Global Journal of Human-Social Science, A: Arts and Humanities, Volume 22 Issue 4

b) Social Responsibility Theory The study is also anchored on the social responsibility media theory being one of the four normative press theories evolved by Siebert, Peterson and Schramm and is traceable to Hutchins Commission on the freedom of the press (1947). According to Middleton (2009, p.4) as cited in Oboh (2016, p.2) ‘The social responsibility theory was presented as the third theory… alongside Authoritarian, Libertarian and the Soviet- Communist theories. One of the pivotal characteristics of their view is an emphasis on the medias responsibility to use their powerful position to ensure appropriate delivery of information to audiences… if the media fail in carrying out this responsibility, it may be relevant to have a regulatory instance enforce it’’ It would be necessary that the commitment of social responsibility be imposed on the media because journalists are expected to have the moral obligation to consider first the interest of the society when making editorial decisions on what to report about regarding the events that occurred in the society (Oboh, 2016). This theory is also relevant to the research work because it emphasizes on morality and the responsibility of the media to be accountable to the people by ensuring appropriate delivery of information to audiences that will help to preserve the dignity of life and not to infringe on it. IV. R esearch M ethod The method of content analysis was used to conduct an analysis of hard copies of newspaper articles from three respected sources- Vanguard, The Guardian and The Nigerian Observer, published between September 1, 2016 and August 31, 2017. The Vanguard and The Guardian newspapers were selected based on their national outlook and coverage on national issues while The Nigerian Observer ; a regional paper was selected based on the high level of human trafficking activities in the state it resides. The study period was chosen basically because of its significance in the area of human trafficking: the year 2016 was selected as the start date because trafficked victims soared from 1,454 to 11,009 as reported by Pathfinder, 2018. The year 2017 is also of great significance as it was the year the Federal Government designed a five- year nationwide action strategic plan document including the first draft of a protocol for identification, safe return and rehabilitation of trafficked persons (U.S. State Department’s TIRs, 2018). The content analysis involved a stepped approach. Samples were selected using composite week sampling procedure that yields constructed weeks for each month (Riffe, Aust & Lacy, 1993). A sample of one Monday (drawn at random from the four or five possible Mondays in the month), one Tuesday (drawn from the available Tuesdays), and so on, until all weekdays have been included (Wimmer and Dominick, 2011). To arrive at the editions studied within one year, the edition of the newspaper for the month under investigation were drawn at random- for example, using the month of September, 2016 by picking day 5 th as one Monday from the possible four or five Mondays in a month, day 20 th , as one Tuesday from the available Tuesdays and on until all weekdays were included. A total of 180 newspaper editions were selected for the content analysis. This involved an observation of six content elements in the papers, news stories, features, editorials, opinions, cartoons and photographs. These elements constitute the primary journalistic output of news media in Nigeria. Also, categorization scheme were carefully formulated, which includes categories and subcategories under five mutually exclusive dimensions. Because of our interest to examine the extent of human trafficking coverage in the selected newspapers, we conducted an analysis to find out the number of editions of the newspapers studied that reported human trafficking stories and the total number of human trafficking stories published by the selected newspapers. Also, we compared the frequency of stories dealing with crime issues to other major topics treated in the newspaper stories. Then, we narrowed it down to human trafficking issues to other crime related topics treated in the selected newspaper. We also coded for issue focus (the type/form of trafficking), genres (pattern of coverage), placement and volume (space). The data were analyzed in number with their corresponding percentages. V. R esults and D iscussion of the R esearch Q uestions Tab. 1: Newspaper Editions Studied Category Frequency Percentages Editions of Newspaper with Human Trafficking Report 30 17% Editions of Newspaper without Human Trafficking Report 150 83% Total 180 100% Source: Content Analysis 2022 Volume XXII Issue IV Version I 52 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals A A Content Analysis of Newspapers’ Coverage of Human Trafficking in Nigeria