ANALYSIS OF THE FRAMING PATTERNS OF SDG-RELATED CONTENTS ON THE FACEBOOK AND YOUTUBE CHANNELS OF NTA AND CHANNELS TV

Regardless of the growing urgency to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
public awareness and understanding of these goals in Nigeria remain limited. The media, particularly broad-
cast outlets like the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and Channels TV, play a crucial role in shaping
public discourse and mobilising support for sustainable development. With the increasing use of social
media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube by these media houses, there is a unique opportunity to
reach wider audiences with SDG-related content. However, there is a noticeable gap in empirical research
examining how these media organisations frame sustainable development issues on their social media plat-
forms. It is unclear which SDG themes receive the most attention, how the issues are portrayed, and whether
the framing encourages public awareness or policy support. Three research questions guided the work: (1)
Which SDG goals did each station cover most? (2) Which station gave greater prominence to SDG content
on Facebook and YouTube? (3) What were the dominant framing patterns of SDG-related content on both
stations’ social channels? The study adopted a content analysis research method. Findings show that NTA
most frequently covered SDG 1 (No Poverty), while Channels TV most frequently covered SDG 13 (Cli-
mate Action). Overall prominence was low (many items under 3 minutes), but Channels TV published more
SDG reports (50 items across Facebook and YouTube) than NTA. Dominant frames were the progress frame
(27%) and the policy/action frame (19%), with conflict and economic-development frames least used. The
researchers recommended that NTA and Channels TV should broaden their coverage to include underrepre-
sented SDGs such as good health and well-being (3), quality education (4), zero hunger (2), clean water and
reduced inequalities (10), among others.