Reporting of Rural grazing area initiative in selected daily newspapers in Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed how the Rural Grazing Area initiatives (RUGA) were reported in selected Nigerian newspapers, by assessing: the prominence given to RUGA news with reference to other subject matters, the frequency of reportage, and news report format. A systematic quantitative content analysis was used in collecting, analysing as well as interpreting the data for the study. A total of 276 daily publications of three newspapers were analysed from a pool of sample drawn through purposive sampling technique from issues of the newspapers published within three months’ period of July to September, 2019. The data from these newspapers were analysed using percentages. Findings showed that RUGA issues were not given adequate prominence in the three newspapers, and the newspapers performed more of an informative role in the reportage rather than giving a journalistic analysis of the policy itself in form of feature or editorial. News writers should be more analytic in their style of reporting developmental initiatives so as to help people understand the purpose and essence of such initiative. Also, the Nigerian newspapers, should scale-up agricultural content in their publications as a way of consolidating agricultural consciousness in Nigerians.

Keywords: Daily newspapers, reporting, rural grazing, initiative