Techno-Scientific Temper of Three Nigerian Newspapers

Abstract

The culture of science and science communication in Nigeria are deemed as fragile compelling researchers to interrogate how, say newspapers contribute to creating awareness and knowledge of techno-science matters. Research data on this is scanty in Nigeria thus necessitating this study which examines the character and extent of techno-science coverage in three select Nigerian newspapers to determine the frequency of coverage, orientation of the reports, genre or formats of reporting, sourcing of information and depth of reportage. The discourse is hinged on the agenda setting theory while the research method is a content analysis of 156 issues of The Guardian, Leadership, and Daily Trust newspapers for the year 2012. The findings show that of the 329 techno-science stories captured in the study, biomedicine was the most frequently reported topic at 26.44%; routine reporting (65.96%) exceeded event-specific reporting (34.04%); the news format (54.71%) was the more common genre of reportage; foreign sourced stories (54.10%) outnumbered locally sourced reports (45.90%) and in terms of depth, 42.25% of the stories were briefs. The study recommends that for the analysed newspapers to set meaningful agenda on techno-science in Nigeria, they need to broaden their scope of coverage beyond biomedicine and the news format of presentation; deepen the discourse/content of techno-science information by becoming more deliberative; consolidate on routine science coverage as well as pay more attention to local sourcing of techno-science information.

Keywords: Science Journalism, Content Analysis, Agenda Setting, Africa.