REPORTAGE OF AGRICULTURAL NEWS BY GUARDIAN AND THIS DAY NEWSPAPERS (2015 – 2019)

Abstract

Newspapers are usually reluctant to publish agricultural and rural development news items due to the opportunity cost considerations of usage of space for paid advertisement. However, several sectors of the nation’s development depend on information dissimilation on agriculture and rural areas. This study assessed fifty-six (56) editions of the Guardian and This Day Newspaper on reportage of agricultural news from January 2015 to October 2019. The general objective of the study was to analyze reportage of agricultural news by Guardians and This Day Newspaper from 2015 to 2019. Content analysis and opportunity cost approaches were adopted to realize the content of the study. Descriptive statistics and opportunity cost were used in data analysis. Result shows that the mean space of 2111.025cm2 published news free led to the opportunity cost of N30,442,458.22 and including a Value Added Tax of N1,449,640.86. Prominence of news was mainly at the center spread (84%, the Guardian and 100%, This Day). The most reported news items were on Rice (11%) and poultry (9.6%) enterprise and the least (1% each) were on snails, cereals, beans and on youth empowerment. The study concluded that despite the fact that these newspapers were known to report the selected news of interests. Newspapers were yet to give Agriculture news the desired attention. It was recommended more prominent should be given to agricultural news by newspapers in Nigeria as part of their traditional role of serving society in which they operate their businesses.