Mainstream Print Media Coverage of Covid-19 in Kenya: a Comparative Content Analysis of Daily Nation and the Standard Newspapers

Abstract

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. By April 2020, COVID-19 (a viral disease with flu-like symptoms) had spread worldwide, interrupting lives almost entirely, straining healthcare systems, and causing death. To control COVID-19, mainstream print media played a historical role in information sharing and sensitization. This research is therefore a comparative content analysis study of COVID-19 pandemic coverage by Daily Nation and the Standard newspapers in Kenya. The main objective of the study was to examine how both newspapers covered the outbreak. Framing and agenda-setting theories were selected for this study because they help best understand frames used in media coverage and determine how media sets and builds its agenda and its influence on the public agenda. Content analysis was employed in the study of the two newspapers as a research method. Ninety editions of the Standard and 90 editions of the Daily Nation were analyzed between March 13, 2020, and June 10, 2020. The study found that; (i) coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in both newspapers was loaded with neutral frames (42.8%) mainly around adherence to public health measures indicating that media helped control and manage the spread of the virus. (ii) 10% or 1 in 10 stories about COVID-19 in Daily Nation and the Standard newspapers constituted pages 1,2, and 3, meaning the issue was of great importance to them and used it to set public 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, although the frames were loaded with negativity. The study recommends using positive frames in coverage of pandemics to encourage behaviour change without instilling fear.