COVID-19 Vaccine: Newspaper Coverage of the side effects of the vaccine in Nigeria
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Abstract
Abstract Background: COVID-19 Vaccine hesitancy is increasing globally, and this threatens the world ability to bring the pandemic under control. The way the media reports on the vaccine may influence or affect how the population perceive the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. Methods: The aim of this study was to determine how newspapers in Nigeria report stories about the vaccine and the side effects of the vaccine amidst the growing fear on the safety of the vaccine. A total of 4 national daily newspapers were randomly selected for the study. These are Leadership, Guardian, Nation and Punch newspapers. The study was anchored on agenda setting theory. Quantitative content analysis research was used for the study. The duration of the study was the day the vaccine was introduced in Nigeria: March 1st,2021 to July 31st, 2021. An Excel sheet served as the instrument for data collection and analysis done using SPSS version 25 with the level of significance predetermined at a p-value less than 0.05. Results: Key findings from this research were: Government officials and technical experts were predominantly used by the newspapers as the source of their information. There was a mixed reporting of vaccine side effects with a significant difference between those newspaper publications that reported vaccine side effects and those that did not. Amongst those that reported side effects, there was also a significant difference between those that communicated how and where to report the side effects as against those that did not. Conclusion: As part of the effort to curtail vaccine hesitancy, a continuous improvement in communicating the vaccine efficacy and safety is needed. Keywords: coverage; side-effects; newspaper, COVID-19; vaccine Nigeria;
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.10.02.21264454: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Field Sample Permit: This is a descriptive quantitative content analysis carried out by sampling recognised newspapers with online presence and wide coverage in Nigeria with study period starting from March 2nd, 2021 when Nigeria received the first batch of the vaccine to July 2021 when the first phase of immunization cycle was stopped. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Article type: The articles were classified based on the newspaper categorisation of the article into: News, Editorials, Opinion, Columns, Features and Others (Those without a … SciScore for 10.1101/2021.10.02.21264454: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Field Sample Permit: This is a descriptive quantitative content analysis carried out by sampling recognised newspapers with online presence and wide coverage in Nigeria with study period starting from March 2nd, 2021 when Nigeria received the first batch of the vaccine to July 2021 when the first phase of immunization cycle was stopped. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Article type: The articles were classified based on the newspaper categorisation of the article into: News, Editorials, Opinion, Columns, Features and Others (Those without a classification heading) Sources: The sources of information were classified under the following headings: Side effects of vaccines mentioned: The side effects the vaccine mentioned were coded as follows: Where to report the vaccine side-effects: Data Capture and Analysis: Data captured on Microsoft excel sheet and analysis done with SPSS version 25. Microsoft excelsuggested: (Microsoft Excel, RRID:SCR_016137)SPSSsuggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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