St. John's University St. John's Scholar Theses and Dissertations 2021 FRAMING A PANDEMIC: EVALUATING NIGERIAN PRINT MEDIA REPORTAGE OF CHINA BEFORE AND FOLLOWING THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) PANDEMIC Ernest Chukwunyere Makata Saint John's University, Jamaica New York Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.stjohns.edu/theses_dissertations Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Makata, Ernest Chukwunyere, "FRAMING A PANDEMIC: EVALUATING NIGERIAN PRINT MEDIA REPORTAGE OF CHINA BEFORE AND FOLLOWING THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) PANDEMIC" (2021). Theses and Dissertations. 290. https://scholar.stjohns.edu/theses_dissertations/290 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by St. John's Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of St. John's Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FRAMING A PANDEMIC: EVALUATING NIGERIAN PRINT MEDIA REPORTAGE OF CHINA BEFORE AND FOLLOWING THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) PANDEMIC A the sis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE to the faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF MS CAS OMMUNICATION of THE LESLEY H. AND WILLIAM L. COLLINS COLLEGE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES at ST. SJOHN’ UNI VERSITY New York by Ernest Chukwunyere Makata Date Submitted: 12/12/2020 Date Approved: 12/17/2020 Ernest Chukwunyere Makata Mark D. Juszczak, Ed. D © Copyright by Ernest Chukwunyere Makata 2021 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT FRAMING A PANDEMIC: EVALUATING NIGERIAN PRINT MEDIA REPORTAGE OF CHINA BEFORE AND FOLLOWING THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) PANDEMIC Ernest Chukwunyere Makata This study investigates the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on the framing of news about China/Chinese by three selected Nigerian Newspapers, The Punch, The Nation, and The Sun. A total of 350 articles mentioning China or Chinese were examined using the content analysis method to determine the news writers' dominant frames. The research employs the qualitative method. Three frames emerged as dominant in the analysis, the Economic Consequence Frame, the Human-Interest Frame, and the Conflict Frame. The result shows that Nigerian Newspapers paid more attention to China after the index case of COVID-19 in Nigeria. It also discovered that most of the news reflected negative news about China globally and Chinese residents in Nigeria. The implication is that the Covid-19 pandemic influenced the framing of China in Nigerian Newspapers. Given the rapidly growing Chinese population and interests in Nigeria, more research is needed to determine if news framing affects Nigerians' attitude toward China and its citizens. DEDICATION To my late parents, Samuel, and Eunice Makata ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Words are not enough to thank all those who made this degree, epitomized by this thesis, possible. I am grateful to God for life, to Most Rev. Prof. Godfrey Onah, the Catholic Bishop of Nsukka, who gave me the push and support to embark on this journey. I thank the President of St. John’s University, New York, for the Presidential Grant that made my studies for this degree possible. I thank Rev. P. Griffin CM for generously facilitating the scholarship. To my incredible Professors, Basilio Monteiro, Candice Roberts, Minna Horowitz, and most importantly, Prof. Mark Juszczak, who meticulously supervised this thesis, I am indebted for the enormous positive impact you made on me. To my colleague and friend Chris Amojo, your inspiration and encouragement took me a long way in achieving the demands of this project. I am grateful to my kind Pastor and host, Rev. Robert Whelan. Thanks to all my classmates, especially Trang Nguyen and Jovita Nnagha, for being close friends all through. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ..................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT ..................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER ONE................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Purpose of the Study .......................................................................................... 2 1.2. Hypothesis .......................................................................................................... 3 1.3. Scope .................................................................................................................. 4 1.4. Theoretical Framework ...................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................................. 7 Understanding Chinese – African Relationship ............................................................... 7 2.1. The Chinese in Africa ........................................................................................ 7 2.2. China and Nigeria Relationship ....................................................................... 12 CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................................ 19 Literature Review ........................................................................................................... 19 3.1. Framing and News Media ................................................................................... 19 3.2. Effect of Media Framing on Immigrants ............................................................. 21 3.3. Media Framing of China in Africa ...................................................................... 22 3.4. Media Framing of China amidst Pandemics ....................................................... 23 CHAPTER FOUR .............................................................................................................. 28 Research Method and Data Analysis.............................................................................. 28 4.1. Content Analysis ................................................................................................. 28 4.2. Sourcing the Data ................................................................................................ 29 4.3. Coding ................................................................................................................. 30 4.4. Framing Analysis ................................................................................................ 31 CHAPTER FIVE ................................................................................................................ 33 Findings and Discussions ............................................................................................... 33 5.1. Frame analysis of the articles .............................................................................. 33 5.2. Description of Samples ....................................................................................... 35 5.3. Discussion ........................................................................................................... 51 iv CHAPTER SIX .................................................................................................................. 56 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 56 6.1. Limitations........................................................................................................... 57 6.2. Future Research ................................................................................................... 58 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 59 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Breakdown of articles mentioning China/Chinese in three Nigerian Newspapers………………………………………………………………………………. 31 Table 2: Number of news items from each newspaper and under the three frame categories………………………………………………………………………………….36 Table 3: A breakdown of news items per month by frames in The Punch Newspaper…...36 Table 4: A breakdown of news items per month by frames in The Nation Newspaper…...36 Table 5: A breakdown of news items per month by frames in The Sun Newspaper……...37 vi Chapter One Introduction On December 31, 2019, Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported a cluster of quick evolving pneumonia cases in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China. Further evaluation revealed that the pneumonia is because of a novel coronavirus (WHO, 2020). This novel Coronavirus, now identified and described as SARS-CoV-2 or simply COVID-19, is a pandemic as it has spread to almost all the countries of the world. The first known case in Africa's Sub-Saharan region was on February 28, 2020, in Nigeria. The index COVID-19 case was an Italian citizen who returned to Nigeria from Milan (Kretchmer, 2020). Since then, Nigeria has recorded thousands of Covid-19 infections, recoveries, and deaths and still counting. China, the country with the first incidence of COVID-19, has received a backlash following the pandemic from across the world. In Australia, there is a call for an unbiased inquiry into the origin of the pandemic. Germany and Britain, which had supported the work of the Chinese Technology