Education
Rural Areas Neglected In Reportage – Don
A university teachers,
Professor Nkereuigem Udoakah, says rural areas in Nigeria are not given enough coverage by the media.
Udoakah, who stated this at the maiden conference organised by the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), noted that “the way our rural areas are reported calls for concern uptill now, our rural areas are seen as ‘good for nothing’ for the media”.
He, therefore called on Nigerian Journalists to reassess the values which inform them that there is no news in the rural areas, or that there is no market for rural news.
This, he said, is because Nigerians rural condition is a newsworthy phenomenon, hence development journalism must focus on the rural condition.
Professor Udoakah also noted that same manner, the rural areas are treated by Nigerian Journalists is how the international news media neglect developing countries.
“A cursory look at the package of media products presented by Nigerian Journalists shows that the rural areas are alarmingly neglected in the same manner that the developing countries are neglected by the international media.
“Nigerian Journalists are stationed at the state capitals and selected local government headquarters rated as economically and politically important. Hence, journalism in Nigeria has been made essentially an urban phenomenon,” he said.
In the keynote address, which was based on the theme of the conference, “making the unreached Heardi: Reporting Development Strides in Rural Nigeria”, the professor further noted that the rural areas were only in the news when there is something to take government officials there.
At such points, he continued, “the news will be what the government officials said at the occasion. Nigeria’s rural areas have thus become “Third World in Nigeria with the national media performing like the international news media”.
He, therefore, recommended that the pathological condition in our rural areas can be conferred a social problem status and brought to the social mind through analytical or persuasive write-ups in the press or broadcast programmes.
“This can be done through interviews to unearth causes of these deplorable conditions and the feeling on victims”, he said.
Sogbeba Dokubo
The River State Commissioner for Education, Dr Peters Nwagor has called on media practitioners in Rivers State to deploy their various communication platforms toward promoting government programmes and policies aimed at achieving sustainable development in the education sector. Dr. Nwagor made the appeal when members of the Etche Ethnic Practicing Journalists (EEPJ) paid him a courtesy visit in Office in Port Harcourt. The Commissioner emphasized the strategic role of the media in shaping public perception, promoting government initiatives, and supporting policies capable of improving the quality of education and human capital development in the state. According to him, constructive media engagement remains essential in creating public awareness on educational reforms, students’ welfare, infrastructural improvements, and other interventions being implemented by the state government. Speaking on the recent appro
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