Newspaper Coverage of Child Labour: A Content Analysis of the Daily Graphic

Abstract

The study examined newspaper coverage of child labour. The main objective was to study the frequency, nature and forms of child labour coverage by the Daily Graphic. The study also set out to establish the type of story and source of child labour issues and covered by the newspaper and to identify the main actors of the child labour issues. A quantitative method that specifically used content analysis was chosen to evaluate child labour stories in the Daily Graphic. The findings from the study showed that the coverage of child labour was low in the Daily Graphic even though some attention was given to it. Of the 78 editions sampled for analysis, 37 stories generally straight news, were on child labour. Many of these stories however, did not give an in-depth report to help readers understand the issues of child labour. Government officials had the dominant voice in the stories analysed while children’s voices were ill represented in the issues that concerned them.