WSCIJ Report: Access to information and COVID-19: How is the media faring?

On 27 February 2020, Nigeria recorded its index case of the coronavirus disease since the beginning of the outbreak in January 2020. Exactly one year down the line, with 154, 476 confirmed cases and 1,891 deaths, the pandemic is still prevalent as it was a year ago and Nigeria is the sixth most affected country in Africa. The challenges in the health sector in Nigeria was exacerbated, and arguably all facet of life made adjustments to respond to the pandemic and its effect. Journalists and other front-line workers have continued to play their role in ensuring that citizens get access to information and awareness on the impact of the pandemic and other ways to mitigate its effect.

At the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, we are reflecting on how the media has fared in its reporting of COVID-19 through a preliminary media monitoring report focused on mapping gaps in the reportage of the pandemic under our Free to share initiative geared at broadening the scope of freedom of expression through engagements on media ethics and accountability journalism. The pilot project is interrogating the intersection between COVID-19, access to information and misinformation by publishing data-driven, human interest investigative stories that will support the media to better provide access to information that informs, educates, and debunks misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and its multifaceted impact on lives and livelihoods.

In this edition of our newsletter, we share our findings on how the media fared in accessing information about COVID-19 reporting. Download the report here.

WSCIJ Team

Did the media adequately report the pandemic?

Yes! Media reports about the pandemic were commonplace during the three months of the media monitoring effort. It debunked misinformation. Fact-checked rumours and shed light on several issues. For example, the WSCIJ alone through its COVID-19 Reality Check project facilitated 118 stories published across 24 media organisations of different genres – broadcast, online and print media.

What the numbers say

Analysis from the monitoring effort showed that health issues had a total of 15,549 stories of which 5,744 (36.94 per cent) were COVID-19 related. The data also reveals that most of the health stories reported were majorly news stories and photos. Both story types accounted for 72.97 per cent and 12.81 per cent of health stories reported respectively, while the remaining 14.22 per cent was shared across editorial, feature, interview, opinion, advert, cartoon and letters to the editor. Click here to download the report.

Is there a link between the 2nd wave and dwindling media reports?

Across all the 14 publications monitored, COVID-19 issues were more in May across the board and a drop was observed in June and July. The decline in quantity and prominence recorded was between a 42 to 87 per cent range with the average being 58 per cent across the 14 publications. A hypothesis can therefore be inferred that the drop in media coverage of the pandemic may have contributed to citizens perception that the ‘worst was over’ which led to low compliance with the safety guidelines listed and so the country seeing a spike in December 2020 when the second wave hit.

Details on www.wscij.org