Coverage and content analysis of agricultural transformation agenda news in selected newspapers in Nigeria

Abstract

Importance of accuracy and conciseness of type and content of information being disseminated to the populace in respect of a development intervention to avoid misleading the populace cannot be overemphasised. Given the strategic importance of Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) in policy drive of Nigerian government and useful lesson it has for repositioning Nigerian Agriculture in a bid to salvage Nigeria’s economy dependence on oil, this study content analysed 193 ATA news in selected newspapers in Nigeria. Variables measured included news frames, frequency, space allotted and placement of ATA news. Data were analysed using both descriptive (frequency, percentage) and inferential (correlation and analysis of variance) statistics at α0.05. ATA news in Nigerian newspapers included press outcome, muster, courtesy call, commencement programmes, reports, analysis and gathering. There was a high coverage of ATA news in the first year (2012), with the Guardian allotting highest space (13203.5cm2) and the least by Nigerian Tribune (7987cm2).  Majority of Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) news (98.5%) were placed in other pages of the newspapers. There was no significant difference between spaces allotted to ATA in the selected newspapers (F = 0.660). Time is apt for development advocates to promote placement of news on development issues in strategic positions in national dailies.   Key words: Agricultural transformation agenda, content analysis, coverage, development communication, Nigerian newspapers.