EVALUATION OF MEDIA NARRATIVES AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF MATERNAL MORTALITY RISK AMONG WOMEN IN ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA
Abstract
Maternal mortality is the death of a woman during pregnancy, at child birth or 92 hours after child birth. it has been a torn on every nation's flesh, especially the nations of Africa and Nigeria in particular. Maternal mortality risk has been climbing even though there exist numerous messages on it, that is why this study was done to evaluate the media narratives and social constructions of maternal mortality risk among women in Enugu state, Nigeria. Survey research design was used in the study. The study was hinged on Framing theory of Communication and Multi-stage sampling technique was used to arrive at the final respondent for the work, population of female ranging from 18-49yrs at Enugu formed the population of the study. using Australian calculator to arrive at sample size of 382. findings from the study revealed that, there exist various social constructions and media narratives. The most used narrative as revealed in the study is human interest narrative, with radio being the most used medium to receive information on maternal mortality risk. The study also recommended among others that adequate media messages should be disseminated among women to counter already existing negative social constructions.
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