Newspaper Framing of Monkey Pox Outbreak and its Influence on Media Audience Perception in South East Region of Nigeria

Abstract

Monkey-pox is a rare and infectious disease caused by monkey virus, transmitted from animals to human, with symptoms similar to those of smallpox. This study examined newspaper framing of monkey- pox outbreak in Nigeria and its influence on south east media audience. The study aims at ascertaining the genre of the story, prominence, kind of frames, dominant frame and influence of the frame on south east media audience. Three newspapers; The Guardian, The Punch and Vanguard were selected for the study which covered a period of four months. Mixed methods were used in the study (Content analysis and survey research method). Results showed that the newspapers used the straight news format most in the reportage of the monkey-pox outbreak in Nigeria. The outbreak was not given prominence in the studied newspapers, especially in terms of placement. Transmission/causes frame was the most dominant frame used by the newspapers which accounted for 47(34%) issues, transmission/causes frame used by the newspapers raised fear on media audience. The study recommends detailed reports that will educate the public more should be employed be the media and solution/control frame should be used when covering health related matters or outbreak of diseases in other to douse tension among the media audience.