Community Journalism and the Challenges of Rural Reporting in Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives Of Study
General objective: to assess the main challenges of rural reporting and how these challenges can be overcome.
Specific objectives include:
- To examine the extent to which rural reporting depend on donor support and to establish whether there are measures put in place by the channel to enhance self sponsorship
- To identify the challenges facing rural community journalism towards achieving social challenges and establish how to overcome these challenges
- To establish obstacles facing Rural reporting towards achieving institutional challenges and identify how to overcome these obstacles.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This chapter covers global perspective on challenges facing rural community journalism; case study of Rural reporting. Challenges of rural community journalism should take the three aspects of challenges i.e. social, institution and financial challenges and conceptual framework.
Community Journalism
Community journalism channel broadcast for, by and about the community it serves and whose ownership and management are representative of the community. Howey (2005) has the same view and he says, „community journalism is journalism for the people and by the people.
On the other hand, The Nigeria Constitution 2010 defines community broadcasting service as service that is fully controlled by a non-profit entity and carried on for non-profitable purpose. It also serves a particular community, promotes their interests, and encourages members of community served or associated with it, to participate in the section and provision of programs to be broadcast. (Mefalopulos 2008, Buckley 2012,Chingamuka and Glenwright (2012) states that, community journalism is owned, managed and accountable to the community. The community in this case can be based on geographical location, interests as defined by the group within the locality. However different and dissenting opinions from within the community must be allowed to have a voice.
The report from a seminar that was conducted in Abuja on 25th -26th June 2008 by Eco News Africa in collaboration with UNESCO, insist that community journalism exist to provide a voice for the community they serve, but they also work to clear set of ethical and social frameworks. According to Odera and Kamweru (2000), community journalism has acquired a special place as one form of independent media, capable of evolving a community managed and more interactive communication and programming of issues affecting community.The authors argues that the introduction of community journalism was as a result of the tendency of mainstream media perpetuating western perceptions of socio-economic and political issues, hence ignoring the problems faced by local communities in the country.
The main aim of media is to disseminate information, educate and entertain however, commercial media focus more on profit-making and persuading potential advertisers forgetting other function of media. Therefore, community media can deliver these functions and address issues affecting the audience making the channel reliable as well as gaining audience trust. The audience will prefer the channel that addresses problems affecting him/her.
Establishment of community journalism channels in the country has enabled marginalized communities to participate in countrywide activities hence satisfying the need of participation in development of the country. CIMA report on the other hand maintains that community journalism is a powerful source for empowerment especially for disenfranchised and marginalized groups in the society. Dikshit (1979) emphasizes that even though mainstream media may have development programs, community journalism has made it more acceptable because of the language used is common to everyone regardless of literacy level. People’s participation in the development process is considered as a major factor where community journalism can contribute a lot in making their life better since it will allow for the people to express their ideas and views.
Community comprise of all type of people i.e. illiterate, elite physically and mentally challenged name them, however development of the community will involve all kind of people and the common thing that bring these people together is local language they speak. Although they fall under different statues in the society but they understand one another through the common language.
Most of community journalism aims at improving lives of the community hence development of the society. Domatob, Juka & Nwaso (1987) emphasize that development is about change for betterment of the society and media serve as an agent, and in this case community journalism is an agent that stimulates and sustains this change provided is used as vehicle of communication rather than as a channel for information. Oriare, Oriale and Ugangu (2010) argues that communities in Nigeria are now more aware about social, economic, thousands of jobs, business opportunities as well as political participation through community journalism. In support of this argument, Odera & Kamweru (2000) wrote that community journalism enables the community to speak about issues that concerns them at the local level creating linkages between development, democracy, and community media.
Moemeka (1994) agrees that rural journalism aims at improving community in their totality, make them literate, widen their horizon, raise their aspirations and create in them willingness to find solution to their problems. However, he point out that journalism alone cannot completely handle the task of changing rural community into development resources and substantially productive component on the nation. For the purpose of the long-term effect on development, there must be accompanying written materials to drive home the point made on journalism and for reference from time to time. This mean that community members should learn how to read however in some cases this might take long especially for elderly.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Research design is the conceptual structure within which research is conducted (Kombo &Tromp 2010). It is also used to structure the research showing how all major parts work together to address the central research questions. This study was conducted through case study design that seek to describe a unit in details, in context and holistically. Case study according to Hancock & Algozzine (2006) helps the researcher to understand the situation under investigation from the participants and not researchers perspective. Case study was relevant for this study because it allowed full investigation of the research questions about the social, institutional, and financial challenges of Rural reporting. Rural reporting for this case was of chosen because of its geographical location as well as the years the channel has been in existence as a rural community journalism.
Study Population
Kombo & The population of this study was residents of Akamkpa LGA in Cross River State. However, it was not possible to study the entire population of Cross River and therefore the study settled for sample.
The channels reach out to a population of 884,527 people and covers an area of 8,008.9 km².
The individual in-depth interviews of twenty three representatives and two focused group of five people per group responded. This is because all these people contribute towards challenges of
Rural Community Journalism (RCR). For instance community participation contributes towards social aspect of challenges, management skills contribute towards institutional challenges while employees as well as community contribute towards financial challenges of the channel.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND IN TERPRETATIONS OF THE STUDY
Introduction
This chapter focused on the demographic information of the respondents, presentations, interpretation and discussions of research findings. The presentation was done based on the research objectives.
Respondents
Interviews completion rates is the proportion of the sample that participated as intended in all the research procedures. The target population of 94% responded.
Demographic characteristics of Respondents
This section dealt with the demographic information of the respondents namely age, gender, level of education and occupation.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This chapter presents the summary, conclusions and recommendations of the study. The prime objective of the study was to assess main challenges of rural reporting and how these challenges can be overcome.
Summary
Regarding source of finance for rural community journalism; advertisements, program sponsorship, donations, grant‟s, fundraising and well-wishers are means RM use to generate income. The study concluded that the community advertises with RM. It is clear that business persons as well as individuals within the area the channel serves advertise at RM. Through the program sponsorship, RM generates income. In addition, they receive grants from LGA Government to help support various projects ran by the channel.
Fundraising events organized by RM help the channel to raise money. Sometimes the channel organizes for events in collaboration with celebrities, for instance Night roads shows etc. to generate income. The channel generates revenue through ticket sales and merchandising. Sale of greeting cards also generates revenue for channel. They also revealed that RM has very active audience who call the channel or send messages thus contributing towards financial challenges of the channel.
The study revealed that although the channel is engaging in income generating activities, the income is low and therefore the channel is not able to sustain itself. In addition, the little income is not well distributed due to poor management skills. They are not reaching out to many people within the allocated area due to poor equipment. For instance they lack standby generator, they have low quality transmitter affecting their transmission. Also the channel is struggling especially when donors pulled out clearly indicating that there was overdependence on donor support.
When it came to handling financial constraints the respondents indicated that they involve Community leaders and LGA leaders. For instance they involve LGA Rep Governor, business people among others to help strategize on the way forward concerning finance. However the audience is left out affecting social contribution towards self-challenges. In addition, RM organizes for fund raising to solve financial issues affecting them. They sometimes borrow from financial institutions like K-REP Bank to solve problems at hand.
Regarding plans to enhance self-challenges, findings concluded that there are plans to enhance self-challenges although most of plans are not implemented. Other than programs, RM is working on other means to improve challenges for instance, approaching sponsors/partners by writing proposal, request for wider coverage to reach more audience. Request to increase coverage could increase income especially from new advertiser; however this could not be achieved because RM lacks quality equipment to enhance outreach. Some of the contributions towards rural reporting challenges given by the respondents are that they give ideas and pay for adverts.
Some respondents provide security and ensure that the community is cohesive about the functions of the channel. They also encourage entire community especially those who are not among 33 groups to work together and support the channel. Some make their contribution by participating through sending SMS‟s or calling. Through the 33 groups, they have plans to have other income generating activities.
RM is facing a lot of challenges due to poor management skills as revealed by the study.
Wrangles‟ being experienced in the management team is a contributing factor towards poor performance of the channel. The channel lack clear defined roles that are overlapped within the management team leading to wrangles. Poor management is as a result of illiteracy level within the management team. They lack quality staff and quality programs since they are not able to pay their employees well, resulting to employees opting for better pay in commercial vernacular broadcasting channels.
Respondents also indicated that RM is no longer reaching out to its audience to seek opinion.
Majority of respondents indicated that RM does not involve its audience in content development. Therefore, the study concluded that RM does not involve audience in their activities. The study concluded that rural reporting is not able to sustain itself. The reason given by respondents is that the channel lack quality management that has resulted to donors pulling out due to lack of accountability.
It is not clear whether the community is or is not being represented in management of the channel. Some represented indicated that community is not represented since they have never known any person representing them. On the other hand, some respondents indicated that the community is being represented. The community is represented by officials in all committees.
When it came to relationship with rural reporting some respondents indicated that they have good relation with RM since they advertise their products at the channel. In addition they are the neighbors and also they have feeling that the channel belongs to the community.
The study concluded that RM addresses community needs. Some of the reasons given were, The reasons given are that the use of local language informs everyone within the region, they make the community aware of issues affecting them, however there is concern that the channel is not reaching out to the entire community due to lack of finances. They have programs that address the needs of the community. For instance, listeners are taught about good farming methods through agricultural programs aired at the channel.
The channel also helps community to look for market for goods boosting their business. Respondents indicated that RM has been used to solve conflict between human and wildlife whereby the community gets alerts whenever wild animals sneaks out of the park and the community is urged to report to KWS incase wild animals invade their farms. The introduction of computer classes at the channel is well received by the community since most of form four leavers are engaged reducing chances of them participating in unwanted behaviors. Some work at the channel as volunteers learning new skills before they join higher learning institutions.
To help solve social challenges, there was need to build understanding of needs by the channel now that the needs keep on changing. Therefore some of respondents work with RM at a certain level for instance issues to do with theft in the community or if there is something they want the community to know. Some respondent indicated that they approach the channel when they want to address issues.
When asked about RCR staffing i.e. employees/volunteers, the study revealed that Majority of employees are not trained journalists and are inadequate i.e. both journalist and technician. They are not well paid because community journalism channels do not have money to pay staff and as a result, they retain poorly skilled staff hence poor content development as well as copying of what private channels are doing. Due to poor skills, they are not able to create relevant programs for the community. Volunteer on the other hand, without skills may be passing time so it doesn‟t matter for them whether they have impact or not. Lack of motivation has affected volunteer‟s performance
On the issue of policies and regulation of rural community the study revealed that there are rules guiding RCR activities however they are followed because majority of employees are not exposed to it. Some of RCR are overstepping their boundaries out of negligence. There are policies put in place to regulate board members, however is not clear whether they are followed. Therefore the study concluded that policies are there however, they are not followed.
On the issue of training of staff and volunteers the study revealed that most of the staff and volunteers are being trained. They are trained by organizations like UNESCO. They offer training to both employees and volunteer, however this is not frequent for now. The study revealed that there is no specific institution that makes skills know-how and knowledge available to RCR.
Conclusion
Findings from the study concluded that most of the respondents were male while majority of the respondents attained University education. The study concluded that RM source of income is from advertisement, program sponsorship, donations, grants, fundraising well-wishers etc. Business people as well as individuals advertise their products with RM. Income from LGA Government; in form of grants, fundraising, entertainment, roadshows, and sale of greeting cards all generating revenue for the channel.
The channel also earns income from live broadcast especially for events happening in the society. The study also revealed that RM has very active audience who call the channel or send messages thus contributing towards financial challenges. It is clear that RM is not able to sustain itself even though the channel is engaging in income generating activities. They are not reaching out to many people within the allocated area due to poor equipment. It is a challenge for RM to broadcast to allocated area due to poor equipment yet there is in need for more coverage allocation from the authority. The channel is also the struggling especially when donors pulled out clearly indicating that there was overdependence on donor support.
RM has measures put in place to enhance self-challenges by involving Community leaders and LGA leaders. For instance they involve LGA Rep, Governor, and business people to help strategize on the way forward concerning finance. However, the community is left out in such activities emphasizing lack of ownership by the community. Strong community support is fading since the community feels excluded. On the other hand, scarce resources available could be the cause of struggle for RM. They also borrow from the bank to solve financial issues facing them. Other activities directed towards financial challenges include: payment for adverts and proposal writing.
Findings concluded that there are plans to enhance self-challenges however; most of the plans are not implemented. The study concluded that challenges of RM are due to poor management skills, lack of qualified staff and lack of quality programs affecting the performance of the channel. Due to poor payment, journalists opt for better pay in commercial vernacular channels. RM is not reaching out to its audience to seek opinion regarding programs development. In addition, community is not involved in decision making of channel activities. Therefore, the study concluded that rural reporting is not able to sustain itself. This is because of to lack of accountability by those responsible scaring away donor as well as potential donor.
Study concluded that there are policies and regulations guiding RCR activities however they are not followed since majority of staff/volunteers are not exposed to it. Failed responsibilities out of ignorance may result to harmful consequences. For this reason, journalistic values should always be observed regardless of the type of the channel one is working for. In addition, journalistic value affects content development as well as credibility of the journalist. The study revealed that there is no specific institution that makes skills know-how and knowledge available to RCR.
Recommendation
In line with the findings and conclusion of the study, the researcher made the following recommendations: There is need to improve on financial generating activities of rural community journalism. However this can be achieved through good management. There is need for RM to reach out and involve the community in especially now that audience is almost loosing hope. There is need to improve on management skills, since the study revealed that there is lack of professionalism in the management team. Training of staff volunteers should be frequent. There is need to improve in the understanding techniques in deficiency in programs. There is need to identify the needs of the community and address them because need are different depending on where the channel is located or the outreach.
There is need to improve on policies and regulation of rural community journalism in Nigeria, like regulating board of governors of rural community journalism professionalism. There is need for Communication Authority of Nigeria (CAK)to ensure that rules and regulations are followed and also the channel itself to ensure that the constitutions (board and national) is respected by doing what is required as stipulated by the law. Both staff and volunteers to taught about media ethics. There is need for more media institutions to help in training of CR staff and volunteer.
There is need for Rural reporting to partner with training institutions to help in training of staff and volunteers on content development. Finally there is need for National Government to help RM solve leadership wrangle since LGA Government of Akamkpa is also in wrangles.
Challenges of community journalism RCR in Nigeria can be investigated further by comparing world community journalism channels that are doing well and learn from them.
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