Mass Media Coverage of Rural Development News. A Content Analytical Study of the Guardian, Daily Champion, Punch and Daily Star Newspapers
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
There has been concentration of development effort in the urban areas of our country at the expense of the rural areas which had always brought about the problems of rural-urban migration because of inadequate or total lack of basic social amenities in the rural areas.
- In view of the aforementioned, rural development and diversification of the nation’s economy is topmost in the priority list of government. This is why there have been various grassroots development programmes from both past and present government like Development for Food Road and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), The Better life for Rural Women Programme, The Family Support Programme, Poverty Alleviation Programmes etc.
- On rural development as a major concern in Nigeria, a media practioner, Nwuneli Onura once said that “a country like Nigeria probably now realized that building sky scrapper and modern express ways and purchasing vast numbers of cars among other things are unholy aspect of development that do not necessarily change the basic attitude of a significant percentage of the population towards life”.
- De-emphasizing the importance of communication in social development process, Nwuneli affirmed that “while social changes in desirable social development programmes can easily run into problems if they are not effectively communicated to the people.
- By content analytical study of the coverage of rural development news by three national newspapers, this research work have the purpose of finding the extent to which the mass media notably the newspaper has succeeded or failed in carrying out it’s rural development functions through the quality and quantity of rural news it carries.
- One of the objectives of rekindling and reinforcing the desire for the coverage of rural development news by national dailies is to bear in mind that there are no or very few clearly marked community newspaper that are fully dedicated to the coverage of rural activities and selfless services with a view to bringing about rapid development in all ramifications in the grassroots as it concerns the rural communities.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
DEVELOPMENT
The term “Development“ means different things to many people. It is a concept which is contested both theoretically and politically, and is inherently both complex and ambiguous. Its multi-disciplinary nature no doubt made it so contested among scholars and professionals of diverse background.
Rogers (1976) sees “development as a widely participatory process of social change in a society, intended to bring about social and material advancement for the majority of the people through gaining control over their environment.’’
Rogers stressed the endogenous dimension of development. He viewed it as a process whereby the people whom this development is for participated in the decision that affects their lives and environment. But development agencies have difficulty in implementing effective participatory programs, for reasons ranging from inadequate socio-political knowledge and influence to inflexible bureaucratic structures.
But there are nevertheless many possibilities for improved practice through more realistic assessments of local contexts and prospects for reform, and more emphasis within aid bureaucracies on opening space for adaptive implementation.
Similarly, Ogai cited in Uwakwe (2003) views development as “a widely participatory process of directed social change in a society intended to bring about social and material advancement including greater equality, freedom and other valued qualities for the majority of people through their gaining greater control over environment.’’
However, participation is not a simple technical input that can unleash linear progress. It involves navigating through local power relations and pushing for sometimes uncomfortable changes. Successful programs tend to be those led by individuals who know the local context, work in an incremental and flexible way, listen to citizens, seize opportunities, and shift approaches along the way.
According to Inayatullah (cited in Soola 2003) “development is change toward patterns of society that allow better realization of human values, that allow a society greater control over its environment and over its political destiny, and that enables its individuals to gain increased control over themselves.’’
In this context, development means positive transformation or change of the people’s ways of living, attitudes and behaviours. If people’s ways of living is to be transformed for the better then there is need for them to have access to information and be sensitised through the appropriate channels of communication. But what if their condition is not transformed for the better? Can this be referred to as development?
However, it is a belief that for any development to take place there must be an inner change of people to be willing to participate just like the position of these scholars. But the question is , what kind of change are they talking about?
Chambers’ (2004) added the notion of ‘good change’, although this raises all sorts of questions about what is ‘good’ and what sort of ‘change’ matters, as Chambers shows concern about the role of values, and whether ‘bad change’ is also viewed as a form of development. A common theme within most definitions is that ‘development’ encompasses ‘change’ in a variety of aspects of human condition.
However, in this the review, development is not defined as synonymous with ‘modernity’ which is presented in the discourse as a superior condition. Development is a process of change that involves people’s participation and commitment aimed at improving their standard of living, skills and environment for a better future.
When people do not have a voice in the public arena, or access to information on issues that affect their lives, and where their concerns are not reasonably reflected in the media, then development in this sense tends to be undermined and catastrophes such as famines are less likely to be averted.
Furthermore, lack of access to communication undermines the capacity of the poor to participate in democratic processes. Frustration and alienation over lack of means of expression lead to disaffection with the political process resulting in apathy or violence as it is witnessed in Nigeria today.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN
CONTENT ANALYSIS: it has been used widely as an effective scientific research method. It is capable of providing valid and reliable qualitative and quantitative scientific observations because of its unobtrusive nature, which eliminates many confounding antecedent conditions that are often encountered in media research, when some other research techniques are used. The rules and procedure of analysis remains the main guide throughout the period of analysis.
SAMPLING
Sampling for media content analysis comprises three steps, Newbold et al. (2002) propose:
Selection of media forms (i.e. newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, film) and genre (news, current affairs, drama, soap opera, documentary, and so on);
Selection of issues or dates (the period);
CODING AND CATEGORISATION
According to Nwanko (1973) studies have revealed that the content of Nigerian newspapers had a significantly high representation of political news. It is against this background that the design of this coding procedure was adopted for this study, by focusing on development-oriented issues. The categorization relied on the units of measurements, which also appeared and coded as news, features and editorials. The study adopted the nominal categorization of data i.e placing the data into these categories: Education, rural development and Health sectors.
There are several different ways of defining coding units. The first way is to define them physically in terms of their natural or intuitive borders. For instance, newspaper articles, letters, or poems all have natural boundaries. The second way to define the recording units is syntactically, that is to use the separations created by the author, such as words, sentences, or paragraphs. A third way to define them is to use referential units. Referential units refer to the way a unit is represented.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULT PRESENTATION
Description of the sample
This study sought to examine newspaper coverage of rural developments in Nigeria. The period studied was January to December 2020. All data analysed were collated from the four national newspapers – Daily Champion, Weekly Star, The Guardian and Punch newspapers.
Research Question 1: What is the direction of newspapers’ coverage of rural developments in Nigeria?
This research question was to find out the direction of news reports on rural development. This was done through checking whether the news stories were positive, negative or (neutral).
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
It is generally acknowledged that rural development contributes so much in reducing unemployment and economic growth of any nation. Nigeria has an enormous agricultural potential and successive governments at various levels have pursued several policy frameworks and programmes to turn the fortunes of the nation’s agricultural sector around.
Based on the findings of this research, rural developments are poorly and rarely reported in Nigerian newspapers. To make matters worse, no prominence was given when such news is reported. By implication, rural developments were not considered to be important by the Nigerian newspapers and consequently, did not receive due attention from them.
Therefore, Nigerian newspapers are yet to give rural development the desired attention bearing in mind its potential in the development of a world class economy.
Recommendations
Undoubtedly, a research entails an investigation geared toward increasing knowledge and providing ideas to solve identified problems. Hence, the researcher proffers the following recommendations:
Media organizations in the country should assign special beat reporters to cover rural development news. Where this is already in place, efforts must be made by such reporters to increase their level of rural development news reportage.
Since issues are seen as important as the media made it to be based on the emphasis, placement and frames, therefore, Nigerian media should accord all this to rural developments coverage.
It is not enough reporting mostly what government says it is doing, media workers should also endeavour to find out the views and experiences of the farmers.
There is need for stakeholders to establish community newspapers to be located close to the farmers. The objectives of such community newspapers should be to make available, information which is useful, proper and relevant to rural development based communities. This will make these community newspapers alternative media to urban type of journalism and bridge the widening information gap between the rural and urban centres.
More than any other sector of the economy, the press should highlight agricultural activities in the country in their daily reportage. If with oil resources, majority of Nigerians still live in poverty and squalor, then government must be advised through the media to boost the agricultural industry.
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