INFLUENCE OF NEWSPAPER FRAMING OF COVID-19 VACCINES ON THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF THE CONTROVERSIES IN ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper aimed to ascertain the influence of newspaper framing of COVID-
19 vaccine controversies on the public perception of these controversies. It was a mixed design
of content analysis and cross-sectional survey research methods, anchored on the frameworks
of media framing and information processing theories. A multistage sampling technique was
employed to select samples. Purposive sampling was used to select two national newspapers
for the content analysis study. For the survey, Enugu State was purposively selected and yielded
a sample size of 630, 700 from which 384 samples were obtained via Cochran’s sampling
formula to obtain a representative sample. The quantitative data generated are presented in
tables as frequencies and percentages, and chi-square and logistic regression analyses were
employed for the inferential analysis. Chi-square tests were used to test the significant
associations between variables, and logistic regression was used to examine the influence of
the key independent variable on the dependent variable. At p<=0.05, the null hypothesis could
not be rejected as there was no relationship between COVID-19 vaccine controversy framing
and perceptions in the study area, among other factors. The study therefore concluded that
newspaper framing of COVID-19 vaccine controversies did not influence public perceptions
of these controversies.