were put in place in educating the general masses about the COVID - 19, lockdown management (11.1%), palliative/food distribution modalities (14.8%) and government response to COVID-19 crisis (11.1%).  From the previous studies, Nutrition recommendations from the ASPEN, Robert (2020), provided convincing evidence-based guidelines for critically ill patients. Malnutrition before and after diagnosis with COVID-19 remains the main focus of medical nutrition therapy when dealing with COVID-19 patients. In table 4.3: COVID-19 and nutrition related information in International News More than half (57.2%) of the information on international news segment were focused on COVID-19 statistics/cases. A good number of the articles provided information on covid-19 test/screening (8.6%), evacuation process (8.6%), global support/partnership to curb COVID-19 (8.6%). And shown in table 4.5. Results revealed that majority of the articles showed covid-19 palliative/vaccine funding and financing (42.5%), both federal and state government played a vital role in ensuring that palliatives/vaccines were shared in both local levels and federal levels, economic disruption due to COVID (45.6%) and firms/private sector observed negative influence due to the result of COVID-19, coping strategy during the lockdown (22.5%) in conclusion, Nigerian newspaper gave adequate coverage to coronavirus in Nigeria because the number of stories used reporting the issues were high. It recommended that the media should always continue to sensitize the general public on the negative effects of not adhering to safety measures against coronavirus in Nigeria.