Exploratory Study on the Coverage of Rural Development News on Ethiopian Radio: Case Study of 8 PM (Evening) News
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2007-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study was conducted to explore the extent of the coverage of development issues on
Ethiopian Radio’s evening 8:00 Pm news. Moreover, the research tried to examine the
priority Radio Ethiopia gives to development issues the chief goal of the country. Since it
has a large audience, a wide coverage, and is aired daily, Ethiopian Radio evening 8:00
Pm news was purposely selected.
To assess the main objectives of the projects, the researcher employed content analysis to
gather quantitative data. To develop and support this data and to arrive at a
comprehensive conclusion, interviews were conducted with journalists and other relevant
bodies. The data obtained through interviews were discussed and analyzed qualitatively.
The researcher selected a sample of a month, from April 9 to May 8, 2007. The news
items’ content was categorized into different groups in a bid to answer the research
questions. One of the research questions was to what extent radio covers rural
development activities.
For the conceptual frame work, different development theories and the Ethiopian
development plan were briefly reviewed. Since the government development plan heavily
depends on the concept of Agricultural Development Led Industrialization (ADLI),
which gives emphasis to rural development, it will be taken as a subject of the study. It is
the assumption of the research project that media are a promoter and supporter of the
development activities of the country and that journalists have to set agenda purposely for
the salient issues. Hence agenda setting theory was used as a central theory
The findings of the research revealed that Ethiopian Radio as an agenda setter was rather
weak. Rural development news items got relatively little coverage and frequency
distribution during the selected period of a month.
The research paper argued that rural development as a national agenda could get better
coverage and frequency.
Description
Keywords
Rural Development News on Ethiopian Radio