Prominence in the Newspaper Coverage of Conspiracy Theories during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

The researchers examined newspaper coverage of conspiracy theories during the COVID19 pandemic in Nigeria. The study was aimed at assessing one critical issue on the conspiracy theories during the COVID-19-pandemic in Nigeria which is the prominence in the print newspapers coverage in Nigeria. The gate-keeping theory was employed in this regard. The researchers adopted the content analysis with the coding sheet as instrument for data collection. A sample size of two newspapers, the Nation and Punchpublished from April 2020 to March 2021 (Monday-Friday) were derived from a population size of five hundred and twenty-two newspapers using purposive sampling technique. Findings showed that the Punch and Nation newspapers gave adequate coverage to the COVID-19 pandemic with 2,318 stories or 94.7%, 124 of them on conspiracy theories representing 5.5%. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the select newspapers reported the COVID-19 pandemic, though not so for the conspiracy theories and no prominence was attached to the stories as more than three-quarter of the stories (97) or 81.5% were tucked inside the pages of the newspapers analysed and 4 or 3.2% on the front page. Furthermore, 31 representing 33.7% were 21 paragraphs and above in the Nation while the Punch newspaper had 6 stories representing 18.8% with the same number of paragraphs. There is significant relationship between the story types of the conspiracy theories on the COVID-19 pandemic and the prominence attached to the newspapers coverage as the minimum expected count of .26 is less than 5. Thus, the researchers recommended that the print media houses in Nigeria should endeavour to focus on stories that will educate Nigerians the more on issues of conspiracy theories by making the stories prominent by bringing them on the front burner of the newspapers.