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

content matters: editorial, features and cartoon had no entry on human trafficking. This meant that none of the papers discussed the issue of human trafficking in their editorial, features and cartoons. However, the majority of the coverage on human trafficking was in the news genre (88%) which is followed by the opinion genre (9%). On a comparative analysis, Vanguard newspaper had the highest news item on human trafficking. Tab. 8: Volume of Space Allocated by the Newspapers Newspapers Space allocated to stories Total Full Page Half Page Less than half Page No % No % No % No % Vanguard - - 1 3% 14 44% 15 47% The Guardian - - - - 10 31% 10 31% The Nigerian Observer - - - - 7 22% 7 22% Total - - 1 3% 31 97% 32 100% Source: Content Analysis 2022 Table 8, above indicates the volume of space allocated to the coverage of human trafficking stories. The papers devoted less than half page (97%) to human trafficking stories, following by half a page (3%). The three dailies did not allocated full page to any of their stories on human trafficking. The Vanguard newspaper devoted most of its pages to cover the incident more than other newspapers. VI. D iscussion of F indings Research Question One: What was the frequency of coverage given to human trafficking stories in the selected newspapers? The result of this study from the analysis of data responding to this research question showed that the selected newspapers gave 17% of their coverage to human trafficking from the total number of 180 newspapers studied and also only 32 (1%) frequency in their reports on human trafficking from their total number of 3770 stories published (See table 1, 2 and 6). With this result therefore, we infer that the newspapers did not attach significance to stories relating to human trafficking, this is evident in their infrequent reporting of the discourse. This however is not contrary to the result of Nkememena (2009) and Egbo (2012) that found out that most of their study stories did not get adequate consideration due to the low incidence scores in media reports. Another evidence in the study findings in reference to space allotment showed that human trafficking stories in the papers reviewed is relatively low because most of the stories found were in less than half pages across all the selected newspapers. This is also an indication that human trafficking stories did not enjoy much space and the implication of this trend is that human trafficking stories did not have adequate coverage from the newspapers. This result is disturbing because frequency is one of the important indicators of agenda setting (Folarin 1998 as cited in Ikechukwu 2015). Also, a study conducted by Gever (2014) in Ikechukwu (2015, p. 182) indicate that frequency is an important indicator which influences audience understanding. Research Question Two: What was the prominence accorded to the reports on human trafficking? The analysis in table 6, revealed that 30 (0.9%) of the stories were placed on the inside pages while 2(0.1%) at the front page of the newspapers studied. With reference to the age-long practice in the print media, stories considered of utmost importance are given prominence through lavish display on both front and back pages where readers could easily notice them while those of less importance are situated in the inside pages of the papers. By implication, this indicates that the prominence accorded to the stories on human trafficking were extremely low when compared to the value given to other issues reported within the same period. This means that the selected newspapers did not give adequate attention to the issue of human trafficking. This result is worrying because of the severity and complexity of the problem. The result of this study corroborates with that of Egbo (2012), which reported that the three dallies studied did not attach importance to sexual violence issue based on the premise on their placement of sexual violence reports. He further states that placement of story is not only an indication of adjudged importance of the story by newspapers which invariably influence people’s perception of such issue being important but also, it makes the story strategic for audience attention. Research Question Three: What were the patterns of coverage used to sensitize the society about the ills of human trafficking? Data analysis in table 7, shown quite a differential pattern in the distribution of entries. Findings revealed that most of the stories were news stories which is validated by 88%. This however is collaborates with the result of Nkememena, 2009; Gulati, 2011; Egbo, 2012; Stanford et. al., 2016; Reichert, Houston- Kolnik, Vasquez, & Peterson, 2018), that found out that © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue IV Version I 21 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 A 55 A Content Analysis of Newspapers’ Coverage of Human Trafficking in Nigeria