Newspaper Coverage of Rape Cases by the Nation and the Nigeria Tribune

Student: Toyosi Busayo Olowookere (Project, 2025)
Department of Mass Communication
Gateway Ict Polytechnic, Saapade, Ogun State

Abstract

The increasing cases of rape incidence in Nigeria have become a source of worry
problem on the moral standard of the Nigerian state, it has raised concerns on the
newspaper coverage o f rape cases b y the Nation and The Nigeria Tribune. Related
literature and theory; agenda setting and gate-keeping theories were reviewed i n data
gathering and interpreted data collated through coding sheets while the population was
all the national daily newspapers, purposive sampling method was used to select 144
editions of The Nation and The Nigeria Tribune newspapers. The study revealed that the
two newspapers published a total o f 134 reports as well as photographs i n 144 editions
for the six months period. Findings also showed that the Nation carried majority of the
reports (44%), while Nigerian Tribune(56%). It was also revealed that straight news
accounted for 60% of the 134 reports published by the newspapers. Features 11%,
commentary/opinion 10%, editoriall.4%, photograph 10%, cartoons 12% and letter 2%.
I t was recommended that it is necessary to place the reportage o f rape case articles on
:
the front burner of country.

Keywords
The Newspaper Coverage Rape cases Tribune Newspaper.
Filters
Institutions