A Pragmatic Analysis of Selected Newspapers’ Coverage of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

Authors

  • Naanshep Paul, Patricia Department of Languages, Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Author
  • Musa. Abubakar Sadiq Department of Languages, Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Author
  • Iowar Esther Ashiemar Department of Languages, Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Author

Keywords:

Pragmatic Analysis, Newspapers, Newspapers’ Coverage, Covid-19 Pandemic, Nigeria

Abstract

Language is a pivotal instrument in the hand of journalists; they manipulate language at their disposal for accomplishing numerous goals. Thus, this study explores a pragmatic investigation of how meanings are interpreted  in  the selected  newspapers’  coverage  of the  Coronavirus Pandemic in Nigeria. Mey’s (2001) Pragmatic Acts Theory was used to analyze ten (10) data selected purposively from The Punch and The Vanguard Newspapers between February 2020 and June 2020. The study found out that the pragmatic relevance of the COVID-19 newspapers’ coverage is embedded in its  media  functions  as  it serves  as  an  indicator  to interpret  the messages inherent  in the  coronavirus newspapers’  coverage  and a  pract of  warning to  the citizens of Nigeria to stay safe. The study also revealed that the practs used depend on context, situation and existing shared-knowledge of both the speaker and the reader. It was observed that  journalists  use  the  news  headlines  to  perform  several  acts  of  warning,sensitising, informing,  exposing,  etc. to  achieve  different goals  and  pass  numerous meanings  to  their listeners/readers  during  the  COVID-19  Pandemic  in  Nigeria.  Results  indicated  that  the Nigerian  media performed  well in  terms of  covering  the pandemic,  which  in turn  created awareness. However, the coverage was not in-depth as most of the reported stories were short and were predominantly straight news. This paper concludes that journalists use contextual language to enhance social relations among the readers.

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Published

2023-12-31

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How to Cite

Naanshep Paul, Patricia, Musa. Abubakar Sadiq, & Iowar Esther Ashiemar. (2023). A Pragmatic Analysis of Selected Newspapers’ Coverage of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Nigeria. Journal of Innovative Social Science and Humanities Research, 2(2). https://hummingbirdjournals.com/jisshr/article/view/97

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