ABSTRACT
Suffice it to say that a lot of
research has been made in the area of the role of mass media in national
development as well as rural development.
The
incontrovertible point has been that there can be no meaningful national
development without rural development as an off shoot and most integral part of
a country, the need for priority in rural transformation cannot be over
emphasized.
He
mass media as a vehicle for information gathering and dissemination has a major
role to play in the area of rural development.
In
the light of the above, the researcher choose the topic mass media coverage of
rural development news. A content analytical study of the Guardian, Daily
Champion, Weekly Star and Punch newspapers.
This
is in view that the finding and conclusions derived from this study will
go a long way to determine the contributions and impact of the nations mass
media particularly newspapers in the area of rural development and at the same
time make useful suggestion for he attainment of desire bale results in this
aspect.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
To
achieve national development, rural development is a necessary step that cannot
be jettisoned. The hope of developing Nigeria and all other developing
countries in order to have a better tomorrow lies in the development of our
rural areas.
The
mass media fill the communication gap between the government and the rural
dwellers on one end and the urban and rural populace on the other end.
With
this, the mass media especially community responsible oriented ones, succeed in
making the rural dwellers active participants of the government as they become
aware of programmes and policies of the government by working towards being
benefactors of these policies and programmes.
Moreso, high coverage or publication of rural development news by mass media
especially the newspapers, without any doubt help in speeding up meaningful
development in rural communities which will in turn boost the standard of the
people.
With
improved standard of living of the rural dwellers, the problem of rural-urban
migration would be aborted. When this happen, there will be gross development
in the country, a situation that will give room for proper utilization both
mineral and human intellectual resources in their different places of
existence.
Observation shows that not much has been done by the government in order to
improve the quality of life of rural dwellers when compare to that of the urban
populace. This means that much emphasis has been on urban development.
The
mass medial has a vital role to play in rural development through the quality,
quality and high level of rural development it covers and disseminate to the
public.
Therefore, it becomes important that the rural areas be given more
opportunities in the scheme of information being the food basket of the nation.
In
order to achieve diversification of the economy, development of the rural areas
is inevitable. An equitable distribution of wealth and provision of social
amenities will help reduce the rate of rural-urban migration.
It is
against this background that the researcher, embarked oon this study – Mass
media coverage of rural development news. A content analytical study of the
Guardian, Daily Star, Daily Champion and Punch newspapers.
1.2
State of the Research Problem
This study is geared towards the
Nigeria mass media and the extent to which they cover rural development news,
with a view of determining the level of commitment of the nation’s press
towards rural transformation and emancipation from the shackles of poverty,
unemployment, illiteracy, diseases and low standard of living.
In
the absence of community newspaper like the “community concord” purely devoted
to the coverage of rural activities, this research work is tasked to ascertain
whether the amount and quality or rural news carried by urban mass media
especially newspapers are sufficient and capable enough to bring the much
desirable development in the rural areas.
Using
four newspapers as a point of reference, the study is set to find out the
reasons for the low coverage of rural news by Nigeria newspapers with reference
to such factors as the location of the newspaper and ownership.
The
researcher choose the Guardian, Daily Champion and Punch newspapers because
they are elitist and widely read and daily Star newspaper because it is a
government owned newspaper.
These
problems brought about by the extremely small coverage of rural development
news by the Nigerian newspapers is a major concern of this research work.
1.3 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.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
One of the significance of this work
is that it highlights the place of the newspapers is the transformation,
mobilization, industrialization and education of the rural dwellers with a view
of enhancing their quality of life.
This study offers readers the
opportunity to access the level of commitment of Nigeria newspapers in
furthering the cause of reral development through full objective reporting of
community events, activities, achievements, aspirations, efforts as well as
problems.
It is
indeed significant in that it stressed the need for newspapers to use
developmental events from rural areas in positions such as front or back pages,
these events are mostly horrors, tragedies or some other negative reports as
against self-help development projects.
This practice is against the
fairness doctrine of the press and stands out as a problem of rural
development. Hence, one of the significance of this project work is that it is
geared towars attaining balances reporting through equal coverage and treatment
of rural development news vis-à-vis urban news. This in turn help bridge the
wide communication gap between the government and the rural populace so as to
pave way for participatory governance and grassroot development.
This
project work is a guide and mirror to policy makers in terms of designing a
suitable editorial policy that will give a newspaper upper hand to give
adequate coverage to rural development news.
Besides, it might be one of the needed step for Nigeria to attain national
development as it is geared towards, rural development without which there will
be no national development.
Furthermore, this project work stands out as a reference material for other
researchers working on this field or relate communication and development work.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
a) Is there any
relationship between ownership and coverage of rural development news?
b) To what extent does
location of a newspaper affect the coverage of rural development news?
c) Does readership
size of a newspaper influence its coverage of rural development news?
d) Is there any
relationship between a newspaper house style or location and its placement of
rural development news?
e) Do national
newspapers cover events and activities in urban areas as much as they do in
rural areas?
1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
This research work is based on the
following hypothesis. These are:-
H1 Government newspapers give
more prominence to rural development news than private owned newspapers.
H0 Government newspapers does
not give more prominence to rural development news than private owned
newspapers.
H2 Government controlled
newspapers carry more of rural development news than private owned newspapers.
H0 Government controlled
newspapers does not carry more of rural development news than private owned
newspapers.
H3 State based newspapers
carry more of rural development news than national newspapers.
H0 State based newspapers does
not carry more of rural development news than national newspapers.
H4 That national newspaper most of
the times carry non-developmental news of the rural areas e.g drought, diseases
outbreak, earthquake etc.
H0 That
national newspapers most of the time does not carry non-developmental news of
the rural areas.
1.7 CONCEPTUAL AND
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS
RURAL COMMUNITY
Conceptually, rural community
according to a newsletter published by the Anambra State Development Authority,
focus “a rural community as a unified body of inherited cultural affinity and
common socio-economic, political interest based on a common poor social
amenities of a state”.
Operationally, rural community may be viewed as a set of people with the same
historical heritage and cultural affinity, exhibiting an awareness of their
uniqueness, location, sharing common socio-economic and political interest but
with little or no social amenities and basic infrastructures like tarred roads,
equipped school, telephone etc.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Conceptually, the World Bank defines
rural development as a strategy designed to improve the economic and social
life of a group of people (rural). It involves extending the benefits of
development to the poorest among those who seek a livelihood in the rural
areas.
Operationally, rural development means the conscious, planned and systematic
efforts geared towards the transformation or modernization of the rural areas
through the provision of basic amenities and public utilities needed for good
living as well as their full integration in the scheme of events.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT NEWS:
Conceptually, according to Ducan
broadly (1986), a communication scholar, rural development news is the coverage
of events by the mass media of rural communities in order to enhance rapid
development of these communities.
Operationally, rural development news takes the form of an accurate and timely
account of events aimed at bringing about meaningful economic, industrial,
technological, educational, structural and general development in the rural
areas including features, pictures , editorials etc.
NEWSPAPERS
Conceptually, according to Nwanze
(1999:2), see newspaper as “a mechanically reproduced tabloid, published daily
or weekly, accessible to anyone who can afford the cove price and contains a
variety of news of public interest as well as marked with a continuity of
organization.
Operationally, newspaper is a publication that is usually printed daily or
weekly which report news of current events happing around the world.
MASS MEDIA:
Conceptually, mass media has been
perceived essentially as a working group organized around some device for
circulating the same message to large numbers of people – Hall (1981).
Operationally, mass media are modern channels of mass communication used to
disseminate news and information to very diverse cum large numbers of people
simultaneously.
DEVELOPMENT
Conceptually, development is the
attainment of a meaningful degree of mental alertness and the sophistication of
human faculties to the level the individual in society cannot only reason well
but also, adopt a logical approach to issues arising from human society.
Operationally, development means the provision of tangible social
infrastructure like roads, hospitals, schools, decent pipeborne water etc.
ASSUMPTIONS
This project work is carried out
based on certain assumptions. Some of these assumptions are already stated as
part of the hypothesis.
However, this project work is under the assumption that rural development news
from rural communities is not getting enough coverage as it should from
newspapers (mass media).
In
addition, the fact still remains that both private and government owned
newspapers do not place rural development news at positions like front or back
pages of the newspapers, rather they report more on “negative” news from rural
areas so as to capture more of the available markets audience.
1.1 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study is limited
to four Nigeria newspapers; the Guardian, Daily Star, Daily Champion and Punch
newspapers. In the process of this research work, there were some limitations
and constrains. The greatest being the challenges of having to combine
academic work with this research, considering the short time for
this semester as mapped out by the school’s administration.
Apart
from the time constraint, it was a great challenge gathering the four newspaper
for content analytical study especially in the case of Daily Star in Enugu
where very old editions has to be looked for since the paper is no longer
producing on a daily basis.
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