A Discourse Analysis of Online Newspaper Reports on COVID-19 in Nigeria

Abstract

This study explored a discourse analysis of the online newspapers reportage of the news about COVID-19 using Van Dijk's discourse analysis parameters and J. Austin's speech acts concepts. To do this, 91 stories were retrieved from two online Nigerian newspapers. An online search was conducted using keywords: ‘Coronavirus in Nigeria', ‘updates on Coronavirus in Nigeria', ‘COVID-19 in Nigeria from November to December 2021'. The search in total retrieved 91 articles consisting of ‘news', ‘feature', ‘opinion' and ‘column' articles over a period of two months - November and of December 2021 from Vanguard and The Punch newspapers. The parameters of Evidentiality, Metaphor, Lexicalisation and presupposition as provided by Van Dijik were used to analyse the headlines and leads of the newspapers. Because of the prominent roles which verbs in speech production, in the study, verbs were analysed from the concept of J. Austin's speech act to determine how they have been used in the newspapers' headlines and leads to pass COVID-19 messages across to the readers. Framing theory was employed to underpin the study. The theory explicated how the crafting (framing) of  messages (in forms of headlines and leads) by the media plays a significant role in process by which the people (the audience) develop a particular conceptualisation of an issue and assign meaning to the issue or redirect their thinking about an issue. This study concluded that mass media plays a fundamental role in disseminating information, influences the public behavior which can curtail the spread of the pandemic. The way the media craft and present their messages in the headlines and leads especially during the COVID-19 pandemic has a long effect in ameliorating the challenges of the pandemic or aggravating it.