ATTENTION:
BEFORE YOU READ THE PROJECT TOPICS BELOW, PLEASE READ THE INFORMATION BELOW.THANK YOU!
NOTE:
WE WILL SEND YOU THE ABSTRACT,TABLE OF CONTENT AND CHAPTER ONE OF YOUR APPROVED TOPIC FOR FREE.
CHOOSE FROM THE LIST OF TOPICS BELOW. SEND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND THE APPROVED PROJECT TOPIC TO ANY OF THESE NUMBERS-08068231953,08168759420
WE WILL THEN SEND YOU THE ABSTRACT,TABLE OF CONTENT AND CHAPTER ONE FOR FREE
NOTE ALSO:
IF YOU ALREADY HAVE AN APPROVED PROJECT TOPIC THAT IS NOT ON OUR WEBSITE,WE CAN ALSO DEVELOP IT FOR YOU.WE WILL SEND YOU THE ABSTRACT,TABLE OF CONTENT AND CHAPTER ONE FOR FREE WITHIN 48 HOURS
JUST SEND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND THE APPROVED TOPIC TO 08068231953,08168759420
PROJECT MATERIAL IN MASS COMMUNICATION:
MASS MEDIA COVERAGE OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT NEWS. A CONTENT
ANALYTICAL STUDY OF THE GUARDIAN, DAILY CHAMPION, PUNCH AND DAILY STAR
NEWSPAPERS.
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-Ã -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.
Comments
Post a Comment