Media Coverage of Women in Politics: A Content Analysis of How The Punch and The Guardian Reported Female Candidates in the 2023 Nigerian General Elections

The underrepresentation of women in Nigerian political leadership has been linked, in part, to media framing practices that either marginalise female political candidates or subject them to disproportionate scrutiny of personal attributes rather than policy positions. This study analysed how The Punch and The Guardian newspapers covered female candidates during the 2023 Nigerian general elections, focusing on framing, prominence, source citation, and issue versus identity focus. The study was anchored on the Feminist Media Theory, which critiques patriarchal structures embedded in news production and argues that gendered media framing reinforces political marginalisation of women. A content analysis design was adopted, with a population comprising all election-related reports published between January and March 2023. A systematic sample of 480 items yielded 312 items referencing female candidates, which were coded using a validated coding instrument. Findings revealed that female candidates received significantly less prominent placement than male counterparts, with front-page coverage representing only 14 percent of female candidate stories. Coverage disproportionately focused on appearance, family roles, and party affiliation rather than policy platforms, manifesting classic gender-stereotypical framing. The Guardian exhibited marginally more balanced coverage than The Punch across most framing dimensions. The study concluded that mainstream Nigerian newspaper coverage of female political candidates continues to reproduce gendered barriers to political participation. It was recommended that news organisations adopt gender-sensitive editorial guidelines and invest in training journalists on equitable political reporting practices.
Keywords: media coverage, women in politics, feminist theory, 2023 elections, content analysis