COMMUNITY JOURNALISM AND THE CHALLENGES OF RURAL REPORTING IN NIGERIA

COMMUNITY JOURNALISM AND THE CHALLENGES OF RURAL REPORTING IN NIGERIA

chapter One

Foreword

1.1 Research background

Community journalism is an amazing concept from the perspective of applying it to the Nigerian context. Looking at this issue from the perspective of community radio, the historical development of broadcasting in Nigeria shows that community/local/rural radio has never been considered an integral part of it. It’s a current phenomenon in community radio. So far, the locations of transmitting stations have remained in the same pattern that successive governments in Nigeria have established by concentrating infrastructure in favor of urban centers rather than ignoring rural areas.

Until April 21, 2009, when the inevitability and desirability of community broadcasting in Nigeria was made clear by his day-long policy dialogue with stakeholders in Abuja, broadcasting in Nigeria was not at all was designed and implemented in cities under the influence of Unlike other African countries that have adopted community broadcasting, Nigeria is in the early stages of rural broadcasting. Aside from a few campus radio stations run by national higher education institutions, there really isn’t anything tangible on the ground other than rhetoric and political framework. Ajijola, quoted in Moemeka (2008, p. 7), gives the number of community his radio stations in several African countries: 8. Further, in his Quarmyne quoted by Konkwo (2010, p. 98) he states that in South Africa he has 92 community he radio stations, while Mozambique boasts 25.

In Ghana, for example, a 1995 law clearly defines the role of community radio. According to Alumuku (2006, p. 17), Ghanaian law stipulates that “community broadcasting should be non-sectarian, non-partisan and non-profit. It adds that commercial advertising is allowed…” He added:
The law states that at least 70% of all community broadcasters’ broadcasts must be in their national language, and 80% of their broadcasts must be produced by the broadcasters themselves. At least 20% of programmes should be of national interest, which could include relays of national broadcast news from the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).

In Zambia, the National Broadcasting (Licensing) Regulations Act of 1993 from a legal back up for establishment of community radio. It is an independent authority with the powers to licence, regulate and allocate frequencies as an essential element to liberalization process (Alumuku, 2008).

Equally in South Africa, the promulgation of the Independence Broadcasting Authority (IBA) Act of 1993 as pontificated by Alumuku (2008, p 17) “paved the way for the licensing of community radio stations and the government’s white paper on broadcasting published in June 2001 outlined the government’s first ever policy on community radio.”While the blames of ex-communicating the rural populace in Nigeria through community broadcasting lies squarely on government, some experts believe that journalism educators and mass communication researchers should also be held responsible for their negligence in promoting community broadcasting. Konkwo (2010) and Claussen (2008).While Konkwo (2010) specifically accused Africa Journalism educators for partly been responsible what he described as “cheerless situation” Claussen (2008) bemoaned the fact that journalism educators.

Mass media is technology driven. Technology has changed the tide of news reporting in our society. Ate (2008, p. 73) confirms this claim with particular emphasis on satellites.
As society becomes more complex by the day, media practitioners must put themselves in a technological vantage point to effectively perform their socially responsible functions to the general public. At the time, someone could accept the definition of news as a report of what happened. Also, to redefine the event, it must be reported. But today, satellite technology has redesigned the process of collecting and distributing news. People can follow events as they occur anywhere in the world. He further argued that technology is an aspect of culture, and that the nature of a society largely depends on the type of technology it acquires.

1.2 Problem Description

Community journalism plays a specific role in giving voice to rural and poor marginalized communities and those who lack access to mainstream media, often providing content that is part of the development agenda. The financial sustainability of rural coverage is often a major challenge for community journalism. In Nigeria and other third world countries, people living in rural areas are neglected in terms of information dissemination and development processes. This created an urban charm. Apart from the poor physical development of these areas, there are high rates of ignorance in rural areas.
What are the challenges of reporting in rural Nigeria?

1.3 Purpose of the survey

Goals are:

Me. Examine the role of community journalism in rural development.

ii. Examine the effectiveness of these communication channels;

iii. Examine rural residents’ attitudes and perceptions of community journalism. IV. Examine the challenges of reporting in rural Nigeria.

1.4 Research question

Based on the study objectives, the following questions were addressed in the study:

Me. What role does community journalism play in rural development? ii. How effective are these communication channels?

iii. What are the rural population’s attitudes and perceptions of community journalism?

IV. What are the challenges of reporting in rural Nigeria?

1.5 Validity of research

There is no doubt that such work benefits groups of people and companies. In the meantime, this work has the following benefits:

Rural residents come to see community journalism as a powerful tool in their field, a weapon in their struggle for health, better working and living conditions, political and human rights, and more. Governments at all levels will understand the reasons for improving the welfare of rural people in order to achieve national development. Researchers working on this or related studies find the work interesting and will find it useful as a reference.

1.6 Scope of investigation

This study aims to explore the challenges of community journalism and rural reporting in Nigeria, a study by Afemai Newspaper.