Nigerian Press Rural Health Coverage: A Content Analysis Of The Punch And The Guardian Newspapers (October To December, 2012)

The growth of a nation is anchored mainly on the wellbeing of its human resources. In most developing countries like Nigeria, there are marked differences between urban and rural communities. Where urban communities have amenities like good roads, schools, electricity, good health care facilities and human resources to dispense the care, rural communities are marked with lack of most of these basic amenities, abject poverty and neglect. Issues concerning rural areas in Nigeria one of which health is of paramount importance are not often presented in the media particularly the newspaper. Since the well being of every member of the society is paramount to the growth and development of the nation irrespective of their place of residence, it is of great importance that the media give a constant and objective report of what is happening in both the urban and rural areas. It is on this premise that this study titled “Nigerian press rural health coverage: a content analysis of the Punch and Guardian newspaper” was embarked upon by the researchers. Revelations from this study are that newspapers did not give much coverage to rural health reports in terms of prominence, space and genre and rural health reports were far less than urban health reports. It is recommended therefore that the press should pay more attention to rural health issues and lobby the government for better policies that will benefit the rural dwellers.