The media are viewed as playing an important role in promoting economic development by educating the public, framing the agenda for discussion, serving as a watchdog and promoting corporate governance. This article examines some characteristics of the print coverage in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda of oil, gas and mining, to see whether it lives up to these lofty goals. A content analysis was done of 788 articles that appeared in Nigerian, Ghanaian and Ugandan newspapers from 2007-2009 to determine how informative their coverage of the extractive sector was. Measurements included the use of jargon; the explanation of context and background; the number, type and range of sources. The conclusion was that much of the reporting was newsfocused and did not include substantial discussion about the effects of oil and gas extraction or the policy implications. Nor did the articles provide a balance of sources who could articulate a range of perspectives. Differences were more pronounced between periodicals than countries. Delineated are some ways in which press coverage could be improved.
Media in much of sub-Saharan Africa are severely constrained by lack of resources, government pressure, the influence of media ownership, and the quality of secondary education and professional education. In many countries, newspapers are unable to perform the role of watchdog or to educate the public effectively, in part because of difficulties faced by their journalists. Into the breach have stepped myriad foreign, journalism training organizations. Some are non-governmental organizations with a development agenda that seek to promote education about their causes. Others are training arms of professional media groups or organizations that work on journalism education. As with most foreign donor-funded development programs, evidence of impact is expected. But very little academic research exists on evaluation of journalism training programs. Two new studies deployed content analysis and interviews with trained journalists to assess training's effectiveness.
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