Abstract
Over the years, successive governments in the
underdeveloped countries have regrettably adopted a
lackadaisical, impractical, apathetic and lip service attitude
towards the transformation of their rural communities whose
inhabitants constitute in some places more than 70% of their
respective populations.
In Nigeria for instance, the situation has reached an alarming
stage, more so when one considers the outright
abandonment of the rural populations to their fate, as
manifested in the various indices of under development that
prevail across the length and breath of the country, despite
the vast human and natural resources it is endowed with.
Granted that some administrations in the past, had one time
or another annunciated policies and programme seemingly
aimed at rural development but has any of such projects ever
been successfully executed in any of such rural communities?
The fact remains obvious that such projects only serve as a
conduit pipe to siphon funds into p
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
From a global perspective, third-word countries which are
mostly found in the continent of Africa have been conspicuously
backward in terms of development vis-à-vis their western
counterparts where a day hardly passes without the celebration
of one scientific or technological feat or another. These indicates
of underdevelopment and backwardness that characterize the
content include, poverty, illiteracy, disease, intertribal conflict,
corruption, absence of infrastructural amenities and general
mal-administration.
When one looks at the situation in Nigeria, generally, with
particular reference to the state of Imo state in South-Eastern
part of the country, it is obvious and regrettable that successive
governments in the country as well as the state (with the
exception of the first civilian government in Imo state (1979-83)
had paid lip service towards ameliorating the plight of especially
rural and urban dwellers in these states who constitutes over
70% of the population of about 120 million Nigerians (based on
projections from the 1991 national census).
The situation is further exacerbated by the infinitesimally low
coverage given to rural and urban problems by our national
media.
The national media are expected to give full coverage to events
in all sections of the society. The extent of coverage should
range from the affluent to the poor, from the urban to the
hinterland, but this, however, is not so with our national dailies.
Indeed, the development of both the rural and urban
communities must be given priority attention in the scheme of
things. Otherwise, the goal of the national development will be
elusive. Be that as it may. It must be pointed out, here, that the
goal of community development through an affective newspaper
coverage is not without certain constraints.
The constraint include
(a)Shortage of staff;
(b)Limited equipment, transportation facilities,
communication gadgets;
(c) Limited funds, and
(d)Poor editorial planning
The print media, as has been observed, rarely cover the rural
areas in comparison to cities. In fact, very limited time is
allotted to these coverage, which are not enough considering the
scope of the activities going on there. Granted that some
national media have allotted pages to community news and
vents, or even supplements for the local areas where each local
government area is focused upon, unfortunately, these are not
in-depth. Only peripheral issues are covered. Discussion and
serious analysis are missing it all boils down to window
dressing.
The news media with a target local can cover such a
community effectively. This is because there is time for planning
and implementation. But in our case here, the general
assessment of the coverage by these media is mediocre. This
mediocrity in the manner and extent of reportage of rural and
urban problems in the society is due largely to the following
loopholes identified in the operations of the news media.
(a)No target area: This is obvious. Targeting an are means
picking on specific area within a zone and covering them. These
media must regularly highlight development projects, culture,
professions, arts and craft, a well as need and deprivations of
these areas.
(b)Lack of no-the spot coverage. Those on the scene of event
and incidents tend to write authoritatively about them. So, the
reporter must investigate in order to be credible. Where a
reporter is kilometers away, the study might go stale by the
time he gets there.
(c) Coverage is general not specific. The coverage given to issues
is often superficial. It does not go into detailed issues.
As the filler of the communication gap between the government
and the rural dwellers on the one hand, and the urban and
rural populace on the other hand, the mass media are an
important player in this enterprise of community development.
This is in view of the fact that information provided by these
media is a tool for mobilization, galvanization, sensitization and
transformation of the rural communities.
The newspaper, for instance, localizes and interpret state and
national news for the consumption of the people. Although
there is scarcely any community newspaper in Nigeria today,
this void can be filled by national and state newspapers through
improved coverage of community activities.
Aware of the ability newspaper to give objective, thorough,
sound and fair coverage of community development projects,
this research work therefore, is an imperative. Besides, the
coverage so given by the newspapers can help by redirecting
change agents on the priority of the local populations to avoid
embarking on unrealistic projects.
It is against the foregoing background that the researcher
embarked on this study – a comparative study of newspaper
reporting of rural and urban problems in Imo state. A contents
analysis of the Sun, Vanguard and Daily Champion over a
period of one month, to determine their roles in rural
development.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS
This study is strictly concerned with concerned with
determining the extent of coverage and prominence accorded
development problems by Nigerian newspapers with a view to
identifying the level of commitment of the nation’s press
towards rural transformation and emancipation from economic,
social and political bondage. Among the indices of
underdevelopment are poverty, low standard of living, high cost
of living, illiteracy, poor infrastructural facilities, unemployment
and disease.
The study sets out to find the reasons for the low coverage of
rural news by Nigeria newspapers.
This research work is also pre-occupied with the task of
ascertaining whether the amount and quality of rural news
carried by the national media are sufficient and capable enough
to bring about the desired positive change in the rural
communities.
The problems emanating from the low coverage of rural
community problems by the Nigerian newspaper equally engage
the attention of this study.
THEORETICAL ORIENTATION
This research work is based on two major theories, the
development media theory and the Democratic participant
media theory. Both theories emerge out of the realization that
the original four classical theories viz, the authoritarian,
Libertarian, social responsibility and Soviet-communist theories,
do not apply strictly to developing countries or where they can
be applied, have limited potential benefits because of some
peculiar characteristics of the developing countries.
The development media theory is predicated on the
premise that the state has a right to intervene in or restrict
media operations in the interest of development needs. In this
way, devices of censorship, subsidy and direct control can be
justified.
Remarkably, this theory emanated from the Sean McBride
report of the United Nations (UNESCO) International
Commission for the study of communication problems.
The second theory is germane to this work is the
democratic participant media theory. This is the latest addition
to the normative theory and Dennis McQuail stands out as a
major proponent of this theory.
The theory emphasizes the right to relevant information,
the right to feedback, the right to use the means of
communication for interaction in small scale setting of
community, interest group and subculture. Tersely put, it
emphasizes what contemporary development communication
scholar term “Participatory”.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The relevance of communication in community
development, especially in a state like Imo can not be overemphasize in view of the benefits derivable from such an
exercise. The rural areas constitute an integral part of every
country from where the development levels of such countries
are measure. Over the years, there has been a noticeable
neglect of the rural areas. Thus giving rise to urban migration,
which leads to loss of manpower, economic hardship and abject
povert in the hinterland. In contra-distinction, there is the
provision of certain amenities, though not with the best of
intentions, like pipe-borne water, electricity, white collar jobs
health facilities libraries, etc in the cites.
At one time or another, certain programmes had been
introduced to better the lots of rural dwellers, though they
eventually came to naught due to poor implementation and
misappropriation of funds. These include the government
sponsored farmers co-operative societies, operation feed the
nation (OFN) The Green Revolution, the people Bank, Bettter life
for Rural women programme and family support programme.
Though the above programmes were targets at rural
empowerment, city dwellers ended up the major beneficiaries.
Perhaps, the only national programme that has obviously
benefited the rural dwellers is the National programme
Immunization, NPI.
Therefore, by content-analysis the coverage of rural and
urban problems in Imo state by three national dailies, this
study aims at finding the extent to which the mass media, in
this context the newspapers, have succeeded or failed in
discharging their community development functions.
In addition, it aims at determining which of the three
newspapers is more oriented towards community development
through the nature of rural news publishes.
Another objective is to rekindle the desire for the coverage
of community development activities by national dailies with a
view to improving the standard of living of rural dwellers in Imo
state.