Press Coverage of Breast Cancer Issues in Nigeria: A Content Analysis of Daily Trust and Vanguard Newspaper ( 2019- 2020)
Chapter One
Objective of the study
The main objective of this study is to examine the press coverage of breast cancer issues in Nigeria using a content analysis of daily trust and Vanguard newspaper; but specifically, the research aims to:
- To examine the extent of newspaper reportage of breast Cancer cases
- To determine if there is underreportage of breast Cancer cases by newspapers
- To examine the individuals quoted by the newspapers
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Breast Cancer Epidemiology
The Global burden of breast cancer
For a large number of women newly diagnosed in the world, it has been ascertain that, breast cancer is a neglected disease in terms of other numerically more frequent health problems. It has also been described as an orphan disease, in the sense that the very detailed knowledge about tumor characteristics and the necessary host biology capable of providing basic care is absent. Current international cancer policy and planning initiatives are irrelevant to breast cancer, with the exception of nutritional recommendation. However, progress with declines in mortality in some developed countries has been reported (Ginsburg et al., 2011).
Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the world (4.4 million survivors up to 5 years following diagnosis) and the second most common cause of cancer related mortality in women wide world (Parkin et al., 2005). It also accounts for 23% (1.38 million) of the total new cancer cases and 14% (458,400) of the total cancer deaths in 2008 and ranks second most common cancer overall (10.9% of all cancers) but ranks fifth as cause of death (Ferlay et al., 2010). 1.15 million new breast cancer cases were recorded in 2004 and over 500,000 deaths reported around the world and more than half of all cases occurred in industrialized countries (Parkin and Fernandez, 2006). Breast cancer incidence rates vary from 19.3 per 100,000 women in Eastern Africa to 89.7 per 100,000 women in Western Europe. They are normally high in developed regions of the world (except Japan) and low in most of the developing regions. Due to more favorable survival of breast cancer in developed regions, the range of mortality rates is very much less, approximately 6-19 per 100,000. Notwithstanding, it is still the most frequent cause of cancer death in women in both developing (269 000 deaths, 12.7% of total) and developed regions, where the estimated 189 000 deaths is almost equal to the estimated number of deaths from lung cancer (188 000 deaths) (Ferlay et al., 2010).
For some time now, there have been some encouraging in both breast cancer incidence and mortality trends with the incidence of new cases stabilizing as well as death rates falling in some high income or developed countries. However, this appears to be vice versa in developing countries (Kanavos, 2006). Notably, breast cancer incidence rates have leveled off since 1990, with a decrease of 3.5%/year from 2001 to 2004 (Li et al., 2003). In the same manner, breast cancer mortality rates have also declined by 24%, with the greatest impact among young women and as well as women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive disease (Berry et al., 2005). Also, both incidence and mortality declined in the United States; between 1999 and 2006, incidence rates decreased by 2.0% per year, and mortality decreased by 1.9% annually between 1998 and 2006 (Horner et al., 2006). The decline in breast cancer mortality has been largely attributed to the combination of early detection with screening programs and the advent of more efficacious adjuvant systemic therapy.
Breast cancer is common in women both in the developed and the developing countries, comprising 16% of all female cancers. Although it is thought to be a common cancer in the developed countries, a majority (69%) of all breast cancer deaths occurs in developing world. Indeed, increase life expectancy, increase urbanization and adoption of western lifestyles have increased the incidence of breast cancer in the developing countries (Kanavos, 2006). Eventhough it is now the most common cancer both in developed and developing regions with around 690 000 new cases estimated in each region, much of the burden of incidence, morbidity, and mortality will occur in the developing world with population ratio of 1:4 (Ferlay et al., 2010). As developing countries succeed in achieving lifestyles similar to those in advanced economies, they will also encounter much higher cancer rates, particularly cancers of the breast. This forms part of a larger epidemiological transition in which the burden of chronic, non-communicable disease once limited to industrialized nations, is now increasing in less developed countries (Kanavos, 2006).
A report by Stewart et al (Stewart and Kleigues, 2003), mentioned that many of the new cancer cases are now occurring among women from low and middle income countries, where the incidence is increasing by as much as 5% per each year and there are about three fourths of breast cancer deaths occurring worldwide. Of the 411,000 breast cancer deaths around the world in 2002, 221,000 (54%) occurred in low- and middle-income countries (LMCs). The incidence of breast cancer rose from 126,227 cases in 2002 in China (IARC: Cancer Epidemiology Database, GLOBOCAN. 2002) to over 169,000 in 2008 (IARC: Cancer Epidemiology Database, GLOBOCAN. 2008).
CHAPTER THREE
METHOD OF STUDY
Research design
The method adopted in this study is content analysis research design. Content analysis is a method of studying and analyzing communication in a systematic, objective and quantitative manner for the purpose of measuring variables (Wimmer and Dominick, 2003:141).
Population And Sample Of The Study
With the use of stratification, the newspapers were separated along the lines of ownership-those owned by the government and those that are privately-owned. Besides, only national newspapers were considered. Daily Trust was the only government newspaper during the period under study; it thus constituted the selected sample. The Vanguard was randomly selected (through a simple random technique) from the list of the privately- owned national newspapers The study covered a period of five years; from 2019-2020. It is hoped that the study will be a continuous one as to monitor the trend of the coverage of breast cancer issues by the Nigerian press.
A total of 600 issues of the newspapers constituted the sample size. Through the use of simple random sampling, 5 issues were selected in every week for the one year period. Thus, 300 issues per newspaper yielded 600 for the two selected newspapers.
The unit of Analysis
The unit of analysis comprised all articles or stories on breast cancer issues in the form of news, features, opinions, editorials, pictures or letters to the editor. They were examined for frequency of breast cancer issues reported, prominence given to the reports in terms of newspaper page placements and people quoted as regards individuals that were contacted as news sources in the reports. The data were analysed using percentages.
CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS OF RESULT
Table 1: coverage of breast Cancer issues by selected newspapers
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The foregoing calls for improvement on the part of newspaper reporters and editors to step up the attention given to breast cancer. Against the backdrop of Breast Cancer as a development issue and the fact the media have great roles to play in the realization of these rights, there is need for newspaper organizations to expand the coverage given to Breast Cancer. One way of doing this is to devote specific pages to breasyt cancer matters where issues affecting their rights could be featured. The awareness by the public that children issues are treated on specific pages can influence their looking out for such pages when information on breast cancer is needed.
Our data showed that the use of straight news dominated the present coverage; this only enables the news to be delivered first-hand to the public. But there is the need for news media to use other print media genres in reporting about Breast Cancer. Presenting some stories in feature format will allow background information to be added to the report, thus giving the readers the full import of such stories. Similarly, the use of opinion articles and letters to the editor will allow expression of divergent views which would help policy-makers in understanding the public perspectives on the issue.
Furthermore, setting agenda for Breast Cancer awareness requires presentation of the issues as newsworthy. It follows then that efforts should be made by the newspapers to present more of the Breast Cancer stories on the front and back pages of their papers. When someone reads newspapers, the first port of call is the front page and then the back page before checking the stories inside those papers. Putting Breast Cancer’s stories on the front page will thus increase their newsworthiness. Though, there are many stories competing for the front page, one way around this is to set some Breast Cancer’s news headlines in the front page, while the stories continue in the inside pages. This will to some extent raise Breast Cancer issue to the right plane.
Finally, Breast Cancer also need to be heard directly and so should be given the opportunity. Ridgard (n.d.) notes that Breast Cancer awareness and have the potential to enhance reporting enormously. He adds that taking a few extra minutes to ask child sources what they think of the news-making process, how they would like to be portrayed and building trust by treating them with respect and dignity, reflects in the reports and makes more interesting and engaging reading or viewing with which audiences are able to identify. It is thus believed that greater achievement can be made in realization of Breast Cancer if more conscientious efforts are made in the way Breast Cancer are reported in the media.
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