Reporting on the shadow pandemic in Nigeria: An analysis of five media organizations’ coverage of gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This study fills a gap in research by examining how the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare structural and systemic gender inequities in Nigeria. In particular, women and girls are at increased risk of gender-based violence (GBV). We analysed a corpus of 361 articles on GBV published between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2020 by Daily Trust, The Guardian, Leadership, The Punch and Vanguard, to determine how effectively Nigerian media reported on GBV during the pandemic. Analysis centred on five phases of reporting during those 24 months: (1) pre-lockdown; (2) early lockdown period, 29 March–26 May; (3) response to a rise in GBV, 26 May–30 July; (4) easing of lockdown and (5) sixteen days of activism against GBV, 25 November–10 December 2020. Key themes emerging in the media coverage include the shadow pandemic of GBV in Nigeria, response to the rise in GBV, NGOs combating GBV and calls for improved legislation.