A Comparative Content Analysis of the Daily Nation and the Standard Newspapers’ Coverage of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Kenya

Abstract

On March 11, 2020, WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. By April 2020, Covid-19 had spread worldwide interrupting lives almost entirely, straining healthcare systems, and causing many human deaths. To control the spread of Covid-19 the mainstream mass media played a historic role of information sharing and sensitization.  This research is a comparative content analysis of the coverage of Covid-19 by Daily Nation and the Standard newspapers in Kenya. The main objectives of the study were to examine how both newspapers covered the Covid-9 outbreak and to examine the kind of frames the two newspapers used to set their agenda. Both Framing and Agenda-setting theories were used. Via content analysis method, 180 newspapers editions published between March 13 ,2020 and June 10, 2020 were analyzed. The study found that the coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic in both newspapers was loaded with neutral frames (42.8%) mainly around adherence to public health measures as directed by the government. Another finding was that 1 in 10 stories about Covid-19 in Daily Nation and the Standard newspapers were published on pages 1,2 and 3 meaning that the Covid-19 pandemic was a major theme for mass media agenda. The study concludes that the two newspapers played a significant role in controlling the spread of Covid-19 through agenda-setting and framing of stories. It is recommended that the use of positive frames should be encouraged in the practice of communication by the mass media.

Key words: Comparative media study, Covid-19, Agenda setting, Media framing

DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/106-03

Publication date: March 31st 2024