Community Journalism And The Challenges Of Rural Reporting In Nigeria

Rural communities in Nigeria have largely been relegated to the periphery of the regular mainstream socio-economic and political development conversations. Their voices remain muted and their core political and socio-economic concerns largely excluded from the core resource planning and allocation. Newspaper offers a platform for remedying this situation as it is widely regarded as the ideal media for developmental communication (Butner, 2003), particularly for rural populations. This study set out to examine the role of Community journalism and challenges of rural reporting in Nigeria. Afemai newspaper, a community radio station located in Afemai , Edo state was selected for a case study with the purpose of demonstrating the role of community journalism in rural development of Afemai.

This study was qualitative in orientation and data were as gathered through focus group discussions, key informant interviews and direct observation in addition to consulting secondary data from various sources. The findings of this study are that Afemai newspaper is indeed being harnessed for the social, economic, cultural and political development of the inhabitants of Afemai  in such areas as mobilization of resources and collective action, preservation and promotion of progressive facets of local culture, civic education, behaviour modification, business and social networking, as well as promotion of fraternity and harmony in the community. Existing community media houses on their part should develop effective sustainability systems to enable them thrive. Such would include better community participation and support, volunteerism, partnership with devolved government units, and creative fundraising initiatives.

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