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; that 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.