Media Coverage and Audience Awareness of Prison Reform Campaigns in South-East Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the extent to which the media have set the agenda for the reformation of prison, which has since August 2019 been renamed “correctional services” in Nigeria, and the corresponding level of awareness among media audience in South-East Nigeria. Survey and content analysis were the research methods adopted. For the survey, 240 subjects were purposively chosen from a cluster of two groups. In contrast, 56 randomly chosen program schedules of broadcast media and 28 issues of select newspapers for February 2017 and February 2018 were content-analyzed. Interviews were also conducted. The study revealed inadequate media coverage of the reforms and a low level of awareness among respondents. It recommended, among others, that the World Prisons’ Awareness Day held annually on February 11 should be popularized to ensure increased awareness by both the media and their audience.