Press Coverage of Rural Development News: An Analytical Study of Nigerian Compass and The Hope Newspapers

Abstract

This study investigates the extent and nature of press coverage of rural development news in Nigeria, using Nigeria Compass and The Hope newspapers as case studies. Anchored on the Development Media Theory, Social Responsibility Theory, and the framework of Development Journalism, the research adopts a content analytical method to evaluate how these newspapers report rural development news. A total of 48 editions—24 from each newspaper—were sampled using a simple random sampling technique, selecting two editions per month over a one-year period from May 2011 to April 2012. Data were presented using tables to highlight frequencies and trends in coverage. Out of the 730 editions published during the period under review, the selected sample provides insight into the consistency, prominence, and thematic focus of rural development news. Tables was used to illustrate findings. It was discovered that the two selected newspapers did not give much prominence to coverage of rural development news rather they preferred world and city news. The findings revealed that The Hope Newspaper report and publish more stories on the rural communities than the Nigerian Compass within the period under review. It is also revealing that news reported about rural development news was mostly in straight news format as the Nigerian Compass published while few reports were published as features, opinion/comment, letter-to-the-editor, photographs and cartoons. There was no report on editorial. This was due to the fact that Nigerian Compass write editorial on national issues and foreign matters as against rural and communities’ issues, as part of recommendations, imbalance of flow of communication between rural communities and urban areas can be bridged if government, donor agencies and development agencies should decentralize the practice of journalism by establishing rural/community newspapers so that their voices would be heard by the government.