Selected Nigerian Magazines’ Patterns of Cervical Cancer Coverage

Abstract

This paper examined two magazines’ pattern of covering cervical cancer. Purposively selected were Tell and The News magazines. Eighteen (18) editions randomly selected from the first quarter of 2013 (January – March) were qualitatively content-analysed. The study used agenda setting and social responsibility theories, believing that the more the emphasis placed on cervical cancer by the magazines through their coverage – part of their social responsibility role – the more awareness they would create about it. Cervical cancer reportedly triggers about 500,000 new cases and 250,000 deaths annually, with about 80 per cent of cases occurring in low-income countries. The study found that these two magazines featured no report on the disease in the period under study. Therefore, the study recommends that The News media should pay attention to fulfilling their social responsibility mandate to Nigerian society.

Keywords: cervical cancer, mass media, agenda-setting