Newspapers' agricultural agenda setting and extension agents' views on agricultural issues in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to examine how newspapers' agricultural agenda setting influences the importance agricultural extension agents place on agricultural issues. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from extension agents. All zonal extension agents (4) and 50% of block extension agents (10) were included in the population for the study. However, the village extension agents (60) were selected using random sampling technique. Newspapers content were analyzed from January to June 2002 for agricultural issues raised in them. Data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, and Spearman rho correlation coefficient. The results revealed that extension agents ranked storage problems as most important (4.24) and investment in agriculture second (4.27). In the content analysis of newspapers, investment in agriculture ranked highest (740.2 in column inches and 121 times of occurrence in the newspapers). The results showed that there was a positive relationship between the ranking of agricultural extension agents and that of newspapers about what they considered important agricultural issues (r = 0.61 for column inches and 0.58 for number of times issues occur in the news papers, p = 0.05). The relationship though positive was moderate. The results also revealed that newspapers did not allocate much space to agricultural news and hence may not be efficient in creating awareness about current agricultural information. Most of the respondents preferred research institutes and agricultural agencies to newspapers as sources of agricultural information.

Keywords: newspapers', agricultural, extension agents' agenda setting

South African Journal of Agricultural Extension Vol. 34(2) 2005: 221-236