Nigerian media has been urged by analysts to focus on the origin of Covid-19 and provide more details about the masks and vaccines used for recovered patients.
This is as much of Nigerian media report on Covid-19 has concentrated on rising cases and deaths resulting from the pandemic with less information about the origin, vaccines used for recovered patients, the efficacy of masks for protection and the behaviour of people living around recovered or death patients.
Reports or interviews from the medics handling the cases in hospitals are scanty in the media as both traditional and social media have relied on official information on the pandemic in Nigeria.
Some media experts who spoke to BusinessDay however commended the overall media coverage of COVID ’19 by Nigerian media but said more still needed to be reported.
The analysts said that more is still needed from the media to dig deep and interrogate certain actions or inactions to slow the progress of the pandemic which has tested national systems including the health sector and Nigeria’s preparedness to such sudden developments.
“The media has lived up to expectations of the public”, says Charles Igbinidu, Managing Director of CFO and Associates Public Relations. He agrees that though there is a level of tension over avalanche of information but said without the information more Nigerians would be ignorant about the disease.
To the CEO of Neo Media, Ehi Braimah, the coverage has been appropriate and professional excluding the fake news dwelling on inaccurate COVID’19 myths.
In his comment, John Kokome, a public affairs analyst also agrees that the Nigerian media is doing its best within the circumstance it has found itself but said that the media can do more by digging deep.
In the area of vaccines, it is noted that the media has under-reported it and provided less information about the drugs used to treat the recovered patients. Reports indicate that there have been about 500 confirmed coronavirus cases and 17 deaths in Nigeria, while 152 people in the country have recovered after contracting Covid-19.
A report monitored in Worldometer site also put the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide as last Friday, by 1pm at 2,172,031. Out of that figure, 146,201 people have died from Covid-19 and 554,232 have recovered from the disease.
Health reporters may have distanced themselves as the pandemic is a delicate one and easy to contract.
A report issued by Meltwater and published by Bizcommunity also underscored the view that as Covid-19 continues to spread across the globe, much of the information reported has had to do with the rising number of confirmed cases, the number of deaths and possible preventions.
“But did you know that since 1 January 2020 to date, there have been 26.1 million news articles, globally, reporting on the coronavirus, but just under 6,000 of those news articles are talking about a possible vaccine?”, the report said. Meltwater a company that exists to help companies make better, more informed decisions based on insights from the outside.
“The sale of masks has seen a large increase in the wake of the global pandemic. And while it has been talked about in the media as a preventative measure, few news articles talk about how face masks have become a symbol of health in these times.
“As one of the trending themes to emerge from ‘coronavirus’ and ‘recoveries’, ‘face masks’, ‘mask and gloves’ and ‘health mask hands’ refers to how these items, mainly associated with essential workers, are now playing a big part in preventing the spread of the virus among non-essential workers”.
Since the outbreak of the virus mid- December, 2019 in China, media consumption has increased according to a study by Kantar, a global firm that characterizes itself as “data, insights and consulting company”. The firm has more than 30,000 employees working in 100 countries in various research disciplines.
But among all the media news channels which have gained in usage, traditional nationwide broadcast and newspapers are the most trusted sources of information, the Kantar report said.
The report said 52% of the 25,000 consumers across over 30 countries polled identified traditional media (broadcast and newspapers) as ‘Trustworthy’ source than social media.
“Government agency websites are regarded as trustworthy by only 48% of people, suggesting that government measures are not providing citizens around the world with assurances and security” while social media platforms are regarded by only 11% of people as a source of trustworthy information.
Companies are also leveraging the increase in media consumption to promote their brands, tying their media activity to Covid -19 campaigns.
