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Articles

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2016): June 2016

Exploring the Visibility of Child Sex Abuse Stories in Two Nigerian Online Newspapers

Submitted
December 24, 2016
Published
2016-12-24

Abstract

This paper investigates how visible news reports on child sex abuse are in two of Nigeria‟s dominant online news outlets. The significance of this work cannot be overemphasized considering the
need to get policy makers and other concerned parties sensitized and oriented toward the actions that help curb the negative practice. The problem becomes complicated owing to the forces of commercialism which have narrowed the thought as well as the space that the media ought to devote to the coverage of child related matters. Critical issues concerning children, it is claimed, have failed to make it to the agendasetting threshold of both the surface and online media platforms. This work analyzes the contents about child sex abuse in The Punch and Vanguard - over a three-month period in order to determine how evident they are. Findings corroborate media‟s neglect of child sex abuse reporting. From a focus group discussion, it turns out that it is not only the media that are not interested. Even their readers!

Keywords: Child Abuse, Sex Abuse, Online Newspapers, Vanguard, The Punch, Focus Group Symbols, Nigeria.