The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has led to unprecedented media coverage globally and in South Africa where, at the time of writing, over 20,000 people had died from the virus. This article explores how mainstream print media covered the COVID-19 pandemic during this time of crisis. The news media play a key role in keeping the public informed during such health crises and potentially shape citizens’ perceptions of the pandemic. Drawing on a content analysis of 681 front-page news stories across eleven English-language publications, we found that nearly half of the stories used an alarmist narrative, more than half of the stories had a negative tone, and most publications reported in an episodic rather than thematic manner. Most of the stories focused on impacts of the pandemic and included high levels of sensationalism. In addition, despite the alarmist and negative nature of the reporting, most of the front-page reports did not provide information about ways to limit the spread of the virus or attempt to counter misinformation about the pandemic, raising key issues about the roles and responsibilities of the South African media during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study shows that South African newspaper coverage of COVID-19 was largely negative, possibly to attract audience attention and increase market share, but that this alarmist coverage left little possibility for citizens’ individual agency and self-efficacy in navigating the pandemic.

Discourses on democracy in Africa often revolve around the relevance of Western democracy to African nations given the region's peculiar socioeconomic and cultural conditions (Ezeani, 2013). In many African countries, evidence abounds of the absence of democratic dividends, an indicator of the apparent failure of liberal democracy in the region. The media as the fourth estate of the realm is often seen, albeit idealistically, as being positioned to rise above democratic failures and, in its watchdog roles, to work towards the enthronement of good governance. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, the environment within which the media operates vis-àvis the ownership structures has continuously posed stoic challenges to its expected roles. The result is continuous dilemmatic practices, whereby the media's position as bastion of democracy is consistently negotiated. This article, with exemplars from the Nigerian media scene over the years, x-rays the stoic challenges which media ownership poses to Nigerian society as the nation works towards development through good governance. It argues that ownership patterns, pressures and politics continue to challenge the consistent and committed role of the media in deepening our march towards good democratic governance. The article, however, concludes that rather than heaping the blame on the media, one could more safely return a verdict of collective responsibility-viewing the failings of the media within the larger context of the failings of the social system in which the media are embedded. Such thinking invariably points to the fact that various stakeholders other than the media have a role to play in enthroning good governance in the Nigerian polity.

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The growing popularity of the social media has without question brought about a paradigmatic shift in the way advertisers and marketers seek to promote their goods and services and affect the purchasing decisions of their customers and targets. However, research on advertisements positioned on these social networks and the level of awareness, attitude and responsiveness of its users are relatively still developing, especially within the Nigerian context. Because Facebook has, among the various social media, grown exponentially to become the biggest and most popular today, this study thus investigates the level of awareness, attitude and responsiveness to Facebook advertising on the part of Nigerian youths who are believed to be active social media users. Drawing a sample size of 400 from some select universities in South East Nigeria, the survey finds high awareness of Facebook advertising among the youths. However, it was found that in their vicarious experiences with Facebook, these youths experience some "attention challenges" in noticing and observing the ads. Their attitude to the Ads also indicate a cause for worry: even though they fancy and see Facebook Ads as useful, majority of them would not buy the product or visit the website for more or even "Like" products or services liked by their friends. Debunking the Uses-andgratification theory to some extent, the study supports the social cognitive theory of communication and recommends that social media advertisers make their Ads more assertive, eye-catchy, detailed, brief and concise, more visible and more properly positioned, among others.

Fundamental to the litany of Africa’s development issues is the crisis of governance. Naturally, good governance resonates as a panacea for this situation. In this, the role of the media as the bastion of democracy is indubitable. This article with focus on Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, situates the interplay of good governance and media practices within the media ownership debate. It argues that ownership patterns, pressures and politics have, for a long time, challenged the consistent and committed role of the media in deepening our march towards good governance. With clear case studies of media performances in the country over time, the article contends that the media might not totally be ready to take on the saddle of driving the democratic goals, as a result of the influence of ethnic/religious affiliation, political interest/affiliation and economic interest arising from the ownership shackles. The article returns a verdict of collective responsibility – viewing the failings of the media within the larger context of the failings of the social system in which the media are embedded.