Assessment of Newspaper Readership among Working Class Women in South-East Nigeria

Assessment of Newspaper Readership among Working Class Women in South-East Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

 The past two decades have witnessed a progressive decline in the standard of education at all levels in Nigeria. This decline is mostly attributed to the poor reading culture among Nigerians. It is to this intent, that this research sought to evaluate newspaper readership among working class women in South East, Nigeria.

To address the problematic of the study, four research objectives were developed, with the survey research design as the methodology and the questionnaire as the instrument for data collection used. The Australian calculator of the National Statistical Service was used to derive a basic sample size of 385 respondents.

At the end of the study, the researcher came up with the following findings: that majority of the working class women in South East, Nigeria don’t read newspapers.

Daily newspaper readership among working class women in South East is low; that newspapers written in English have more patronage to those in vernacular, and that cultural practices prescribed to women by the society limit newspaper readership among women.

Consequently, the following recommendations were put forward: that society should encourage active women participation in newspaper readership. Newspapers written in vernacular should be encouraged for the benefit of those who are not literate in formal education, and that newspaper readership should not be seen as a sex based function inter alia.

INTRODUCTION

Newspapers are known for the provision of up-to-date information meant for the reading pleasure of the vast majority of readers of all ages and walks of life. As an important print medium of mass communication, newspapers provide the most current analysis, debate and criticism of socio-political, economic, health and a host of other issues as information, education and entertainment to the readers.

The newspaper is no doubt, one of the most widely-read periodicals available and accessible to all, on daily basis, in print and electronic versions. As a mass medium, newspapers are useful for education, information, recreation, relaxation and entertainment.

This explains why Ola and Ojo (2007) opine that newspapers are important because they carry current information and they keep the readers informed of events and happenings within and outside their immediate environments. Okunna (1999) reinforces this position by asserting that the newspaper is important in that it serves as a corner of current information or news.

The newspaper, according to Galadima (2004) is a periodic publication that can be daily, biweekly, weekly, fortnightly, etc and it is not normally bound. Newspapers are different from book and magazines because you only fold them.

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StudentsandScholarship Team.